



their white roots (mycelium) 

 in the form of a pale stringy 

 more or less visible mould, 

 ready after the first rain 

 to send up its variety of 

 curious shapes, here a puff-ball or a para- 

 sol, there a tiny club or branching yellow 

 tree, now a scarlet berry or a tiny teacup filled with 

 buttons, or perhaps a wee mortar that bursts and hurls 

 its balls of spores several inches across the leaves. At 

 first glance they would appear to grow entirely at hap- 

 hazard, but the student of fungi soon 

 learns that few plants are more partic- 

 ular and consistent in the selection of 

 their haunts. 



Would you put the matter to a sim- 

 ple test? This old dead chestnut -burr 

 at your feet. Let us examine it. What 

 do you find? It seems to be speckled 

 with tiny white dots barely larger than 

 the period of this printed page. If we turn our pocket- 

 glass upon them, we find them to be perfectly formed 

 globular mushrooms growing from the sides of the de- 

 caying spines of the burr. Each of these bursts like a 

 puff-ball, and sheds thousands of spores, which are taken 



