158 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



and are filled with the matter which has been absorbed from the 

 substance upon which the fungus grows. The growth of a fungus 

 is the simple increase in size and number of the cells which com- 

 pose it. These threads, composed of rows of cells, are called 

 mycelium, and they answer to the roots of higher plants in that 

 they take up the nourishment for the growth of the plant. 



Like all other living things, a fungus provides for the reproduc- 

 tion of its kind; and in this respect it outdoes most forms of life, 

 both in extent, and multiplicity of methods. As the formation of 

 seed is the end and aim of flowering plants, so the production of 

 spores is the final stage in the life of a fungus. Seeds and spores 

 are for the same end, but in structure they are widely different. 

 A seed contains a little plant or embryo already formed within the 

 protecting seed -coats, while a spore is a simple cell, with a thick 

 cell-wall, enclosing a mass of homogeneous matter caWedi protoplasm. 

 In germination the seed develops the young plantlet ; the spore 

 sends out a long and delicate filament. In the bread mould small 

 stalks will rise in a short time from the cobwebby mass, and as 

 they grow their upper ends will gradually increase in size and 

 become dark-colored. In these enlarged tips the spores are 

 formed, and when ripe burst through the covering and are car- 

 ried away by any passing breath of wind, to form another crop of 

 mould on some bread or other nourishing substance. In the com- 

 mon blue mould which grows very luxuriantly on many articles, 

 especially cheese, we have the spores borne naked and in rows on 

 branches which are quite regularly disposed near the tip of the 

 stalk which bears them. 



The spores thus far described are formed by a simple cutting 

 off, or dividing up, of the fungus plant, and may be compared to 

 the bulbs of "top onions," bulblets of the tiger-lily and some 

 other flowering plants. All such methods of reproduction are 

 called non-sexual. The sexual organs of flowering plants are the 

 stamens (male) and pistils (female) of the flower, and a seed is 

 produced only by united action of these two organs. In fungi, 

 something similar, though more simple, occurs, the result of which 

 is a spo]-e, which, so far as it is produced by the action of two dif- 

 ferent parts, more nearly resembles a seed than does the kind first 

 described. This spore is produced by the union of the contents of 

 two cells to form a new one. which is thereby specially endowed 

 with vitality and capable, under favorable conditions, of forming 

 a new plant. These spores serve to keep the species over the 



