264 ROMANCE OF LOW LIFE AMONGST PLANTS. 



have long been known to pass between the baik 

 and trunk of dead trees, and penetrate rotten 

 wood ; but as no fructification could be found, they 

 have been excluded from systematic fungi as a sort 

 of compact mycelium of species unknown. In the 

 light of more recent investigations we feel justified 

 in regarding them as a form of perennial mycelium, 

 or, as we might term it, the hibernating condition 

 of species of arboreal agarics, or of such Polyporei 

 as Polypoi'iis squainosiis, and presumably of Fonies 

 aniwsns. These rhizomorphs are common on timber 

 in mines and places whence light is excluded. 



Somewhat allied to RJiizovwrpJia are those hard 

 compact masses of fungus called Sclerotiwn, which 

 present a cellular structure without any trace of 

 fructification. These, again, are of the nature of a 

 condensed mycelium, capable of bearing all the 

 extremes of heat and cold, and possibly in all cases, 

 certainly in a great many, of developing genuine 

 fungi belonging to various genera and species. They 

 are all resting conditions, or hibernating stages, of a 

 very pronounced character. There are already so 

 many of them knov/n that we can only instance a 

 few as typical of the rest. Some of the roots, or 

 rhizomes, of the common wood anemone are liable 

 to become converted into Sclerotia, which retain the 

 old form but lose all the old functions. Some 

 persons imagine that they are independent of the 

 anemone, and only grow in its company, whilst we 

 hold it to be a case of conversion, as in the con- 

 version of grain into ergot, and that the Sclerotiiim 

 is a metamorphosed root-stock. After remaining 



