28i Transactions. — Botany. 



The supposed rapidity with vrhich Fungi spring up, mature 

 their spores or reproductive bodies, and disappear has become 

 proverbial — at least in the Northern Hemisphere. Neverthe- 

 less, such an idea is a mistake. The part popularly con- 

 sidered as constituting the entire fungus — that is, the part 

 appearing outside the matrix on which the fungus is grow- 

 ing — is only a part of the organism, corresponding function- 

 ally to the fruit of a flowering-plant, and is solely concerned 

 with the continuation of the species ; whereas the vegeta- 

 tive portion of the fungus — the portion upon which the con- 

 tinuation of the individual depends — is always buried in the 

 substance upon which the fungus is growing. If we take as 

 an example any ordinary mushroom or toadstool, we find a 

 weft of slender threads forming the vegetative portion, known 

 as mycelium, or spawn, permeating the matrix or substance 

 on which the fungus is growing. On this mycelium the sporo- 

 phores, or spore-producing portions, first appear as minute 

 white lumps, not a millimetre in diameter. These continue 

 to increase in size, and become differentiated into pileus, or 

 cap, stem, gills, &c., while yet underground ; and finally, when 

 the structure is completely elaborated, it pushes up above the 

 surface of the matrix, for the purpose of having its spores dis- 

 persed by wind or other agents. 



In the majority of Fungi the very minute spores are dis- 

 persed by currents of air ; in many of the subterranean Fungi 

 animals, especially rodents, scratch up the Fungi, which they 

 eat, and probably the spores pass through the alimentary 

 canal uninjured, and are thus dispersed. Finally, in one group 

 of Fungi — the PhalloidecB — brilliant colours, combined with a 

 powerful smell, attract insects, which readily feed on a sweet, 

 semi-liquid substance, containing the minute spores in sus- 

 pension, which are thus disseminated. It is interesting to 

 note that colour and smell, the agents used by many flowering- 

 plants for the purpose of advertising their whereabouts to 

 insects, which, in return for a supply of nectar, unconsciously 

 effect cross-fertilisation, should be utilised by some Fungi for 

 the purpose of securing spore dissemination. 



As previously stated, many Fungi have two or more different 

 modes of reproductiorl. This is especially observable in the 

 instance of destructive parasites, or, in other words, this 

 arrangement enables certain species to act as wide-spreading 

 and injurious pests to cultivated crops. The process is as 

 follows : In species parasitic on annual plants, as cereals, the 

 fungus continues to produce, in rapid succession, innumerable 

 asexually formed conidia, or I'eproductive bodies, which possess 

 the power of germinating the moment they are mature. 

 These conidia are washed by rain or carried by wind on to the 

 surface of healthy leaves, where they germinate at once, enter 



