476 RESEARCHES ON FUNGI 



and very still and, as we leave the house, not a sound do we hear 

 but the momentary cry of a Brown Owl and the village clock in 

 the distance striking the hour of midnight. Carrying our hand- 

 lamp, we make our way down the garden path and along a winding 

 mossy way to a Poplar which, when decapitated and dismembered 

 a few years ago, became a prey to wood-destroying fungi. Here on 

 the side of the trunk, three feet from the ground, cluster four large 

 fruit-bodies of the Oyster Fungus. Let us turn our attention to 

 the largest which projects freely beyond its fellows. I take the lamp 

 and, feehng like Aladdin when about to summon the genie to grant 

 a wish, I revolve the lens and lo ! the beam of light appears. Now 

 I hold the lamp so that its beam is directed just beyond the edge 

 of the pileus. We look across the beam towards one of the night's 

 black shadows. At first, perhaps, we see nothing unusual ; but, 

 as I move the lamp around the edge of the pileus, the beam comes 

 to a place where, suddenly, we both perceive the spores in immense 

 numbers streaming from the gills and pouring through the light 

 (Fig. 200, D, p. 485). How silently and continuously do these 

 myriads of microscopic particles hurry by ! What clouds of witness 

 to the fruit-body's activity ! But all at once the spore-stream has 

 disappeared. Evidently, the slight and intermittent breeze was 

 sweeping the spores in one direction, and now the breeze has changed 

 its course. So we move the lamp around the edge of the pileus 

 until the spore -stream has come into the beam of light once more. 

 Having accustomed ourselves to the appearance of the spore-cloud, 

 we remove the lamp to the lee side of the fruit-body and, from a 

 distance of two feet, direct the beam towards the rim of the 

 pileus. In a moment or two, by trial, we find the exact place to 

 which the spores are streaming, and now we are able to perceive 

 the spore-clouds floating towards us and coming all the way across 

 the gap which separates our lamp from the fungus. For some 

 minutes longer we continue our observations, and then turn back 

 to the house. Before retiring to bed, we sit by the fire discussing 

 what our expedition has revealed : we agree that our interest in the 

 Oyster Fungus has been deepened and are both fain to admit that 

 never before had we realised how actively a hymenomycetous fruit- 

 body produces and Uberates its spores during the hours of darkness. 



