1894.] MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 13 



a good, adjustable, one-fourth or one-fiftli inch object- 

 ive for their proper display. The appearance of the en- 

 tire growth is exceedingly fine to the microscopist that 

 is fond not only of "finding out things," but of seeing 

 the beautiful wherever it may be. It is this which, as it 

 seems to me, is one of the chief charms of the micro- 

 scope, since the more microscopical study we give to a 

 minute object, the more beautiful and impressive it be- 

 comes, while the more man's handiwork is magnified the 

 greater become its Imperfections, the rougher it appears 

 and the more unattractive. It is not so with Nature's 

 handiwork. The nearer we can approach to the intimate 

 structure of that, the more perfect it becomes and the 

 more beautiful. This internal apple-fungus is no excep- 

 tion to the rule. 



But what is troubling me at present, and what I hope 

 will also annoy the reader, is. How does that fungus get 

 where it is ? 



There can certainly be no growth of the kind with- 

 out a spore to start it. I have found no spores. There 

 is even no trace of mycelial threads beneath the horny 

 cells on the inner side of which they may be abundant. 

 I have also failed to find any trace of the threads in the 

 cells of the apple itself. Yet they must be there. That 

 spores should get into those closed seed-capsules while 

 the seeds are only ovules in the unripe ovary, is hardly 

 thinkable. The surface of the mycelial threads is so 

 beautifully roughened that they should be easily recog- 

 nized among the cells of the fruit, if they were there, 

 where I suppose they must be and where I hope some 

 reader will find them. Beneath their points of attach- 

 ment the horny wall seems to be minutely fractured, as 

 though the threads had penetrated from the outside ; 

 yet in no case has the apple itself seemed to be diseased. 

 It is possible, however, that these broken lines may be 

 the result of the erosion of the growing mycelium. 



