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 " con-sole " (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 " (158o) 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 .