Handbook of Nature-Study 



they are white, taking pains to bring them on the soil or wood on which 

 they are growing. 



Observations i. Where did you find the puffball? On what was it 

 growing ? Were there many growing in company ? Remove the puffball, 

 and examine the place where it stood with a lens to find the matted and 

 crisscrossed fungus threads. 



2. What is the size and shape of the puffball? Is its surface smooth 

 or warty? What is its color inside and outside? 



3. Have you ever found the giant puffball, which may become four 

 inches to four feet through? Where was it growing? Have you ever 

 eaten this puffball sliced and fried? Do you know by the looks of the 

 meat when it is fit to eat? 



4. If the puffball is ripe, what is its color outside and in? What is 

 the color of its "smoke?" Does the smoke come out through the broken 

 covering of the puffball, or are there one or more special openings to allow 

 it to escape ? 



5. Puff some of the "smoke" on white paper and examine it with a 

 lens. What do you think this dust is? Of what use is it to the puffball? 



6. Have you ever found what are called earth-stars, which look like 

 little puffballs set in star-shaped cups? If you find these note the follow- 

 ing things : 



a. Of what is the star-shaped base made? Was it always there? 



b. Let this star saucer become very dry ; how does it act ? 



c. Wet it; and how does it behave then? 



d. W^here and how does the spore dust escape from the earth-stars? 



7. For what medicinal purpose is the "smoke" of the puffball some- 

 times used? 



THE BRACKET FUNGI 



Teacher's Story 



A bracket fungus. 



Photo by Verne Morton. 



There are some 

 naturalists whothink 

 that one kind of life 

 is as good as another 

 and therefore call all 

 things good. Per- 

 haps this is the only 

 true attitude for the 

 nature lover. To 

 such the bracketlike 

 fungi which appear 

 upon the sides of our 

 forest and shade 

 trees are simply an 

 additional beauty, a 

 bountiful ornamen- 

 tation. But some of 

 us have become 

 special pleaders in 

 our attitude toward 

 life, and those of us 

 who have come to 



