CHAPTER LXV 



THE ORANGE-AGARIC 



'11 yfUSHROOM seeds, or spores, form on these 

 XT JL gills, these points, and on the walls of the 

 tultes of which these holes are the orifices. I recom- 

 mend to Jules the following experiment. AVe will 

 take some mushrooms whose caps are not yet thor- 

 oughly spread. We will place them this evening 

 on a sheet of white paper. During the night the 

 blossoming will be finished and the ripe seeds will 

 fall from the gills of the agarics and the tubes of the 

 boleti. To-morrow morning we shall find on the 

 paper an impalpable dust, red, rose, brown, accord- 

 ing to the kind of mushroom. 



"This dust is nothing but a mass of seeds, of 

 spores, so fine that they cannot be 

 seen separately without a micro- 

 scope, so numerous they cannot be 

 counted. There are millions and 

 millions of them." 



"A microscope, " interrupted 

 Emile. "Is that the instrument 

 with which you sometimes look at 

 things so small that the naked eye 

 can scarcely see them!" llarMui 



"Yes. A microscope enlarges the objects seen 



through it, and shows tln-m f<> us in all their details 



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