218 LIFE OF A TREE. 
only born and dead in a day, but in the course 
of a few hours. Several of the fungous plants, 
such as the delicate “moulds” which so soon 
appear on our food if it is allowed to become 
bad, only exist as individual plants a few hours. 
There is one of them in particular, called the 
Achlya Prolifera, which completes its appointed 
time in an hour or two. This little plant can 
only be seen by means of the microscope, and has 
been described as consisting of transparent threads 
of extreme fineness, packed together as closely as 
the pile of velvet; at the top of each little thread 
is a minute ball of the shape of a pear, so minute 
that twelve hundred would lie in the length 
of this, line; : that .is;!an): inch: —————e—eEeee 
These little balls are hollow, and contain a 
number of very small granules, which are con- 
stantly moving about, until at length the cell 
or ball bursts and lets them out, when they 
become plants themselves. Now, if we regarded 
each of these little threads as a separate plant, 
we should find, that in a period of not longer 
than three or four hours, the little plant would 
be born, become the parent of a multitude of 
others, and perish. It is an interesting fact in 
