104 THE WOODLANDS. 



It is not a very easy task to describe in a few plain 

 words what constitutes a fungus, since with the 

 minuter accuracy of scientific language no such defini- 

 tion yet attempted has been absolutely satisfactory. 

 That they are plants of a low organization is un- 

 doubted, growing on the ground, or on other plants 

 as parasites, and obtaining their support from the 



PARASOL MUSHROOM (young). 



decay of animal and vegetable matter. It may be ac- 

 cepted as a general rule that wherever fungi are found 

 growing they are in intimate association with, and 

 as the result of, disease and decay. Dead leaves, 

 rotten twigs, and putrid fruits are rapidly disinte- 

 grated by the growth of fungi. By this means trees 

 manure their own soil, being assisted in that operation 

 by fungi converting their rejectamenta into vegetable 

 humus, and thus an obscure and little known class of 



