BRACKET

bracket, in architecture and carpentering, a projecting feature either in wood or metal for holding things together or supporting a shelf. the same feature in stone is called a "console" (q.v.). in furniture it is a small ornamental shelf for a wall or a corner, to bear knick-knacks, china or other bric-a-brac. the word has been referred to "brace," clamp, lat. _bracchium_, arm, but the earliest form "bragget" (1580) points to the true derivation from the fr. _braguette_, or span. _bragueta_ (lat. _bracae_, breeches), used both of the front part of a pair of breeches and of the architectural feature. the sense development is not clear, but it has no doubt been influenced by the supposed connexion with "brace." bracket-fungi. the term "bracket" has been given to those hard, woody fungi that grow on trees or timber in the form of semicircular brackets. they belong to the order _polyporeae_, distinguished by the layer of tubes or pores on the under surface within which the spores are borne. the mycelium, or vegetable part of the fungus, burrows in the tissues of the tree, and often destroys it; the "bracket" represents the fruiting stage, and produces innumerable spores which gain entrance to other trees by some wound or cut surface; hence the need of careful forestry. many of these woody fungi persist for several years, and a new layer of pores is superposed on the previous season's growth.