42 A LABORATORY MANUAL OF BOTANY 
Observation and study.—With each kind of saprophyte 
present observe the following points: 
Color. 
Form and position with reference to the thing which 
furnishes nourishment. 
Does the saprophyte penetrate the supporting structure ? 
Structure. Mount parts of each plant and determine 
their composition. How are cells arranged in building up 
the plant ? 
Also examine some of the substratum to see how food 
material is obtained. 
Reproduction.—All these plants form at certain times 
small one-celled bodies, the spores, which under favorable 
conditions germinate, and thus form new plants. Mount 
some of the upright stalks of molds, some of the undersur- 
face of the expanded part of a toadstool, and some of the 
body of a puffball, and locate the spores. How are spores 
usually discharged from puffballs? 
Place some of the toadstools upon pieces of white paper, 
so that the spores will fall upon the paper as they ripen. 
After a day or so observe the number of spores, their color, 
and their arrangement. 
Some toadstools become jelly-like as their spores ripen. 
Mount some of these jelly-like masses and see what propor- 
tion of the jelly mass is spores. 
Why do molds appear so readily when favorable materials 
are exposed? To demonstrate this, expose a piece of bread 
to the air for a few minutes, then place under a glass cover 
for a few days, and see how soon and how abundantly molds 
develop upon it. 
Note the effect these plants produce on their supporting 
structures. 
Suggestions.—Sometimes these forms have all their bod- 
ies, except the reproductive regions, embedded in the nour- 
ishing substance. The thing which we call the toadstool 
