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of structure, although they would be hidden from 

 the unaided eye by their smallness." 



44 Will you show us through the microscope the 

 mushroom spores when I have collected them on a 

 sheet of paper V 9 asked Jules. 



"I will show them to you. One spore is enough, 

 under favorable conditions of heat and moisture, to 

 germinate and develop into white filaments or my- 

 celium from which will spring at the right time nu- 

 merous mushrooms. How many mushrooms would 

 be produced if all the spores that 

 fall by myriads and myriads 

 from the gills of a single agaric 

 were to germinate? Here again 

 we have the story of the cod, the 

 louse, all the feeble creatures, in 

 short, that, reproduce their kind 

 in such immense numbers. " 



"To have mushrooms, then, as 

 many as we want, it is only nec- 

 essary to sow the spores 1" Jules 

 again inquired. 



"In that you are mistaken, my 

 dear child. Up to this time mushroom culture has 

 been impossible, because the care required by their 

 excessively delicate seeds is not understood by us, 

 or may even be beyond our power. Only one edible 

 mushroom is cultivated, and even in growing this 

 we use not the spores, but the mycelium. 



"They call it the hot-bed mushroom. It is an 

 agaric, satiny white above and pale rose beneath. 

 In the old stone quarries near Paris they make beds 



Spores 



