2 20 PLANT LIFE. 



rotten wood generally in quantities. They are some- 

 times yellow or often white, brown, or red. They have 

 no soft tissue, and the sack-wall is thin and papery. 

 Myxomycetes. 



VIII. Moulds, and IX. Bacteria will be found in 

 another chapter (see p. 198). 



It will be seen that two groups (V. and VI.) are found 

 on living plants. These parasites produce diseases 

 often of a very fatal character. Of the others, most 

 live on decaying animal or vegetable matter (Saprophytes). 

 Their chief function is to break up and get rid, as soon 

 as possible, of all useless accumulations. A few in 

 all the other groups are, however, also parasites, and 

 do great damage in forests or amongst cultivated 

 plants. 



Of the Mushroom Group {Basidiomycetes), the family 

 Hymettoinycetes are easily distinguished by their spore- 

 formation. The little spores, which vary in colour, are 

 hung singly on short stalks which project above the 

 gills, or into the pits or cavities on the under surface of 

 the mushroom. It is in woods that we find these fungi 

 most conspicuous, and in greatest variety. There are 

 two distinct crops, or harvests, of them in Scotland. 

 The great fungus season lasts from the middle of 

 September to some time in October. There is often a 

 subsidiary season in the early spring, or at the end of 

 winter. At these seasons the ground under the trees, 

 or the " wood-floorl' is dotted everywhere with mushroom- 

 like puddock-stools of endless variety in shape and 

 colour. Some are staring red ; some blue-purple, or a 

 sickly greenish yellow ; others of a very inconspicuous 

 brown or nondescript shade ; often so closely resembling 

 the dead leaves amongst which they grow that they 

 are very hard to see. As a rule the stalk and under 



