PROBLEM 2. T]?c Kliids of Flavts of the Earth 



75 



Fig. 98 Tiyis Amanita is very poisonous. It looks Fig. 99 The bracket fungus is related to the 

 much like the coimnon imishroom which you nmshrooins. Most of the plant is under the bark, 

 can buy in a market, (blakiston) (u. s. forest service) 



\\eeds. Some, like the common brown 

 seaweed or rockweed {Fiiciis — few'cus), 

 are fastened to the rocks in the region be- 

 tween the tides. They can hold much 

 moisture and are tough enough to stand 

 the pounding of the surf. Some brown 

 seaweeds, like the kelps, may reach a 

 length of fifty yards or even twice that 

 length. Formerly kelps were burned to 

 yield iodine. They \\ere gathered in large 

 amounts off the coasts of Ireland, France, 

 and elsewhere. 



Other seaweeds float near the surface 

 in the open sea. You may have seen pieces 

 of the green sea lettuce (Ulva) which 

 have been washed ashore and caught on 

 the sand or rocks. At greater depths 

 live red seaweeds, which are usually deli- 

 cately branched plants of much smaller 

 size. The agar-agar which the drug store 

 sells and which is used in some experi- 

 ments comes from a red seaweed found 

 near Japan and near our west coast. 



Mushrooms. As you read above, the 

 simplest plants without flowers are of 

 two kinds; those with green coloring 

 matter, the algae; and those without 

 green coloring matter, the fungi. Among 

 the larger more conspicuous fungi are 

 the mushrooms. About one half of the 

 many kinds of mushrooms make good 

 food. Some are too tough to be eaten and 

 some are definitely poisonous. It is often 

 so hard to tell the various kinds of mush- 

 rooms apart that no one but an expert 

 should decide which can be eaten. Mush- 

 rooms live only where it is damp. Most 

 are small, but some attain a weight of 

 more than thirty pounds. Study a com- 

 mon mushroom. See Exercise 2. 



Fungi you do not like — the molds. In 

 damp weather stale bread often begins 

 to smell musty — the peculiar smell of a 

 fungus know^n as jjwld. If you give the 

 mold a chance to develop and then ex- 

 amine it closely you will see that what 



