FUNGI. 205 



and together the destroyers and their victinris return 

 as useful constituents to the soil from whence they 

 were derived, and form fresh pabulum for a succeed- 

 ing season of green leaves and sweet flowers. In 

 woods and forests we can even more readily appre- 

 ciate the good offices of fungi in accelerating the 

 decay of fallen leaves and twigs which surround the 

 base of the parent trees. In such places Nature is 

 left absolutely to her own resources, and what man 

 would accomplish in his carefully attended gardens 

 and shrubberies must here be done without his aid. 

 What we call decay is mere change — change of form, 

 change of relationship, change of composition ; and 

 all these changes are effected by various combined 

 agencies — water, light, air, heat, these furnishing new 

 and suitable conditions for the development of a 

 new race of vegetables. These, by their vigorous 

 growth, continue what water and oxygen, stimulated 

 by light and heat, had begun ; and as they flourish 

 for a brief season on the fallen glories of the past 

 summer, make preparation for the coming spring." 



On the same subject the Rev. M. J. Berkeley has 

 written in similar terms.^ "Fungi," he says, "are 

 indeed one of the great instruments which keep up 

 the balance between animal and vegetable life. No 

 sooner does death take possession in any vegetable 

 than a host of fungi of various kinds are ready to 

 work its decomposition. This is at once evident in 

 all softer structures, which are soon reduced to humus 

 by the combined action of putrescence and fungi ; 



• M. J. Berkeley, " Introduction to Cryptogamic Botany," p. 239. 

 (London, 1857.) 



