HOW FUNGI LIVE IN WINTER. 611 



and irresponsibility. By the multiplication of terms of uncertain 

 meaning they have darkened counsel. 



It is liable also, in ray opinion, to the further serious objection 

 that it influences, unconsciously but perceptibly, certain alienists to 

 extend unreasonably the limits of the term insanity. I am at least 

 certain that, in this regard, it works mischief in its influence upon the 

 people at large, among whom the word kleptomania and other analo- 

 gous terms introduced by writers upon mental diseases are in common 

 use, and by whom in most cases they are employed as an apology for 

 crime. I would prefer, therefore, when a man steals and his conduct 

 in other matters shows that he is of unsound mind, that he should be 

 called insane, and not a kleptomaniac ; but if he steals, even where 

 the motive may not be apparent, and in all other respects his conduct 

 is consistent, and his mind appears sound, it would be better both for 

 the interests of science and of society that he be called a thief. 



♦*» 



HOW FUNGI LIVE IN WINTER 



By BYEON D. HALSTED, So. D. 



*' ~| TARD times " come to most living things. Plants as well as 

 J — L animals have periods when they need to conserve all their 

 energies, husband all their vitality. All vegetation obeys the injunc- 

 tion to multiply and replenish the earth, but with the greatest deter- 

 mination when there are present suffering and impending death. A 

 drought hastens the processes of reproduction, and insuflicient nourish- 

 ment encourages an early if not an abundant fruitfulness. In a cli- 

 mate where hot and cold, or wet and dry, seasons regularly succeed 

 each other, many of our most common economic plants have adapted 

 themselves to these stated changes of outward conditions, and run 

 their course during a single growing season. Such plants constitute 

 that large portion of our vegetation known as the annuals. The great 

 sunflower, that grows into a giant in a single season and defies the 

 summer sun and storm, falls an easy victim to the frosts of autumn. 

 It, however, prepared the way for many successors, in the ripened 

 seeds, each one of which when given favorable conditions will germi- 

 nate, grow, reproduce its kind, and thus finish another cycle in the 

 realm of vegetable life. The bean-plant, in a different way, climbs 

 its appointed pole, enjoys the same sunshine and shower, produces its 

 blossoms, fills long pods with ripened seeds, and gives up its life like 

 all its fellows in the field. A corn-plant completes its growth in not 

 far from a hundred days, and leaves its accumulated vitality stored up 

 in the grains upon the ear. The prospective life and activity of a 

 whole field of waving corn may be considered as stored up in a few 



