94 PLANT-LIFE 



of brown are common; there are various yellow tints, 

 and shades of red, from pale pink to crimson. Pure 

 white species are found, while creamy tints are abun- 

 dant. Blue tints are found, but they are rare. It 

 has been well said that few objects in Nature exhibit 

 more gorgeous tints than the Fungi. In tropical and 

 subtropical regions some species are remarkably lumin- 

 ous. They emit sufficient light, of a phosphorescent 

 nature, to enable one to read at night. The " touch- 

 wood " of the schoolboy is a piece of decaying wood 

 from an old tree- stump, which emits a faint light in the 

 dark. The schoolboys of a certain part of Northampton- 

 shire, where I was educated, used to gather it frequently, 

 and take pieces to bed with them so as to profit by the 

 faint luminosity which is due to a fungus which per- 

 meates the decaying wood, and is, indeed, the cause of 

 its decay. The odour of some species is exceedingly 

 disagreeable; in others it is not unpleasant. The 

 rapidity of development of the fructifications is worthy 

 of special remark. Well might our ancestors account 

 for the sudden appearances of many species by crediting 

 them to fairies. The Giant Puffball (Calvatia gigantea) 

 may grow to the size of one's head in a single night. 

 This means that the cells forming it must multiply at 

 an enormous rate — probably many millions per minute. 

 The Saddle Fungus (Polyporus squamosus), which grows 

 on tree-trunks and stumps, has been observed to attain 

 a circumference of over 7 feet, and a weight of 34 pounds, 

 in four weeks. A pasture yielding no signs of Mush- 

 rooms on one day may be studded with them in less than 

 twenty-four hours. 

 Although the tissues of growing Fungi are compara- 



