1896.] ESSAYS. 103 



leaves; the great, tlie only, source of carljoii, which is a most imi)ort- 

 aiit component of all plants, is in the carbonic acid gas in the air. 

 The chlorophyll cells under the influence of sunlight, split up this 

 carbonic acid into carbon and oxygen ; the latter passes back into 

 the atmosphere through the pores of the leaves, while the carbon is 

 retained and distributed by the sap throughout the })lant or tree. But 

 fungi certainly contain carbon; how do they get it? They obtain 

 their carbon from plants that possess green leaves and chlorophj'U ; 

 they ar-e either })arasitic on living organisms, or they get their nourish- 

 ment from decaying animal or vegetable matter. J^very fungus is 

 either a parasite or a saproj)hyte ; the latter terni signifying that which 

 lives on decaying organic matter. Most of the minute, the micros- 

 copic, fungi are parasites ; most of the larger mushrooms and toad- 

 stools are saprophytes, although certain of them are always parasitic, 

 and others sometimes so. 



I have just used the jjhrase " mushrooms and toadstools," and I 

 must sto}) a moment to explain that the two words mean practically the 

 same thing, when the subject of fungi is looked at in any broad way. 

 There is a species of finigus, the Agaricus campestris, which is often 

 grown in cellars and dark places in greenhouses, to be sold at high 

 prices to epicures ; the same sort is to be found in pastures in the 

 autumn ; now', to one who grows them, this sort only is a mushroom, 

 all others, more or less resembling them, are toadstools. On the 

 other hand there are some experts before me who used to gather speci- 

 mens of twenty-tive or thirty species, last summer, and to eat them 

 with relish and delight ; these initiated ones did not call their favorites 

 toadstools ; certainly not. The word toadstool implies a certain con- 

 tempt, and practically no other definite meaning ; and as I have no 

 contempt for any of the family, I shall speak of them all as fungi or 

 as mushrooms. 



The structure of a mushroom when viewed under a microscope, is 

 very simple ; if a thin slice from the trunk of a tree is moderately 

 magnified, there is found to be a good deal of variety in the shape, 

 size and arrangement of the minute cells of which it is composed ; 

 but in a corresponding portion of a mushroom, we find only simple 

 thin-walled cells, round where they are not made flat sided by the 

 mutual pressure. 1 said, a corresponding part; and it must be 

 explained that the stem of what we call a mushroom is not the stem 

 of the plant, but of the flower ; the plant is underground, and looks 

 like a simple mass of roots. That which comes up in a night and 

 withers in a day or two, is the spore-bearing portion, and is evanescent 



