192 



FLOWERLESS PLANTS 



Fig. 170. — The poisonous 



Toadstool (Agaricus 



muscarius). 



fiimjus X)roper, and the Mushrooms are merely the fructifications. 

 The plant lives under tJie soil; the fnictifications, however, are 

 raised above it in order that the luind may disperse the spores. 



3. Its Mode of Living^. — Like the 

 roots of higher phiiits the tiUimeuts of 

 the mycelium permeate the soil in every 

 direction and draw their food from it. 

 But, as we have seen on different occa- 

 sions, the roots of plants take up only 

 water and salts. These substances rise 

 into the upper parts of the plant and 

 are there, together with the carbon ob- 

 tained from the carbonic acid gas of 

 the air, converted into all those sub- 

 stances from Avhich the body of a plant 

 is built up. Tills work is done by the 

 chlorophyll in the presence of sunlight. 

 But there is not the least trace oj chlorophyll in a fungus. 

 The Mushroom is, therefore, obliged to take its food up in a ready- 

 made form; and it tinds this in the decaying animal or vegetable 

 matter of the soil in which it grows. It is a saprophytic plant. 

 Mushrooms can, therefore, grow only in places where such 

 decaying matter is found. They do 

 also not require any light for their 

 growth, like plants with chlorophyll, 

 and hence can be found in the dark- 

 est places. 



4. Importance of the Fung^i in the 

 Household of Nature. — As we have 

 already seen, the Mushrooms decay 

 very soon and thus convert the animal 

 or vegetable substances on which 

 thoy grow, into nourishing matter 

 for other plants. They may, tlicro- 

 fore, be considered as helps to acce- 

 lerate the process of decay, and are tlius of great service to the 

 animal and vei^etable world. 



Fig. 177. — Mould witli inycoliuin 



iiiiti fi'uctiHcntioiis (lOU times 



(Milargod). 



