162 HUTCHINSON'S POPULAR BOTANY 



the mycelia are for the most part hidden, either in the soil or in the bark 

 of trees ; while the fruit-bearing organs assume the brightest colours, and 

 flaunt themselves with gay effrontery. They appear in all conceivable 

 forms (figs. 199-201), graceful and grotesque, elaborate and simple, geo- 

 metrical and irregular. You may meet with them as cups and bottles, as 

 horns and trumpets, as umbrellas and canopies, as finger-rings and strings 

 of beads, as eggs and egg-cups, as globes and discs, as solid leathery lumps 



Photo by] [. 8tept 



FIG. 199. EARTH-BALL FUNGUS (Scleroderma vulgare). 



Often mistaken for a Puff-ball or even Truffle. The skin is thick and the contents at first a hard blue-black mass, 

 which ultimately breaks up into minute spores, which are set free by the rupture of the corky shell. In this condition 

 it is known as the Devil's Snuff-box. Odour strong and unpleasant. The upper example is cut through to show 



interior. 



and hollow spherical cages ; and the wonder excited by this inexhaustible 

 variety of forms is not lessened when we remember that the beginning of 

 each was a tiny spore, smaller than the dust-motes that gyrate in the sun. 



With this brief glance at the development of a Fungus spore, let us 

 take a forward step, and consider, with equal brevity, the round of life 

 in one of the Mosses. The Mosses (Musci) contain chlorophyll, and there- 

 fore occupy a more important position in the Vegetable World than the 



