FUNGI AND LICHENS. 119 



so as to have a starlike appearance, with the little 

 ball, covered with its, inner tunic, standing in the 

 centre. When quite ripe this ball is full of snuff- 

 coloured spores, which are ejected from an opening 

 at the top. If the weather proves dry the ex- 

 panded segments of the outer coat close up again 

 round the inner ball, and in this manner they are 

 blown about and roll about, mingled with dead 

 leaves. Some species are found in fir woods, others 

 under hedges and by roadsides, and others again on 

 sandy banks and hillocks by the sea-shore. 



Besides all those larger and more conspicuous 

 fungi which we have named, there are others, and of 

 these a very large number, which the uneducated eye 

 would fail to recognise as belonging to this order. 

 Of this class are the black, pitchy blotches on the 

 leaves of maple and sycamore. No one can have 

 observed trees at all with an intelligent or appreciative 

 eye and not noticed the large black spots, as large 

 as sixpence, on the upper surface of the still green 

 leaves of the maple. During the winter as these 

 leaves lie on the ground and decay, so step by step 

 the fungus matures itself, and in the spring arrives at 

 its final stage. This is not the only fungus which 

 attacks the leaves of trees, for if those of the poplar, 

 birch, willow, goat-willow, and sometimes the oak, 

 whilst still green or just fading, be examined on 

 the under-surface, the yellow spores of a Uredo 

 will be seen scattered over them like a golden dust. 



After the leaves have fallen from the trees, and 

 whilst lying on the ground undergoing decay, they 

 will in this condition nourish almost innumerable 



