puffballs to use, when required, for stopping up a wound^94 ; and till only very
recently many farmers and cottagers in, for example, Norfolk^95 and Sussex^96
anticipated accidents by doing the same.
Apart from their deployment against bleeding, records of which can be
found from most parts of the British Isles, puffballs have been valued in
Britain for burns in East Anglia,^97 for warts in Cumbria,^98 for piles in the
Highlands^99 and for carbuncles in Suffolk.^100 To that list Parkinson could
have added chapped heels and any chafing of the skin.^101 In Norfolk the
spores have even been held to prevent tetanus.^102
In comparison, Ireland has yielded far fewer records of such lesser uses.
The one for burns is known from Fermanagh.^103 One for chilblains in Wick-
low^104 has apparently no British counterpart.
PYRENOMYCETES
Claviceps purpurea (Fries ex Fries) Tulasne & C. Tulasne, in the
broad sense
ergot
northern temperate zone, wherever rye is cultivated
More than fifty compounds have been isolated from the microfungus Clav-
iceps purpurea,which attacks the inflorescences of numerous grass genera
the world over, besides those of the cereals on which its poisonous action is
most notorious. One or more have long been known to have the effect of
bringing on uterine contractions in pregnant women of a sufficient severity
to expel the foetus. Ergot derivatives have consequently long been is use offi-
cially for inducing or speeding labour and inhibiting postpartum bleeding as
well as unofficially for procuring abortions. Though only a solitary folk
record of the latter (in Norfolk^105 ) has been traced, it may well have been a
widespread practice down the centuries.
Daldinia concentrica (Bolton ex Fries) Cesati & De Notaris
cramp balls, King Alfred’s cakes
the least common member of a cosmopolitan species complex
The hard, hemispherical, black or dark brown fruit-bodies produced by the
common fungus Daldinia concentrica on the dead parts of ash trees were at
one time in use on the Surrey-Sussex border to ward off cramp by being car-
ried about the person.^106 That sounds more like a superstition than a gen-
uinely medical practice, however.
Bryophytes, Lichens, Algae and Fungi 51