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A TEXTBOOK OF THEORETICAL BOTANY 



corresponding to, or at least analogous with, that in Amanita. The viscid 

 mass of the gleba is exposed on the pileus and is eaten and dispersed by flies. 



Outer peridium 



Gleba 



Stipe 



Fig. 330. — Phallus impudicus. Vertical section 

 through an egg prior to the elongation of the 

 stipe and the bursting of the outer peridium. 



The Distribution of Fungi 



Any consideration of the distribution of Fungi must necessarily take 

 account of their mode of life, for, being either parasites or saprophytes, they 

 are restricted in their distribution according either to the plants they live on 

 or to the substrata upon which they feed. In general, we may say that the 

 saprophvtic forms are more widely distributed in nature than the parasitic 

 species. 



Comparatively recent investigations of the microflora of the soil have 

 revealed many interesting points, though unfortunately insufficient work 

 has been done upon the actual species inhabiting the soil in difi^erent localities 

 to enable us to gain a very complete picture of distribution. Species of 

 Mucor, for example, have been found to occur very commonly in the soil, 

 and it now seems likely that the soil is the principal habitat for these Fungi. 

 Some species, like Mucor hiemalis, are found equally commonly in all soils, 

 while other species are limited to soils of a particular character. M. ramanni- 

 anus, for example, occurs very widely in soils upon which Pine woods are 

 growing. In Spruce woods, however, this species is replaced by M. sylvaticus. 



The members of the Saprolegniaceae were until quite recently regarded 

 as water Fungi, in fact they are usually referred to as the Water Moulds. 

 It now appears probable that they are equally common in soils, and it may 

 well be that those species found in water have actually come to live there 

 because the zoospores were washed out of soil by rain. 



