392 



EXPERIMENTS WITH PLANTS 



Obtain a little of this Mould and scatter it over a slice 

 of bread which is kept moist in a granite -ware pan 

 covered with a plate of glass (Figs. 214, 216). The 

 first thing to appear is an abundant growth of white, 

 threadlike, interlacing filaments, the vegetative part of 

 the plant (called mycelium) . This is shown in Fig. 217. 



215. Same beginning to show spores at the edges of the bread. 



Presently this begins to darken around the edges of 

 the slice (Figs. 215, 216). When we examine into the 

 cause of this, we find numerous little black bodies 

 raised on slender stalks above the surface of the bread 

 (Fig. 217). If we now remove a portion of the weft 

 with some of these bodies attached, and place it in a 

 drop of alcohol on a slide, and place a cover -glass on 

 it, and add a drop of water at one edge, we may 



