THE FUNGI 



267 



MUSHROOMS AND THEIR ALLIES 

 MUSHROOMS 



The mushrooms belong to the higher fungi and include 

 among their allies the puffballs, the bracket fungi, and the 

 rusts and smuts of cereal grains. 



Habit. The plant body of a mushroom is divided, like that 

 of the molds already studied, into an aerial portion (the mush- 

 room proper), which bears spores (Fig. 146), and a submerged 



FIG. 14&. Habit of the " shaggy mane " mushroom, Coprinus comatus 

 After Buller 



mycelium, which digests and absorbs food from the organic 

 matter in the soil. The mushrooms are therefore saprophytes 

 and grow best around old stumps or in soil which is rich in 

 decaying vegetable remains. The mycelium, often called spawn, 

 traverses this soil in the form of long white threads made up of 

 strands of mycelial fibers closely interwoven. This spawn may 

 live for several years, and produces each season a new crop 

 of mushrooms. The mushroom plant above soil is therefore a 



