. UNfl IN BO'J 



161 



LKS80NS IN BOTANY. XLIV, 



SECTION CXXlil 1 : NOI. 



i'u i. fin. /m tin... U an important and moat remarkable 

 .,1 tlio v <(," -t . ni, ningular in atructuro, and many of thu 



Hpeoiea exqu. in and colouring, whilst others are calcu- 



latod t .tillable M articles of diet or of m 



The range of growth of the apeoioB of 

 thin remarkable kind of vegetation IB aa 

 rising aa the variety in aize, form, 

 ur which thoy exhibit. \\ 

 IIT in tin- dewy meadows in autumn, 

 .vc find the grass studded with inii-h- 

 rooma, some eight or ten inoboa in 

 meter, otbera but half dovelopod and 

 looking like littlo bunohos of buttons on 

 the ground. Hero and there we notice 

 broad ringa in the grass, of a deeper 

 green and coarser herbage than other 

 parts of the same field display, and wo 

 know them to bo the " fairy rings" which 

 were in ancient times supposed to havo 

 been formed by the midnight gambols of 

 the fairies, when, with nimble foot, thoy 

 tripped in mystic dance beneath the 

 moonbeams ; those whom Prosporo thus 

 adjures : 



" You demi-puppets, that 



By moonshine do the green sour ringlets make, 

 Whereof the ewe not bites ; and you, whose pastime 

 Is to make midnight mushrooms." 



These dark rings are now known to be caused by the growth of 

 fungi, which, it is supposed, spread outwards from a centre, 

 every year of their growth ex- 

 hausting the soil of the circle 

 which they have occupied, 

 and throwing out fresh gcrma 

 to one beyond, in which they 

 grow the next year, and then 

 again push beyond it, and 

 occupy a wider range in each 

 succeeding year. As we pur- 

 sue our ramble, and penetrate 

 into the woods, we look above 

 us, and see huge fringes of 

 fungous growth hanging out 

 from the trunks of the trees, 

 and on the decayed stumps 

 around we perceive the most 

 exquisitely tinted clothing of 

 what, by the seaside, we should 

 conceive to be shells clustered 

 in shelves one above the other, 

 and all grouped in the most 

 vigorous and beautiful forms : 

 we touch them, and they are 

 rvood-like ; we take a chisel 

 and hammer, and such hard 

 work is it to chip them off, 

 that we find it easier to take 

 bark and all than to sever 

 these parasites from the trunk 

 on which they have fixed 

 themselves. These beautiful 

 objects are all fungi. Some 



TUB STELLATED PUFF-BALL (LTCOPERDOM 

 8TKLLATUK). 



of them in form and pencilling 

 much resemble the beautiful 



sea-weed (Padina pavonia), but their painting is different, and 

 consists of broad bands of black delicately shading into grey or 

 lavender, and alternating into a soft orange colour, the texture 

 of the upper surface being velvety, like the wing of a moth, 

 and the lower part of a creamy white, full of minute pores, 

 which give it much the appearance of coralline formation. 



We have had clusters of them brought us from the woods, so 

 beautiful as to induce us to group them as nearly as possible as 

 they would appear in their native habitat, and arrange them for 

 a basket for flowers ; and when set off by a massive bunch of 

 roses or dahlias, this structure formed an object as beautiful as 



115 NK 



303. THE FLY-BLOWN AGARIC (AUARICUS MUSCAEIUS). 



it wax ouriuuM, and lasted for very many month* perfectly 

 unchanged in form and colour. Beside* these, and a thousand 

 other variation which infont tree*, posts, etc., are a multitude of 

 lovely littlo gema of all boo*, which lia Mattered about on the 

 bare heath, or spring oat of decayed leaven, bit* of stick, wood, etc. 

 Some are acarlet, others orange, snow-white, black, brown, purple, 

 rose-coloured, or green all glittering in the moisture beneath 

 the bright autumnal sunbeams, and look* 

 ing like so many jewels. Every object is 

 more or leas infested by this ubiquitous 

 race: some spread themselves over our 

 fruits i others attack our bread, cheese, 

 pickles, or other manufactured articles of 

 food. " When our beer becomes mothery," 

 says Dr. Badham, " the mother of that 

 mischief is a fungus ; if pickles acquire a 

 bad taste, if catsup tarns ropy and pntre- 

 fiea, funguses hare a finger in it all. Their 

 reign stops not here they even prey on 

 each other. The close cavities of nnta 

 occasionally afford concealment to some 

 species ; otbera, like leeches, stick to the 

 bulba of plants, and suck them dry ; som* 

 (the architect and shipbuilder's bane) pick 

 timber to pieces aa men pick oakum. The 

 Onygena eqtiina has a particular fancy for 

 the hoofs of horses and the horns of cattle, 

 sticking to these alone. The belly of a tropical fly in liable in 

 autumn to break out into vegetable tufts of fungous growth, 

 and the caterpillar to carry about on his body a Clavaria bigger 

 than himself." 



Wo have ourselves seen several specimens of a curious 

 Australian fungus, consisting of a sort of stem about an inch 



and a half high, with a bunch 

 of berry-like appearance at 

 its summit, which arises from 

 the head of a species of cater- 

 pillar, which, having burrowed 

 in the earth preparatory to 

 changing to the pupa state, 

 becomes the prey of the fun- 

 gus ; and so firm is its hold, 

 that when the latter is pulled 

 from the ground the cater- 

 pillar on which it has fixed 

 itself comes up with it. 



Almost every earthly thing 

 is liable to be infested with 

 some species or other of this 

 tribe; one grows on the human 

 teeth, another on the wounded 

 flesh of living men. 



But we must forbear, for 

 we might fill a large volume 

 were we to attempt to describe 

 all the strange and varied 

 situations which fungi select 

 for their own especial habita- 

 tions and sustenance. 



The vegetative structure of 

 the fungus tribe ia peculiar, 

 forming what is called a 

 mycelium, and composed of 

 branched hollow threads ; the 

 reproductive system presents 

 great diversity. 



The spores of fungi consist 



of round, oval, oblong, or occasionally other shaped bodies, 

 BO minute as in most cases not to be distinguishable by the 

 naked eye, but displaying, when viewed with a microscope, 

 various colours pink, purple, yellow, or white ; they are some- 

 times naked, but more frequently enclosed in little receptacles, 

 those of regular form being called theca, and those of irregular 

 form sporanges. When ripe the spores are either ejected from 

 those little cases with a jerk, caused by the bursting of an 

 elastic ring which encircles them, or else they return to the 

 earth with the dissolving substance of the fungus in which they 

 have existed. 



