74 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [Apr 
that these eyes are cut out and used to plant the potato 
for the potatoes. 
The plant does not run to seed and the ‘seed’ is planted to 
raise the plant which grows the things we call potatoes. 
And therefore the potato is said to be a swelling of the 
root. But we will see, as Mr. Bernard discovers, that the 
potato is not the root but an excrescence on the root,—in 
short a fungus. But to make this clear to those who are 
not versed in fungi we will have to go into the meaning 
of certain terms used. 
First of all it must be understood that there is no dis- 
tinct demarkation of fungi into vegetables and animals. 
The fungi constitute a class as it may be called separate, 
being neither animals nor vegetables. In fact, when we 
come to consider them, we must leave the old division of 
animal and vegetable out of the question. But what is 
called the vegetable body or thallus consists of a filiform, 
cellular element or elements which are known as hyphae. 
These are hair-like or perhaps like cotton. In one group, 
the Phycomycetes, the hypha consists of a single branch- 
ing cell, so to speak; but in most cases it is composed of 
a series of these cells placed end to end. And this is all 
the fungus consists of,—essentially a small cell, so to call 
it, or a minute piece of hardened protoplasm. And 
when it proceeds to propagate or increase in number, it 
takes on a new form of life. It then has to disseminate 
to form, or to increase the species, as itis called. So that 
it makes new forms of life; it makes spores. But these are 
not essentials of the fungus itself as formed. It forms 
at first what are called chlamydospores, that is to say 
spores that are formed without the union of two individ- 
uals, male and female. These are formed on the hypha 
and commonly in the dark and immersed in the thing 
that the fungus lives on. It also forms spores, true spores. 
that seem to be for the disseminating of the fungus. 
For a period of thirty or forty days after planting, the 
