110 SAI'1!<1|>11VTE.S IX THE HUMUS OF WIKIJJS. M KA IX )\VS, AND MOORS 



Woods are also the special aljode of I'unf^i, ami the dauip gmuiid is ctjvered towards 

 autumn liy immmerable quantities of their curious fructifications. Dropped needles 

 and cones, leaves and sticks strewn upon the (jjround, fallen trunks, and even the 

 dark amorphous dust arising from the mouldering of tliese bodies and of the 

 numerous roots ramifying in the ground, appear to be perforated by and wrapped 

 in the protoplasmic threads of plasmoid fungi, or similai-ly invested by a plexus 

 of filaments, the so-called mycelia of other forms of fungi. Amongst the .scaly 

 fi-agments of bark, peeling from the trees, they appear in the form of slimy strings, 

 or as a da)-k trellis and net- work, inserted between the hark and wood of the 

 rotting tree; on the stripped white trunk thej^ are in dark zigzag lines like 

 those of forked lightning; and between, the white mycelia of huge toadstools and 

 tremellas are woven in all directions. Here and there large areas of the brown 

 decaying soil are flecked and speckled l>y these mycelia, and even the dead stems 

 of the mosses on the ground are festooned with white fleece, and wrapped round 

 by hyphffi. 



It is worth while to glance too at the reciprocal relations of these woodland 

 plants. We find mosses, lycopods, and various ferns and phanerogams li\-ing 

 upon the fallen twigs and needles, and on the mouldering roots of pines and fir- 

 trees. The dead remains of those plants afford sustenance to the fungi, which lift 

 their fructification above the bed of moss. In their turn the rotting fructifications 

 of the larger fungi form a nutrient substratum for smaller fungi, which cover the 

 decaying caps and stalks with a dai'k -green velvet. Lastly, these little fungi, too, 

 fall a prey to corrupting bacteria, and are resolved into the same simple inorganic 

 compounds as were absorbed from the air and earth, in the first instance, by the 

 pines and fir-trees. In the depths of forests there is going on, for the most part 

 unseen by us, a mysterious stir and strife, accompanied by an uninterrupted process 

 of exchange between the living and the dead, and a marvellous transformation of 

 those very substances whose secret we have only partially succeeded in solving. 



The results of cultivation have proved that in the group of flowering-plants 

 belonging to the woodlands of Central and Northern Europe, which derive sus- 

 tenance partially or entirely from the organic compounds afforded by tiie humus, 

 are to be included, amongst others, the various species of coral-wort (Dentaria 

 bulbiferu, D. digltaia, D. enneaphyllos), Circcea aljiina, Galium rotund if olium, 

 and Linncea horcalis, and above all a large number of orchids. Of these, Dentana 

 prefers mould produced from the Ijeech lenves, and Cirvicu, Galium, and Linncea 

 api^ertaiu to the mould of pine-woods. Of the orchids .some are provided with 

 green leaves, as, for instance, the delicate little Listera cordata, Goodyera repens 

 remai-kable for its villous petals, and the various species of Ce'phalanthera, Eioi- 

 'pactis, and Platanthera; others, such as Limodorum abortivum, the bird's-nest 

 orchis, the coral-root, and Epipogium aphyllum. have none. Limodorum (diortivum 

 belongs rather to the warmer districts of Central Europe. It has fleshj' root- 

 fibres, twisted and twined into an inextricable ball, and a slender steel-blue stem, 

 over half a metre in height, bearing a lax spike of fairly large flowei-s, which 



