202 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



know that the noxious weeds of our fields propagate, or reproduce 

 themselves by ripening what we call seeds, and these seeds germinate 

 and produce other weeds like the plants upon which they grew. The 

 fungi reproduce themselves by ripening what we call spores, and these 

 spores germinate and produce other fungi. To follow the growth of 

 the toadstool, or mushroom, will enable us to understand the growth 

 of those minute fungi that cause disease in our plants. When going 

 out of doors some morning, particularly after a rain, we frequently find 

 that a great number of toadstools, or mushrooms, have sprung up dur- 

 ing the night. It is frequently a source of wonder how such a growth 

 could have occurred so suddenly. If we dig carefully down in the 

 ground, however, we will find a net- work of tiny, grayish threads per- 

 meating the soil in all directions. This is the bodj.or mycelium, of the 

 fungus, and may have been growing there all summer, taking up food 

 from the decaying roots, leaves or manure between the particles of 

 soil. The toadstool, or mushroom, itself, is only the fruiting part of 

 this fungus. Its sudden growth from the net-work of mycelium below 

 ground, is no more remarkable than the sudden appearance of a morn- 

 ing glory flower from an unnoticed tangle of vines. In a few days the 

 toadstool begins to turn a dark color and produces a great quantity of 

 black dust from its gills beneath. This dust is the spores (seeds) of 

 toadstool. They are so much smaller than the seeds of plants to which 

 we are accustomed, it hardly seems possible that a single one of them 

 is capable of germinating and producing toadstools. However, such 

 is the case. One of these spores finds lodgment in decaying matter in 

 the soil and germinates, much as a morning glory seed sprouts or 

 germinates. It puts out those tiny threads of mycelium, which per- 

 meate the soil much as a morning glory twines about above ground. 

 After a while thickened places are produced in the mycelium, near the 

 surface of the ground, just as flower-buds appear along the morning 

 glory vine. Some night, when conditions are favorable, toadstools 

 spring up from these thickened parts, much as morning glory flowers 

 burst forth from flower-buds. Thus the round of life of the toadstool 

 is completed. The pufl'-ball, which produces a great quantity of black 

 dust, grows very much as the toadstool, or mushroom, does. The dust, 

 or smoke, which puffs out when the puff-ball is pressed, is the spores, 

 which, in turn, germinate and produce other puff-balls. 



The black dust or "smut" which forms on the ears of corn or 

 heads of wheat, the orange rust on blackberry leaves, and the brown 

 masses of powder on plums effected with rot, are all the spores of 

 fungi, the mycelium of which is growing in the tissues of the plants. 

 These spores are blown about by the wind, or undoubtedly may be car- 



