182 ON THE SEEDS OR SPORES OF FUNGI. 
The white seeds of the Clouded Mushroom germinate in woods 
(generally on old fir leaves), whilst the pink seeds of Lowe’s 
Mushroom invariably germinate on the top of the former, and 
never grow elsewhere : there is even a third fungus, which attacks 
and destroys both. But although the arrangements of nature 
are sometimes involved and complicated, there is no such thing 
as confusion: confusion only arises in our imperfect compre- 
hension of her works. As regards the seeds of fungi, they 
each and all germinate at their proper seasons, and in their 
appointed places: each one is perfectly distinct from its neigh- 
bours, and many species of fungi can be recognised by the seeds 
alone. 
A word as to gathering mushroom-seeds: cut off the stem 
and lay the top, gills lowermost, on a-sheet of paper or glass ; 
in the course of a few hours the seeds will have fallen away 
from the gills and be deposited on the paper or glass as a purple- 
brown stain; they can then be readily transferred to an extremely 
thin sheet of mica, and on another thin layer of mica being 
placed over them so as to enclose them from the dust, they may 
be preserved for many years always ready for the microscope. 
Care should be taken not to mount too many on the sheet; 
there should not be a distinctly visible quantity. 
Fig. 1 shows the spores of Polyporus cesius : they are pale blue 
in colour, and of a very pure shade, oval in shape, and the 
smallest spores I ever observed ; the extreme length being only 
one ten-thousandth of an inch—if placed size by side, 200,000,000 
would be required to cover a square inch. As the parent plant 
frequently covers 12 inches superficial, it will be seen that one 
plant is capable of producing two thousand four hundred millions 
on its superficial surface alone ; but as these spores are, at least, 
ten deep, it is a moderate computation to state the number pro- 
duced by each plant at twenty-four thousand millions. The 
most wonderful consideration is, however, the fact that each of 
these spores is endowed with a minute spark of life, and is 
capable of reproducing the perfect plant. The parentis a woody 
Polyporus, not uncommon on old larch wood. 
