Offensive Fungi 
in that he can inclose it in a sealed glass case and work in 
comfort. The experience of the botanist must be realised to be 
appreciated. 
An overpowering fetid odour suddenly evident upon the 
premises has many times filled with consternation the guests at 
summer resorts, causing among them much speculation, with 
suggestions of bad sewerage, and carelessness on the part of their 
host, together with other comments equally disastrous to the 
reputation of the place. 
The distracted householder searches in vain for a solution of 
the difficulty, and the odour disappears as mysteriously as it came. 
If he is one of the initiated, however, he will search until he finds 
the haunt of the offender, and will destroy all chance of a repeti- 
tion of the nuisance—for one summer, at least. 
The mischief-maker is a handsome specimen, as its plate 
shows. The white stem, bearing at its summit a mass of gela- 
tinous green substance capped with a yellow-white ring, and 
emitting its intolerable odour, has surely come into existence fora 
purpose—a purpose soon suggested—as hundreds of flies wing 
their way hither to sip the semi-fluid mass. 
The botanist tells us that the spores of this plant are mixed 
in the green fluid, and that they are carried away on the feet and 
in the bodies of the flies to other places, where new colonies may 
be started. 
The plant has undoubtedly emerged from the ground for the 
sole purpose of disseminating its spores, and all its parts have 
been developed to accomplish this function in the most effectual 
manner. , 
The banquet for the flies is prepared underground, and the 
table, with its viands all ready, is pushed into the light, while the 
invitation to the guests is wafted swiftly on the breeze. 
One is curious to learn the mechanism by which so much is 
accomplished in apparently so short a time, and finds in this 
instance, as in all others where great things are accomplished 
with ease, that many forces have been slowly at work to insure 
everything being in readiness for the success of a final flourish. 
A search underground shows the mycelial threads to have per- 
meated the soil for many feet in every direction in search of 
building material, and a glance at a vertical section of one of the 
pink eggs which has pushed its way out of the soil will show 
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