172 THE PLANT WORLD 



ments trail only over mossy stretches, and where thy sweetness adds but 

 to airs redolent with the spicy breath of pines ! Though the day be cold 

 and dark and dreary, our queen will not withhold her gifts, for she is no 

 mincer of soft airs, and though she refuses to be petted in the garden, 

 she never refuses the caresses of the northern blast. The cluster of buds 

 formed a year ago now nestle among the brown leaves, ready to open 

 their eyes after the first warm shower. Often we need to scratch away 

 the leaves to find the shell-tinted pinks of the clusters beneath. Do not 

 pick only the blossoms and tie them in tight bunches, such as are sold 

 on all the northern trains during the month of May ; but pick sprays of 

 leaves with their axillary clusters in all their native beauty. Gather 

 some mosses, too, gray and green ; and when you get home, mount them 

 upon a platter, and over this bank trail your sprays, that others may see 

 the queen as she sits upon her woodland throne. 



Yes, and gather many more sprays, and, putting them in tin cans, 

 mail them to friends who at this haunting season are longing for the pets 

 of their childhood ; mail them to the sick and weary, that their perfume 

 may bring to them the woodside and glen ; and mail them to those who 

 have never seen this sweetest flower of earth ; for what the chambered 

 nautilus was to those ancient sea beds, the arbutus is to its dry beds to-day. 



The Black Fungi. 



By C. L. Shear. 



The systematic botanist and plant-lover whose interests are restricted 

 to the flowering plants is continually trampling under foot, not only figur- 

 atively, but literally, many of the most interesting and beautiful members 

 of the vegetable kingdom. Fallen leaves, branches, and decaying logs 

 bear thousands of minute fungi, many of which are so small as to be 

 scarcely discerned by the unaided eye. An ordinary hand lens will, 

 however, reveal the chief microscopic characters of these plants. In this 

 article it is intended to direct attention to but one of the many groups of 

 fungi which occur in such places. About 50,000 species of fungi have 

 been described. Of these, the large and conspicuous forms, like toad- 

 stools, mushrooms, and pufT-balls, constitute a very small part. 



The Pyrenoinycetes, or black fungi, as they are sometimes called by 

 botanists when wishing to use a non-technical term, are suflSciently 

 numerous, varied, and interesting to fill a book rather than a few pages. 

 Though exceeding common and abundant, they have no common names, 

 as they rarely attract the attention of any but botanists, and unfortu- 

 nately but few of them. 



