MOUNTAIN TREES 



dye. It grows also on yellow-pine, 

 white fir and manzanita. The blackish- 

 brown concave or flat disks with their 

 beautiful fimbriated crowns of green are 

 the spore or fruiting cups. Though fixed 

 on the bark of the tree by a basal plate 

 the lichen is not parasitic but derives its 

 nourishment from the atmosphere and 

 the rain which falls upon it. 



The splitting open or turning over of 

 a damp, decaying log may reveal to you 

 almost any early summer day numbers 

 of those curious half plant, half animal- 

 like creatures known as slime molds or 

 myxomycetes. Because of their inter- 

 est I beg you to look for them. They 

 are slimy, gelatinous-like masses resem- 

 bling white of egg or jelly and are of 

 different colors and forms, and varying 

 in size from that of a pin head to a man's 

 hand. By thrusting out their jelly-like 

 fingers in streaming motions they man- 

 age to creep about in cracks of decaying 

 wood or on damp leaves, feeding as they 

 go. As the whole homogeneous mass 



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