THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 117 



Insects AS AN Aid TO Fungi. — Most readers are familiar 

 with the fact that certain ants are growers of tiny fungi, 

 preparing the beds and sowing the spores in order that 

 they may later eat the plants. There are other fungi, 

 however, that although not cultivated by insects, manage 

 to exist in their burrows. Certain wood-destroj'ing fungi, 

 like the bracket fungi {Polyporous) are said to gain 

 entrance to the trunks of trees through the holes made by 

 boring insects. In the "Fifteenth Annual Report" of the 

 Missouri Botanical Garden, Perley Spaulding tells of two 

 mushrooms (i^/c'3723722u7^i sapineus and Claudopus nidulans) 

 that grow in the entrance of similar galleries in Texas. A 

 certain wood-borer making tunnels about a quarter of an 

 inch in diameter attacks fallen trunks of the long-leaved 

 pine (Pitms palustris) and in the entrance to these bur- 

 rows leaves considerable finely divided wood. In this the 

 mycelium of the fungus grows and when ready to fruit 

 sends its umbrella-shaped fruiting parts out into the sun 

 and air. In every instance noted, the fungi were growing 

 only in such burrows. 



Practical Plant Protection. — The original plant 

 protection societ3' — the one with headquarters in Boston — 

 continues its work of protecting plants in a practical 

 manner by the distribution of leaflets calling attention to 

 the harm done b3^ indiscriminate picking of wild flowers. 

 More than forty thousand of these leaflets have been dis- 

 tributed and the society has on its rolls nearl}' seven 

 hundred members — about twice the number of the Wash- 

 ington Society. Any person interested in plant protection 

 maj'' become a member upon application to the Corre- 

 sponding Secretary, Miss Margaret E.Allen, 12 Marlboro 

 St., Boston. No membership fee is required although 

 those who contribute one dollar or more toward defraj^- 

 ing the expenses of the work are enrolled as sustaining 

 members. Every botanizer in America ought to be a 

 member of this society. 



