FUNGI 



covered with gray powder. This consists simply of lichen 

 fragments, which also can grow into new plants. 



Another group of attractive and often useful fungi in- 

 cludes toad-stools, puff-balls, earth-stars, shelf fungi, and 

 others. Most of these grow in decaying plant or animal 

 matter. When the plants grow in decaying leaves, the 

 part that takes in the food is easily seen. Sometimes it 

 looks like mould, but usually it is more compact. This 

 part of toad-stools is sometimes surprisingly small, but the 

 slender, delicate cells can take in food and make new cells 

 at a most marvelous rate. Have you not seen great masses 

 of toad-stools come up within a few hours after a rain? 

 And the more you examine the toad-stools, the more you 

 will wonder that they can grow so quickly. The hundreds 

 of folds or gills that hang under the umbrella-like part are 

 like velvet. Under the microscope, we can see that they 

 are densely covered with short hairs, or stalks and every 

 stalk bears four spores on the end. lyeave the umbrella, 

 gills downward, on a piece of paper, and soon you will see 

 the spores that have fallen like powder on the paper. Toad- 

 stools have clever ways for scattering their spores. Many, 

 as they ripen, dissolve and spread over the ground like 

 thick, black ink, so carrying their spores some distance. 

 Many toad-stools invite flies and beetles to lay their eggs in 

 them, promising good food for the little larvae as they 

 hatch out worms or maggots perhaps you have called 

 them. The larvae eat greedily and grow very fast, and 

 soon the whole toad-stool is a wriggling, squirming mass; 

 so the larvae are covered with spores, and when they bur- 

 row into the earth to change into flies and beetles, they 

 carry these spores with them. 



The toad-stools, which are good food for baby flies and 

 beetles, are often good for us. They are really about as 

 valuable food as meat, and in countries where the people 

 know and appreciate them, the fields and woods are eagerly 



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