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cap to the neck of the stem, and when loosened from 

 the margin to allow of the dispersion of the spores, falling 

 like a frill round the column ; in some species, there is 

 also a wrapper (volva) which envelopes the fungus in its 

 infancy. This Agaric family contains upwards of a 

 thousand species, scientifically distinguished by the 

 colour of the spores. 



This sounds an easy mode of distinction, and we gather 

 the fungi, and search for the seed : but at first we find 

 none ; then flying to a new conviction, we proclaim that 

 there is no seed, so we cannot distinguish its colour. 

 Let us take a ripe Agaric, cut the stem off on a level 

 with the margin of the cap, and place the head on a sheet 

 of paper. Lift it after some hours, and behold a perfect 

 delineation of every fold in fine powder, deposited star-like 

 on the paper. This powder consists of millions of spores; 

 they may be white, yellow, brown, or purple ; subjected 

 to the microscope, they are all shown to be symmetrical 

 in form, round in some species, oval in others, but all 

 alike. Nor is the Agaric exhausted: subject a section 

 of one fold to the microscope, and you see it covered 

 with pimpling cells, and quartettes of spores adhering to 

 the cells over great part of the surface. If the first crop 

 of seed is shed, the second is ripening ; and when the 

 head is removed, it will proceed to deposit a star of dust. 

 The first time when fungi became really objects of in- 

 terest to us was one beautiful autumn day when a party 

 of us were spending a day at that pretty little lake on 

 Lord Bath's property called Sheerwater. Not caring to 

 go in the boats with the majority of the party which 

 composed the pic-nic, we set off to seek for plants, 



