178 NEW ZEALAND PLANTS. 
which the colouring-matter cochineal is made. This beech-coccus 
exudes considerable quantities of a sweet sticky fluid, on which 
the black fungus feeds; while at the same time the scale insect 
lives warm and snug under the protection of its sooty covering. 
Antennaria can also exist without its animal lodger and the 
rent which it pays in kind, but in this case the author has been 
informed that the fungus changes its habit of growth somewhat in 
accordance with its altered circumstances. 
After the fungi come the algae, salt water and fresh. Macrocystis 
pyrifera, a brown seaweed, attains an enormous size, and lengths of 
many hundreds of feet are not unknown; indeed, this plant may be 
the famous “ sea-serpent.”’ 
Then there are the bacteria—the “ microbes” of the newspapers— 
all infinitesimally minute plants, including some the greatest of 
benefactors and others the deadly enemies of mankind. And finally 
come the slime-fungi (Myxomycetes), which may be seen as jelly on 
rotten wood, and, moreover, are at one period of their existence 
animals, and at another plants! Many are very small, and unless 
one knew exactly where to look for them, and what to look for, their 
presence would never be suspected. 
