1901] MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 297 
and the absence of anything suspicious in the way of 
smell or taste that they tempt the uninitiated. Ke 
In the majority of fungi the spores are diffused by the 
wind, butin the most highly organized group (Phalloideae) 
the spores are distributed by insects, which, curiously 
enough, are attracted by color, scent, and nectar-like 
food, exactly as in the case of those flowering plants where 
cross-fertilization is effected by insects. The Phalloideae 
are most abundant in tropical regions. In Britain the 
group is represented by three species, two of which—the 
large stinkhorn (Phallus impudicus) and the smaller stink- 
horn (Mutinus caninus)—are fairly common throughout 
the country, whereas the third, the latticed fungus (Cla- 
thrus cancellatus) is only met with on rare occasions in 
two or three southern counties. The smellin all species 
is very penetrating, and from the ordinary human stand- 
point intensely disgusting, although not objected to by 
flies and other insects, which pick up the scentand gravi- 
tate in great numbers towards its source, where they 
find a greenish dripping gluten, very sweet to the taste 
and containing the exceedingly minute spores imbedded 
in its substance. This mucus along with the contained 
spores is greedily eaten by the flies, and by this means 
the spores are distributed far and wide. In the most 
highly organized members of the Phalloideae, very varied 
and beautiful contrivances are present, serving as a plat- 
form for insects while partaking of their feast. These 
platforms are so arrange that the sweet mucus, trickling 
from the cap where it is produced, flows over their entire 
surface, thus affording standing room for more insects 
than if the mucus remained on the comparatively small 
cap. 
In one species (Dictyophora daemonum) the fungus has 
a stout erect stalk four or five inches long, bearing at its 
tip the mucus and spore-producing cap. Springing from 
the stem just below the cap is a very beautiful network- 
