MOULDS, MILDEWS AND MUSHROOMS 



CHAPTER I 



INTRODUCTORY 



The world is full of surprises on every hand. To one whose 

 familiarity with plants is limited to the trees and shrubs of parks 

 and groves, or the herbaceous plants of indoor cultivation, or the 

 grasses of limited plots and lawns, or even to one whose walks 

 more happily include the fields and woodlands, it may seem per- 

 plexing, perhaps, to be told that the green slimes with which 

 Nature paints the shaded walls and tree-trunks, or that float as a 

 green scum on the surface of pools, or that cover the pots and 

 benches in green-houses, are likewise plants, each in its simpler, 

 less assuming manner carrying on the same functions as the more 

 conspicuous trees and shrubs. The surprise may be still greater 

 when he learns that the gray-green lichens on fences and rocks, 

 the toadstools springing from the ground or old tree-trunks, the 

 puff-balls clustered on old logs or the larger ones growing singly 

 in pastures are also plants. After this he will be more able to 

 believe that the moulds that grow on cheese or preserves, the 

 mildews and blights that spread over cultivated plants to their 

 injury, the smut of corn and oats, the rust of wheat and other 

 cereals, are all likewise plants, each with its own peculiar life his- 

 tory, each with its peculiar method of reproduction, each occupy- 

 ing its definite place in the economy of Nature. And probably 

 the surprise will be greatest of all to those fortunate persons who 

 have not learned to depend on the baker alone for their supply of 

 the staff of life and to whom the process of bread-making is not an 

 obsolete feature of household work, to be gravely informed that 

 the very yeast by which their flour and water is made to rise into 

 the porous spongy dough is just as truly a plant as is the geranium 

 i 



