TERMS USED 



consists of elongated cells or basidia (s^ngular^basidium) more or less club- 

 shaped. Figure 2 will show how these basidia appear on the hymenial layer 

 when strongly magnified. It will be seen that they are placed side by side and 

 are perpendicular to the surface of the gills. Upon each of these basidia are in 

 some species two, usually four, slender projections upon which the spores are 

 produced. In Figure 2 a number of sterile cells will be seen which resemble the 

 basidia except that the latter bear four sterigmata upon which the spores rest. 

 Among these basidia and sterile cells will frequently be seen an overgrown 

 bladder-like sterile basidium which projects beyond the rest of the hymenium, 

 and whose use is not as yet fully known. They are called cystidia (singular, 

 cystidium). They are never numerous, but they are scattered over the entire 

 surface, becoming more numerous along the edge of the gills. When they are 

 colored, they change the appearance of the gills. 



Figure 3. Rootlike strands of mycelium of the pear-shaped puff-ball growing in rotten 

 wood. Young puff-balls in the form of small white knots are forming on the strands. 

 Natural size. Longyear. 



The spores are the seeds of the mushroom. They are of various sizes and 

 shapes, with a variety of surface markings. They are very small, as fine as dust, 

 and invisible to the naked eye, except as they are seen in masses on the grass, 

 on the ground, or on logs, or in a spore print. It is the object of every fungus 

 to produce spores. Some fall on the parent host or upon the ground. Others 

 are wafted away by every rise of the wind and carried for days and finally settle 

 down, it may be, in other states and continents from those in which they started. 

 Millions perish because of not finding a suitable resting place. Those spores 



