THE SPORE-BEARERS 



Molds. Let a piece of moist bread stand in an uncovered pint jar for 

 two or three days, adding water occasionally to keep it moist. Then cover 

 the jar 'and watch for mold to appear. Probably either the common black 

 mold or the green mold will develop. The bread rapidly becomes covered 

 with a tangle of delicate interlacing colorless threads known as the hyphae, 

 the entire mass being designated as the mycelium. Soon some of the upright 

 hyphae of the black mold grow the spore cases at their tips; the green mold 

 shows the clustered chains of spores. The spore cases rupture and dis- 

 charge the spores, tiny particles that dust off, germinate on the moist sur- 

 face of the bread and start new mold plants. Examine some of these spores, 

 if possible under a hand lens, or, better, under a microscope. Not much is 

 to be seen on casual examination, but you will be impressed with their 

 minute size and great abundance. These spores are not structurally like 

 seeds. The seed contains the* young plant, which simply becomes larger 

 when the seed is planted. These spores are single cells, which grow into new 

 plants under favorable conditions. 



Toadstools. There are a great many more plants that reproduce by 

 spores than there are plants that bear seeds. Familiar examples are the 

 puff balls and toadstools, the lichens, mosses, ferns, and horsetails. The 

 toadstool is really only the spore-bearing part of the plant; the bulk of 

 the plant, the mycelium, is buried in the decomposing organic matter in 

 the ground or the rotting log on which the toadstool appears. Examine 

 some toadstool and note its parts, the stem and cap, the latter having on its 

 under side many spore-bearing gills or numerous tubes from which spores 

 discharge. Try to find some of the buried mycelium. Cut off the cap and 

 lay it down, top up, on a sheet of white paper, covering it with an inverted 

 tumbler or bowl. Let it stand for a couple of days, during which time 

 spores discharge, forming a very pretty "spore print" on the paper. If 

 moist gum paper is used the spores adhere to it and the "print" is per- 

 manent. Spores from different kinds of toadstools are often of different 

 colors blues, yellows, reds, black so that a variety of colored patterns 

 may be obtained. 



Look on the trunks of trees for the oyster-shell fungus and the bracket 

 fungus. The mycelium of these grows in the wood as it decays and the 

 part seen on the trunk is merely the spore-bearing portion. Break one 



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