138 EYE SPY 



spores are thus analogous to the seeds of ordinary 

 plants. We have seen the myriadfold dispersion 

 •of its potential atoms in the cloud of spore-smoke 

 from the puff-ball, but who ever thinks of a spore- 

 cloud from a mushroom or a toadstool ? Yet the 

 -same method is followed by all the other fungi, 

 but with less conspicuousness. The puff-ball 

 gives a visible salute, but any one of the common 

 mushrooms or toadstools will afford us a much 

 prettier and more surprising account of itself if 

 we but give it the opportunity. This big yellow 

 toadstool out under the poplar-tree, its golden cap 

 studded with brownish scurfy warts, its under sur- 

 face beset with closely plaited laminae or gills, 

 who could ever associate the cloud of dry smoke 

 with this moist, creamy-white surface ? We may 

 sit here all day and watch it closely, but we shall 

 see no sign of anything resembling smoke or 

 dust. But even so, a filmy mist is continually 

 floating away from beneath its golden cap, the 

 eager breeze taking such jealous care of the con- 

 tinual shower that our eyes fail to perceive a hint 

 ■of it. 



Do you doubt it .? You need wait but a few 

 moments for a proof of the fact in a pretty exper- 

 iment, which, when once observed, will certainly 

 be resorted to as a frequent pastime in leisure 

 moments when the toadstool or mushroom is at 

 hand. 



