1 76 TEXT-BOOK OF FUNGI 



Berkeley and Broome, ' Ceylon Fungi,' coll. Thwaites, 

 Joiirn. Linn. Soc., 2, p. 494; 14, p. 29 ; 15, p. 82. 



Berkeley and Curtis, ' Fungi Cubenses,' coll. Wright, 

 Journ. Linn. Soc., 10, p. 280. 



Cooke, Intr. to Study of 'Fungi ', p. 322 (1895). 



Holler, 'Die Pilzgarten ein. siidamerik. Ameisen,' in 

 Schimper's Bot. MittheiL, 6 (1893). 



Moller, ' Brasilische Pilzblumen,' Bot. MittheiL, 7 



(1895). 



Moller, ' Protobasidiomyceten,' Bot. MittheiL, 8 (1895). 

 ' Phycomyceten u. Ascomyceten,' Bot. MittheiL, 



9 



ECOLOGY OF FUNGI. 



The fact that fungi are dependent on organic matter for 

 food debars them from becoming pioneers, and compels 

 them to follow in the wake of chlorophyll-bearing plants, 

 who directly or indirectly furnish such food. Obligate 

 parasites are necessarily at the mercy of the host-plant. 

 Saprophytes, as a rule, have a wider range than parasites, 

 but in both instances there is evidence to show that there 

 are some factors, at present unexplained, other than those 

 exercised by host or merely apparently suitable conditions, 

 which go to determining the presence or absence of fungi 

 in a given locality. The survival of the fittest, or relative 

 power to monopolise the situation, was very clearly demon- 

 strated in the case of some mushroom beds I had an oppor- 

 tunity of examining. The beds, four in number, situated in 

 an orchard, were prepared from the same manure heap, and 

 stocked with spawn of the same quality obtained from one 

 place only, in fact the whole of the spawn was broken up 



