igo THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



hyphse modified here and there to the accomplishment of vari- 

 ous functions. Fungi, like other organisms, have two principal 

 things to do — viz., to accumulate energy and to expend it ; to 

 grow and to produce fruit. The hyphse of a fungus are, there- 

 fore, in ordinary cases of two sorts — nutrient hyphse forming the 

 mycelium, and fruiting hyphse which make up the fructification. 

 In what we term puff-ball, mushroom, we have simply the fruc- 

 tification — the fruiting hyphse — all compacted together, while the 

 mycelium lies hidden beneath the surface. When, however, we 

 pluck the mushroom from its place, the mycelium may perhaps 

 seldom be discovered. There are for this two reasons : first, the 

 mycelial threads are generally tenuous and delicate in the ex- 

 treme, and unless crowded together escape observation ; and, sec- 

 ondly, once the fructification or colony of mushrooms is formed, 

 the energy of the mycelium having passed above the surface, the 

 threads vanish. Only in special cases, or where the fructification 

 is unusually large, and the number of hyphse converging at a 

 single point in consequence very great, do we find root -like 

 structures that are at once obvious and persistent. Fugacious as 

 the mycelium thus appears, it is really in many — perhaps most — 

 cases much longer-lived than the fructification it creates. Months 

 — possibly in some instances years — elapse while the subterranean 

 hyphal threads ramifying and spreading through myriad dimin- 

 utive tunnels are ingathering to some single center those re- 

 sources of nutriment and energy which shall at length break 

 forth with a suddenness and volume utterly astounding. In my 

 neighbor's yard, not long ago, appeared a succession of giant 

 puff-balls one after another, sometimes two or three at a time, 

 over an area of perhaps thirty by forty feet. In size the plants 

 ranged from the dimensions of a goose-egg to that of a half- 

 bushel, and the amount of matter raised above the surface was 

 little less than one hundred pounds. The largest fruit seemed 

 simply sessile, hardly attached to the substratum, while others, 

 smaller, showed something like a tap-root, white, cord-like, ex- 

 tending a few inches downward — not a root, certainly, rather the 

 undeveloped base of the ball itself. Whence had all this wealth 

 of organic matter come, and what was the meaning of it all ? 

 The previous existence of a wood-yard on the locality affords 

 probable explanation of the phenomenon. Through and through 

 the accumulated detritus of the old wood-yard the mycelium of 

 the puff-ball had literally threaded its way, developing perchance 

 for years over an area of not less than twelve hundred square 

 feet, restoring again for the moment to the kingdom of life and 

 light organic matter which seemed fallen into ruin irretrievable. 



Turning our attention now to the fructification, we shall find 

 our mushroom to consist of the following parts : A short stalk, 



