THE MYSTERIOUS FUNGUS 265 



natural to that particular kind of caterpillar as for 

 an ordinary ' woolly bear ' to grow into a chrysalis. 

 Lately, a friend brought home from New Zealand 

 one of these caterpillars in the flesh, with the 

 fungus growing from its nose. Perhaps we should 

 say ' in the wood ' rather than ' in the flesh,' for 

 both caterpillar and fungus have turned to a sub- 

 stance almost as hard as oak. 



Most of us imagine that these wonderful things 

 only happen in far off countries, in the tropics or 

 at the antipodes, whither we shall never have the 

 luck to go and see them. But, as a matter of fact, 

 several of our candle fungi have bred in the live 

 bodies of caterpillars, and are now fruiting from 

 the dead chrysalis that, as a caterpillar, buried 

 itself beneath the moss in the fond hope of becom- 

 ing a moth. And the caterpillars are of the same 

 genus as those New Zealand ones, and the fungi 

 of the same genus as the New Zealand disease. 



There is no place that we must neglect to look 

 into in our search for the infinite autumn beauties 

 of the fungi. The hollow branch of a beech tree 

 flashes fire as we pass, and when we look in we see 

 a fairy grotto such as has never been staged out- 

 side fairydom itself. The ceiling is beautifully 

 sculptured with the gills of a few large red-brown 

 fungi which have scattered their spores of brightest 

 chloride of gold throughout what must surely be 

 a fairy's drawing-room. First, a spider had spun 

 its web diagonally from floor to ceiling, and this 

 the red gold has frosted into a most wonderful 



