Flowerless-Plant Stiidy 



717 



wound. There must also have been a wound where the shelf grew out; 

 see whether you can detect it. If the tree should heal all its wounds after 

 the fungus entered, what would become of the fungus? 



9. What does the shelf fungus feed on? What part of it corresponds 

 to the roots and leaves of other plants? What part may be compared to 

 the flowering and fruiting parts of plants? 



10. What treatment must we give trees to keep them free from this 

 enemy? 



The edible Boletus (B. edulis). This has tubes below the cap instead of gills. 

 The spores are developed -within the tubes, as in the bracket ftingi. 

 Photo by G. F. Atkinson. 



LESSON CLXXXII 



HEDGEHOG FUNGI 



There is something mysterious about all fungi, but perhaps none of 

 these wonderful orgcinirms so strangely impresses the observer as the 

 fountainlike masses c creamy white or the branching white coral that we 

 see growing on a dead tree trunk. The writer remembers as a child that 

 the finding of these woodland treasures made her feel as if she were in the 

 presence of the supernatural, as if she had discovered a fairy grotto or a 

 kobold cave. The prosaic name of hedgehog fungi has been applied to 

 these exquisite growths. Their life story is simple enough. The spores 

 falling upon dead wood start threads which ramify within it and feed on its 

 substance, until strong enough to send out a fruiting organ. This consists 

 of a stem, dividing into ascending branches ; from these branches, depend- 

 ing like the stalactites in a cave, are masses of drooping spines, the surface 

 of each bearing the spores. And it is so natural for these spines to hang 

 earthward that they are invariably so placed when the tree is in the posi- 



