July, 1906.] Mycolcgical Bulletin Nos. CI and 62 



its organs. It is a complete fac-simile of the larva made up of fungus 

 growth. This may be called a resting or storage organ. This requires 

 time to ripen. It may send up an orange-colored club-shaped body as in 

 figure 190 or it may produce a dense growth of threads resemjiling a small 

 ball of cotton and from these threads another kind of spores is produced. 

 This new kind of spore affects the larva in the same way as the kind al- 

 ready described. The caterpillar will continue to move sluggishly for some 

 distance after it has been thus infected. The caterpillar fungus is of great 

 economic value for thousands of larvae are killed in this way every year. 



One of the largest forms of the caterpillar fungi is Cor'-ry-ceps hf.r- 

 cu'-LE-A Schw. An excellent representation is given in the half lone, figure 

 190. It is called hcrctilca because of its large size. The species can be 

 readily identified from this cut. It grows from the body of a large white 

 grub found on rotten wood. A perfect form of the grub is retained yet 

 every bit of the larva has been coverted into fungus starch for storage 

 material. 



The plant is quite large, clavate in form, head oblong, round, slightly 

 tapering upward with a decided protuberance at the apex as will be seen 

 m the half tone. The head is a light yellow in all specimens I found, not 

 alutaceous as Schweinitz states, nor is the head obtuse. They are found 

 in August and Scpteirber. 



USE OF MUSHROOMS. 

 Geo. F. .-llki)ison, Cornell Lbiiz'ersity. 



Another very favorable indication accompanying the increasing in- 

 terest in the study of these plants, is the recognition of their importarce 

 as objects for nature study. There are many useful as well as interesting 

 lessons taught by mushrooms to those who stop to read their stories. The 

 long growth period of the spawn in the ground, or in the tree trunk, where 

 it may sometimes be imprisoned for years, sometimes a century, or more, 

 before the mushroom appears, is calculated to dispel the popular notion that 

 the mushroom "grows in the right." Then from the button stage to the ripe 

 fruit, several days, a week, a month, or a year may be needed, according 

 to the kind, while some fruiting forms are known to live from several to 

 eighty rr more years. I he adjustment of the fruit cap to a position most 

 suitable for the scattering of the spores, the different ways in which the 

 fruit cap opens and expands, the different forms of the fruit surface, their 

 colors and other pcculirritics, suggest topics for instructive study and ob- 

 servation. The inclination, just now becoming apparent, to extend nature 

 study topics to ir elude nuishrcoms is an evidence of a broader and more 

 sympathetic attitude toward nature. 



A little extension cf one's observation on the habits of these plants in 



