Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Botany, Amusement, Parasitology, Periodicals

    Begins by describing the physical characteristics of the chignon and then discusses an advertisement for a work on 'The Chignon Fungus' in Hardwicke's Science Gossip (Fox 1867). Noting the scientific credibility of Robert Hardwicke, the publisher of Science Gossip, suggests that the chignon is like the earth in that it is globular and 'teems with life'. Goes on to emphasise the 'philosophic foreign naturalist' (Eduard von Lindemann) who has 'discovered' the 'minute organisations' living in chignon, and William T Fox's discovery of 'vegetable structures'—notably chignon fungus—in this fashion accessory. Concludes by explaining allusions to these organisms in poetry.