84 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



most flowering plants. These points of difference are im- 

 portant. The seed of a flowering plant consists essentially 

 of a small embryo, usually surrounded by a mass of starchy 

 matter, and enclosed in protective coats. It is a complex 

 body. In fungi there are no flowers, and in place of seeds 

 we find very minute spherical or elongated bodies, containing 

 no embryo, and of very simple structure. They are known 

 as spores. 



Most of the higher plants are provided with a green color- 

 ing matter, contained in small spherical bodies Avithin the 

 cells, and known as chlorophyl. By means of this chlorophyl 

 the plant is enabled to transform such inorganic substances 

 as carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and the various 

 chemical salts which it takes up from the air and water, into 

 organic substances such as starch, gum, resin, sugar and the 

 like. Fungi, possessing no chlorophyl, are unable to do 

 this. Like animals, they must depend for their nutrition 

 upon organic matter already prepared by living organisms. 

 They may derive their nutriment from the substance of either 

 living or dead plants or animals. In the former case they 

 are called ^;«rff,si7es, in the latter sapropliytes. It is to the 

 faculty of growing as parasites that fungi owe their impor- 

 tance as causes of disease. Growing upon the leaves of a 

 living i)lant, they penetrate the tissues and absorb from them 

 the organic matter which the plant has prepared for its own 

 use and w^ithout which it cannot thrive. A diseased condi- 

 tion of the part attacked, often ending in death, is the result. 



Yet, in comparison with the plant attacked, and known as 

 the Jiost, the parasitic fungus is of insignificant size, often 

 hardly visible to the naked eye. This smallness of size is 

 by no means characteristic of all fungi ; they vary greatly in 

 this respect. The fungus forming the bluish-green mold on 

 damp bread, old shoes, etc., and those which, under the 

 common names of "scab," "blight," "rust," "smut," 

 "mildew," etc., infest and damage our crops, are so minute 

 as to necessitate the use of a powerful microscope for their 

 study. On the other hand, every one is familiar with the 

 large fungi known as "toadstools," "mushrooms" and "puff-- 

 balls," which occur so abundantly in our woods and fields. 

 These are sometimes very large, puft-balls having been found, 



