340 FIRST FORMS OF VEGETATION. 
with this fungoid cobweb, hanging from the roof 
like a soft and comfortable form of stalactite, in 
the strangest forms and in immense masses. It 
begins as an incrustation resembling white cotton 
wool on the brickwork of the vault, and as it 
grows, descending in irregular shapes, hanging 
down a foot or two in length, and changing to 
a dingy brown colour, very like a mouse-skin. 
The men who live in the place are proud of this 
extraordinary fungus, which carries out the con- 
vivial aspect imparted by the wine casks; it is 
never interfered with, and they point out any 
larger mass than usual with some complacency. 
Many fungi prey upon other fungi. The parasit- 
ism of the mistletoe among flowering plants is 
paralleled among flowerless by the Wyctalis astero- 
phora (Fig. 35), which, itself an agaric, grows on 
other agarics. 
x Asa singular instance of the ease with which 
these plants can accommodate themselves to sur- 
rounding circumstances, it may be mentioned that 
several species of fungi of the genus Chionyphe, 
somewhat allied to the common moulds of our 
cupboards, are found growing upon melting snow. 
They are among fungi what the red-snow is 
among alge. One of these sxow moulds was 
first discovered in the north of Iceland ; but two 
other species have since occurred in Germany in 
