spunk: A genus of the order of fungi, belonging to the cryptogamia class of plants; of which botanists enumerate 17 species. The following are the most remarkable.

1. The tuberosus, or white cork spunk, grows commonly on the trunks of birch and willow trees in England and Scotland. It grows fertile and horizontal; its figure is semicircular; the upper side convex, the under nearly plain; of various sizes, from that of an ass's hoof to a peck-measure. The upper surface is quite white, generally covered with a short strong down, but sometimes smooth. The flesh or internal substance is thick, white, tough, light, and spongy, like cork; and is sometimes cut and shaped by the country people, and used as corks in their bottles. Boletus, but such corks must not be suffered to touch the liquid, for moisture soon renders them soft and useless.

2. The igniarius, or touchwood-fungus, is frequent on the trunks of old trees of all kinds, especially ash. It consists of a very hard woody substance, in shape like a horse's hoof, and grows of various sizes, from a man's fist to that of his head and larger. The upper side is smooth, but uneven, distinguished near the rim by elevated zones of different colours, brown, grey, tawny, &c. The flesh is of a tawny brown colour, extremely hard and tough. This fungus is made use of in Germany and some parts of England for tinder. The Germans boil it in strong lye, dry it and boil it again in solution of saltpetre. The Laplanders burn it about their habitations, in order to keep off a species of the gaddly which is fatal to the young reindeer. It has been used to stop the bleeding of vessels after amputations. For this purpose the hard outer part is cut off, and the soft inner substance is beat with a hammer to make it still softer. It is best when gathered in August or September.

3. The bovinus, or cow fungus, is frequent in woods and pastures. It is generally of a brown colour, though sometimes it is tawny, yellowish brown, reddish brown, deep red, purple, or greenish brown. The flesh is yellow, white, or reddish. The young plants are eaten in Italy, and esteemed a great delicacy. The Germans also account them a dainty, calling them gambas, and brat-bulz. Cows, deer, sheep, and swine, will feed upon this and other boleti, and are sometimes greatly disordered by them. In cows and other cattle they have been known to create bloody urine, nauseous milk, swellings of the abdomen, inflammations of the bowels, stoppages, diarrhoeas, and death. In sheep they bring on a fibrinous liver, a cough, a general wasting, and droopy. Scarabaei, dermestes, and many other insects, feed upon and breed in them in abundance.

4. The pin larices, or agaric of the shops, grows on old larch trees. This fungus is an irregular spongy substance, extremely light, and of an uniform snowy whiteness, (except the cortical part, which is usually taken off before the agaric is brought into the shops). It cuts freely with a knife, without discovering any hardness or grittiness, and readily crumbles between the fingers into a powder. It has no remarkable smell; its taste is at first sweetish; but on chewing for a short time, it proves acrid, bitter, and nauseous. Agaric was formerly in great esteem as a cathartic, but the present practice has almost entirely rejected its use. It is now rejected both by the London and Edinburgh Colleges, but it still retains a place in most of the new foreign Pharmacopoeias. It operates exceeding slowly, in much that some have denied it to have any purgative virtue at all. Given in sufficient, it almost always occasions a nausea, not unfrequently vomiting, and sometimes excessive tortures of the bowels; these effects are attributed to its light farinaceous matter adhering to the coats of the intestines, and producing a constant irritation. The best preparation of agaric seems to be an extract made with water, in which first alkaline salt has been dissolved; or with vinegar or wine: the first is said by Boulde, and the two latter by Neumann, to prove an effectual and safe purgative. Nevertheless, this is at best a precarious medicine, of which we stand in no manner of need.