35 



FUNGI. 



After the first rains come and tbruout the season of rains the 

 mushrooms and many other forms ol fungi spring up on every - 

 hand. 



The great majority of this company of plants are quite 

 modest in their behavior. They are, toe, mostly short-lived, 

 coming in the night, and passing away during the next day, or 

 extending their stay but a few days at the most. Their methods 

 of gaining their nutrition, of reproducing themselves, and ol dis- 

 tributing themselves over the earth are hidden from the casual 

 observer. In short their mode of life is a puzzle and mystery to 

 most people. This has led the whole group to be much neglected 

 in the pursuance of the more conspicuous phenomena of plant life 

 as presented by the showy flowering plants. 



From time out of mind, many members of the group have 

 been looked upon with downright fear as being intimate with all 

 sorts of uncanny existences, and being in league with them to 

 work evil on mankind. But these quiet little plants, like all 

 other plants, both big and small, are hard at work at food gather- 

 ing, reproduction and distribution. Each one from the micro- 

 scopic bacterium to the great puff ball represents in their varied 

 forms and sizes, special adaptations to conditions which each has 

 found favorable to its life. 



They offer many a delightful lesson to him who will hunt out 

 their homes in pasture, woods or canon. 



The sizes and forms of fungi are as variable as could 

 be imagined. They include the mushrooms or toad-stools, the 

 puft- balls, the moulds, the blights, the mildews, the smuts, the 

 rusts, the bacteria, and many other forms whose names are not 

 so familiar. 



