THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. Sil 



this pretty plant, which in the writer's earher days was called 

 a Smilacina, has a terminal recene of small white flowers. 

 Under ground it produces yards of a delicate rootstock which 

 required the patience of Walter Deane to wholly unearth, press 

 and mount. This certainly bears no obvious seals. 



The Sinilaciims of which, here in Rhode Island, we have 

 two species, 5". raccinosa and .S. stcUata resemble the last, 

 but on a much larger scale, while Streptopns and Uvttlaria 

 are so conspicuously different except in foliage, it would 

 seem impossible that any one should confuse them. The 

 writer's experience is, however, that when people, botanists 

 or other, make up their minds to call anything by a particular 

 name, even the authoritive seal of Solomon himself appended, 

 will not shake their belief. 



Broii'Ji University, Providence, R. I. 



SOME WOOD-DESTROYING FUNGI. 



BY L. AUGUSTUS HAUSMAN. 



FUNGI are veritably and unmistakably plants; of a low or- 

 der, it is true, but still, plants, developed from seeds or 

 germs slightly analogous to, but not wholly homologous with 

 the seeds of higher orders. Besides the larger species there ex- 

 ist forms so minute that their structural pesuliarities are dis- 

 cernable only with the highest powers of the microscope. Of 

 these the mildew, blue-mold and gory-dew may be cited as 

 familiar examples. 



While fungi attack and destroy much dead wood, they 

 also often attack living trees and cause their downfall. When 

 the spawn of the fungus strikes a substance which is conduc- 

 tive to its growth, the protoplasm or living matter of the cells 

 send forth its vital juice which penetrates the substance and 

 decomposition speedily follows through the rapid growth of 

 the mycelium, the vegetative portion of the fungus. By break- 

 ing open old stumps where these plants are growing the 



