138 EYE SPY 
spores are thus analogous to the seeds of ordinary 
plants. We have seen the myriadfold dispersion 
of its potential atoms in the cloud of spore-smoke 
from the puff-ball, but who ever thinks of a spore- 
cloud from a mushroom or a toadstool ? Yet the 
same method is followed by all the other fungi, 
but with less conspicuousness. The puff-ball 
gives a visible salute, but any one of the common 
mushrooms or toadstools will afford us a much 
prettier and more surprising account of itself if 
we but give it the opportunity. This big yellow 
toadstool out under the poplar-tree, its golden cap 
studded with brownish scurfy warts, its under sur- 
face beset with closely plaited laminae or gills, 
who could ever associate the cloud of dry smoke 
with this moist, creamy-white surface ? We may 
sit here all day and watch it closely, but we shall 
see no sign of anything resembling smoke or 
dust. But even so, a filmy mist is continually 
floating away from beneath its golden cap, the 
eager breeze taking such jealous care of the con- 
tinual shower that our eyes fail to perceive a hint 
of it. 
Do you doubt it ? You need wait but a few 
moments for a proof of the fact in a pretty exper- 
iment, which, when once observed, will certainly 
be resorted to as a frequent pastime in leisure 
moments when the toadstool or mushroom is at 
hand. 
