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in popular speech as ‘“‘pond-scums” or “ooze.” In the 
natural unmagnified condition, many plants of this sort 
seem quite the reverse of attractive, but when placed under 
a sufficiently power EOS Ope nny of them reveal a 
rare beauty. The “‘sea mosses,” or “‘seaweeds,” gradually 
lose much of their natural beauty of coloration on pro- 
longed exposure to the light, but the prevailing elegance 
and symmetry of form and structure persist. 
Following the plants of the seaweed type are several 
representatives of the smaller fungi. The first of these 
specimens illustrates the resting spores of the parasitic 
fungus that causes the well-known rust of rose leaves. 
The second shows a vertical section through the cluster-cup 
stage of a fungus that draws its nourishment from the 
living tissues of the leaves of violets. Of the fungi which 
live upon decaying refuse matter, Ascobolus is one of the 
more interesting among those selected for exhibition. In 
this, the spores, or propagating cells, are borne in groups 
of eight within transparent ellipsoidal sacs, and at maturity 
these sacs, each enclosing eight spores, are ejected with 
considerable force. Under the next microscope are shown 
sections through the gills of a common mushroom, illustrat- 
ing the manner in which its very minute and numerous 
spores are borne. 
Then follow specimens of the liverworts or scale-mosses, 
plants in which the differentiation of the vegetative body 
into stem and leaves becomes first clearly evident. One of 
these, a Frullania, has a part of each leaf peculiarly modi- 
fied so as to oir a reservoir for water. By aid of this 
device, the frullanias and their allies are able to thrive in 
drier situations than are in favor with most of the order to 
which they belong. Preparations are exhibited showing 
also the vegetative structure and methods of reproduction 
of the true mosses. Especially interesting is the “peri- 
stome”’ of one of the mosses, which is a fringe of peculiar 
appendages surrounding the mouth of the little urn in 
which the minute dust-like spores are borne. These ap- 
