214 FOOTNOTES FROM 



future flowers may be traced in the bulb of the hyacinth 

 or the root of the moonwort fern. In this infantile con- 

 dition, the mushroom is covered completely with a fine 

 silky veil or volva, which afterwards disappears,, The 

 tubercle rapidly increases, until at last it produces from 

 its interior a long, thick fleshy stem or stipe, sxmnounted 

 by a pileus, or round concave cap, similar to that anciently 

 worn by the Scottish peasantry. This is the organ of 

 reproduction, equivalent to the thecae of mosses and the 

 flowers of phanerogamous plants. This cap is covered 

 with a veil or wrapper, which is ruptured at a certain 

 stage, and retires to form an annulus or ring round the 

 stem. When it is removed from the under side of the 

 pileus, a number of vertical plates or gills is revealed of 

 a pale salmon colour, different from the rest of the plant, 

 and radiating round the cap from a common centre. The 

 whole of this apparatus is called the hymenium. Each 

 of the gills, when examined under the microscope, is 

 found to consist of a number of elongated cells called 

 basidia, united together on both sides of a cellular 

 stratum, and bearing at their summits four minute 

 spores supported on tiny stalks. It is by these spores 

 that the plant is propagated. When a small fragment 

 of a ripe gill is placed on the glass slide of the micro- 

 scope, in a drop of water, the spores will detach them- 

 selves from the gill and float freely on the water; or 

 even if a whole mushroom be laid on a sheet of paper, 

 it will often leave behind its spores in the form of a thin 

 impalpable powder. These spores are so very minute, 

 that many millions of them are required to make a body 

 the size of a pin-head ; and they are capable of enduring 



