THE WOODS IN AUTUMN 249 



In color they vied with the flowers, showing nearly all 

 shades from white and red to black. 



Now examine the lower side of the umbrella-shaped 

 heads. We find that some have many ray-like gills running 

 from the stem in the centre to the margin ; others show a 

 layer of small tubes instead of the gills. About an hour 

 ago I cut off a mushroom head, close to the gills, and placed 

 the head on a piece of white paper. Now I find a layer of 

 dust-like spores on the paper, which are arranged like the 

 gills. If I had not told you what I was going to show you, 

 you would probably have taken the figure on the paper for 

 a pencil drawing. These spores are the seeds of the mush- 

 rooms. They germinate in the ground 

 or in decaying wood, and form a tissue 

 of thousands of fine threads. At the 

 time of fruiting, many of these threads 

 grow together, and produce the well- 

 known heads above ground. The 



threads, which are called mycelium. 



' . FIG. 50. A PUFFBALL. 



absorb food from decaying matter, 



J & Reduced, 



because plants without leaf-green can- 

 not absorb carbon dioxide from the air. Have the mush- 

 rooms any true roots ? The puff balls have no gills, but their 

 interior is filled with a mass of spores. The pore fungi 

 grow mostly on stumps and trees in semicircular or irregu- 

 lar masses. Their tissue is more or less woody ; their 

 mycelium can be found in the wood on which they grow. 

 The mycelium of fungi remains alive in the substratum 

 from year to year, but the heads of most kinds appear 

 only at a certain season. 



If we are careful observers of nature, our attention must 

 be attracted by the quick and absolute disappearance of 

 fungi, as well as by their sudden appearance. 



Cattle, sheep, deer, squirrels, mice, and snails eat them. 



