70 THR; VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



very slender stalks. Placing one of these under the lens, you 

 will see a kind of cap covering this head. Remove this carefully 

 by pulling it upwards^ and an urn-shaped organ will be disclosed, 

 with an opening at the top. This opening is often closed with a 

 lid, and the entrance is surrounded with an array of teeth, their 

 number being so regular that the different species are divided 

 according as they have eight, sixteen, etc. Inside, the urn con- 

 tains small, roundish bodies- the future seeds. Even the family 

 of the despised toadstool (or fungus, as it is termed) when 

 examined carefully, is found to possess the most beautiful forms. 

 The casual observer would imagine they were nearly all alike, 

 but, as a matter of fact, botanists have divided them into nearly 

 as many species as there are to be found amongst all the flower- 

 ing plants put together One family alone, called Agaricus, 

 contains 2000 species. Some of these fungi would be exceed- 

 ingly useful to man if he could only be made to distinguish the 

 edible from those that possess poisonous, or even acrid qualities. 

 Many an unfortunate lost traveller has died of hunger whilst 

 he was surrounded by most nutritious food in the shape of these 

 hated toadstools. They vary in size from less than a pin's point 

 to the bulk of a boot-trunk, and they grow in every conceivable 

 locality — mountain, valley, soil, rock, old logs ; even living 

 vegetables and animals are not free from their incursions. 



The common musk tree [Aster argophylhis) is well worthy of 

 examination, for its flowers place it amongst a class of plants 

 which, in the mother country, never arrive at the dignity of a 

 shrub, while some of our compositse are fair-sized trees. The 

 daisy and the thistle are familiar examples of this order in Europe. 



Generally speaking, flowers are composed of four distinct parts 

 or series. First, the pistil which contains the seed vessels, and 

 occupies the centre. The pistil is surrounded by what are 

 termed stamens. They consist mostly of a long, slender stem, 

 with a kind of box on the top. This box opens when ripe, and the 

 yellow dust contained therein is disseminated either by the wind 

 or by insects to other plants of the same species. When any of 

 this dust falls upon the top of a pistil it fertilises it, so that true 

 seeds are formed. The other series of organs consist of two 

 kinds of envelopes, or coverings, to protect the essential parts 

 just described from injury. The corolla is generally brightly 

 coloured, apparently to attract insects, and is that part which is 

 popularly called the flower It is mostly composed of five 

 leaves. These leaves are at first pressed closely around the 

 organs, and then form the bud. Subsequently, they open into 

 full bloom. The outer covering, or calyx, also consists of five 

 leaves, but they are generally green. The leaves of the calyx 

 are not so delicate as those of the corolla, for they have to pro- 

 tect the young bud from injury during the trying vicissitudes of 



