FL'NCI 189 



provi(le(l with hairs or wiii^s to cariy them in winds, and 

 many lioat in tlie water in oich-r to he wi(h'ly scattered ; hnt 

 the spores of the fun^i are so lio'lit and small that they float 

 invisihle in either air or water, and so they far ontstrip in dis- 

 tribution the hest de\ ices ol' the higher [)lants. As a I'esnll, 

 wliile the flora of seed plants is very ditt'erent in different 

 countries, the molds and nnishrooms, yeasts and bacteria, are 

 more likely to be the same species the world over. 



(Nmipare seeds and spores as to size and nnml)ers pro- 

 duced. For spores use the dust from a i)atch of mold and 

 from a puffl)all, and try to see, feel, smell, and taste them. 

 The fino-er ti})S mav be black or green with millions of mold 

 spores, but how nnu*h can we feel them? We can see the 

 cloud of '' smoke " from a puffball, but as the spores scatter, 

 can we see them in the air (unless in a ray of sunlight in a 

 darkened room), and have we ever tasted them in food ? 

 Some people enjoy the tastes of certani molds and bacteria in 

 cheese, — Camembert, Roquefort, Stilton, Limburger, — and 

 they may be as wholesome as any other vegetable. How do 

 the different kinds smell? How many spores may we be 

 breathinir in with every breath in a ninstv room? How dues 

 the number of seeds of a grain [)lant or weed compare with 

 the spores produced by a puffball? 



Size and power of growth. .V baby grows to doul)le its 

 weiirht at birth in live months. A yeast ]>lant or bacterinm 

 may double in size in twenty or thirty minutes. The fungus 

 thus has from seven to ten thousand times the power of growth 

 of the babv. Whv this difference? 



Food, a<jain, is the basis of growth. To dissolve, digest, 

 absorb, circulate to every part of a large body, assimilate 

 (that is, build over the foreign matttM' into the particular pro- 

 toplasm of the species) are slow ami laborions processes. Solu- 

 tion of food substances, especially the proteins (white of e^^\!^, 

 gluten, caseni, lean meat), is diflicidt, and absorption tln-ough 



