86 



Minnesota Plant Life. 



smaller than the others. An explanation of this peculiarity may- 

 be obtained from the behavior of the blue mould. It will be 

 remembered that in the latter kind of mould, spores were ordi- 

 narily formed on branches loosely distributed over the plant, 

 while at other times tiny orange truffle-like fruit-bodies arose 

 after the method of sac-fungi. Now if it can be imagined that 

 the loosely formed sjjores of the blue mould are aggregated to- 

 gether in a bottle-shaped structure, they lining the interior of 

 the bottle, there would arise a fruit-body like the peculiar cen- 

 tral one of the 

 ])]ant in question. 

 The name of a 

 plant, w h i c h 

 forms these two 

 kinds of f r u i 1- 

 bodies is / '(//.s(/. 

 Plants somewliat 

 related to ihel'al- 

 sas are found on 

 butternut twigs 

 where they form 

 little low black 

 mounds. 



Staghorn-fungi. 

 The last black 

 fungus that needs 

 consideration in 

 this gene r a 1 

 survey of the im- 

 portant types is 

 sometimes called 



the staghorn-fungus. It grows upon stum])s, decaying timbers, 

 sometimes on rafters in cellars, or in damj) places about barns 

 or granaries, and is a very curious looking object indeed. It 

 is often three or four inches in height and shaped nuich like one 

 of the antlers of a moose. Its whole surface is warty and black, 

 each pustule marking the position of a fruit-body The interior 

 of the plant is white and consists of a \ory densely tangled skein 

 of threads. /\ smaller species is unbranclied hut stands u[) like 



l'"i(;. ;W. Fungus spot-disease on pear. .After Duggar. Bull. 

 145, Cornell Ag. Kxpt. Station. 



