SOME ENEMIES OF THE TREES 113 



with those of the owner in the center of the 

 building. There is room for all in these model 

 nature flats, without the necessity of a janitor, 

 or perhance a policeman, to adjust the little 

 difficulties of daily life. 



Fungus Enemies. Fungi are low forms of 

 vegetation which have no leaf green and are 

 obliged to obtain their food by stealth. They 

 attack the forest in many ways. Some infest 

 the roots; some grow up from the ground 

 through the heart wood of the trees, changing 

 the sound wood of the trunks to a useless rotten 

 mass; and the spores, or seeds, of others float 

 in the air and often lodge in cracks and wounds 

 where they breed disease and decay. 



Perhaps you may have noted the little odd- 

 shaped brown knobs which dot the red cedar 

 here and there. You may have passed them 

 carelessly by, calling them cones. If so, just 

 keep your eyes open in the wet spring weather, 

 and presto! you will see the little knobs gal- 

 vanize into action, for they are really cedar rust 

 fungi. Innumerable fringes of orange-brown, 

 jelly-like spores, sometimes an inch or more in 

 length, are quickly thrown out. These spores 

 give rise to a crop of smaller secondary spores, 

 which, upon drying, are carried like dust par- 

 ticles on the wind. When they lodge upon the 



