2 Saar ANNUAL REPORT. | 
is the sawdust so. I have used manure with shavings in with in- 
jury. Ihave seen, however, that Mr. Stewart uses them about. 
his peach trees; they keep away mice. I have noticed that wher- 
ever water stood the plants were killed last winter. . 
The Society and the ladies and gentlemen present then repaired 
.to the grove west of the University, where an ample repast, pre- — 
pared by the ladies of Minneapolis, awaited them. 
AFTERNOON SESSION. 
PROF, MOREY’S PAPER. 
At 2:30 p. M. the meeting was again called to order. 
Prof. Charles A. Morey, of Winona, was introduced by the Sec- 
retary, and gave his address on ‘‘The Nature and Growth of 
Fungi,’ at the conclusion of which a vote of thanks was tendered, 
and a copy requested for publication. 
The following is the address in full: 
NATURE AND GROWTH OF FUNGI. 
All of us recognize the broad distinctions between plants, animals and 
stones. We See, as did the ancients, that stones grow, that plants grow and 
live ; and that animals grow, live and move. But when we come to study 
each kingdom closely, we are sometimes confounded by the apparent ex- 
ceptions to this broad rule. We find minerals which strangely resemble 
plants, and plants which seem to cross the line and take on the motor 
powers of an animal. Nothing could puzzle a young student more than the 
statement that the sponge is an animal. To him, it seems to have all the 
characteristics of a plant, and no others. However, he can content himself 
by thinking that old students thought so before him; and not only thought 
so, but tenaciously held to their belief after the more venturesome had 
announced the classification which now obtains. 
This seeming lack of distinctions runs through all science. It eludes pre- 
cise definition and causes some trouble in fixing terminology; but the 
student soon comes to understand it, and to accept recognized limits with- 
out contradiction. In these modern days, when scientific men are rapidly 
going over, dissecting, classifying and labeling all the known material in the 
world, these minute of detail upon which the general scientific distinctions 
are based, are studied with an eagerness that is astonishing. It is a hard 
matter to find a class of minerals, a family of plants, or a single species of 
animal to which special and careful study has not been given by somebody. 
‘¢Men spend their lives,” as Carlyle says, ‘‘ upon a single Greek root;” and 
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