142 THE MICKOSCOPE AND ITS LESSONS. 



Now, having preached a sermon to you, let us think of 

 what may be almost called the comical side of our illustra- 

 tions. Have you ever heard of the portentous growth 

 of fungi in a gentleman's cellar, produced by the decom- 

 posing contents of a wine-cask, which, being too sweet 

 for immediate use, was allowed to stand unmolested for 

 several years? The door in this case was blocked up 

 and barricaded by the monstrous growth; and when 

 forcible entrance was obtained, the whole cellar was found 

 to be completely filled, the cask which had caused the 

 vegetable revel drained of its contents, being trium- 

 phantly elevated to the roof, as it were upon the shoulders 

 of the bacchanalian fungus.* 



What a picture of an irreclaimable drunkard ! de- 

 bpoiled, empty, and a nuisance ! 



We need not marvel at such romantic chapters in the 

 story of a plant, when we consider the extreme minuteness 

 of the spores of this description of fungus. The common 

 puff-ball is said to contain ten millions, and these so small 

 as to form a cloud when puffed into the air. A single 

 filament of the blue mould which lives upon our bread, 

 and especially upon fruit, will produce as many germs 

 as an oak will acorns, each having in its microscopical 

 cell the embryo of future generations. One of this family 

 of puff-balls, the Bovista gigantea, occasionally to be seen 

 in our fields and plantations, will increase in one night 

 from the size of a pea to that of a melon ! 



Philosophers tell us there are hosts of these germs ; 

 some call them "microbes," the seeds of minute fungoid 

 plants, which fly about in all directions, propagating 

 diseases. Evidently, however, under ordinary circum- 

 stances, many pass off harmless. 



Don't ask me, " Why, then, were they created ? " 'Tis 

 * Hugh Macmillan, in " Footprints from the Page of Nature." 



