112 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1896. 



the soil, in tlie condition which is most favorable for the support of 

 other plants. Nothing has been lost, but the elements assume another 

 shape. It is conceivable, but I do not know that there is any evidence, 

 that only those trees and plants which have a vitality below the 

 average, can be penetrated by the fungi ; if this be true, then the 

 destruction of the weaker tends to a gradual improvement of the 

 race. 



But something of an entirely novel character has quite recently been 

 observed, and demonstrated, which throws fresh light on the relations 

 between fungi and green-leaved plants. It is no less than a system- 

 atic partnership, for mutual profit, between these two very diverse 

 families of organic nature. It is highly probable that the outcome 

 of further investigation will be of very great value to practical horti- 

 culture. 



I have found the best account of these facts, as far as known, in 

 the beautiful work on the Natural History of Plants, by Kerner, 

 Professor of Botany in the great University of Vienna. A transla- 

 tion in four volumes, by Prof. Oliver, is in the Library of this Society, 

 and from it I give a condensed quotation, describing the partnership 

 of the two orders of vegetation. 



' ' The division of labor consists in the fungus mycelium providing the 

 green-leaved plant with water and food-stuffs from the ground, while 

 receiving in return from its partner such organic compounds as have 

 been produced in the green leaves. 



The union of the two partners always takes place underground, 

 the absorbent roots of the green-leaved plant being woven over by 

 the filaments of a mycelium. * * * Here and there the hyphiie of the 

 mycelium insinuate themselves inside the walls of the root's epidermal 

 cells and the latter are permeated by an extremely fine small-meshed 

 mycelial net. Externally the mycelium forms a mantle of branching 

 fine cells, which look like root hairs and perform their functions. The 

 exterior cells of the real root being covered by the fungus, cannot 

 absorb as they ought to do, and relegate the business of sucking in 

 liquid from the ground to the mycelium. 



Thus the fungus not only inflicts no injury on the green-leaved 

 plant by entering into connection with its roots, but confers a positive 

 benefit, and it is even questionable whether a number of green-leaved 

 plants could flourish at all without the assistance of mycelia. Every 

 gardener knows that attempts to rear many species of plants in 

 ordinary garden soil are not attended with uniform success. There- 

 fore, soil consisting of vegetable mould from the top layer of earth 



