350 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Nevertheless I gladly admit tliat tlie particular expression I 

 had ascribed to him is not to be reckoned among the already too 

 numerous illustrations of what I had described as his " readiness 

 to say unpleasant/' and — after reading his last article — I must 

 add, offensive, " things." 



With this explanation and apology I take my leave of the pro- 

 fessor and of our small personal dispute — small, indeed, beside the 

 infinitely graver and greater issues raised in his reply to the un- 

 answered arguments of Dr. Wace. 



I do not care to distract the attention of the public from these 

 to a fencing-match with foils between Prof. Huxley and myself. 

 In sight of Gethsemane and Calvary such a fencing -match seems 

 to me out of place. — Nineteenth Century. 



<♦ « » 



FUNGI. 



II. — MICROSCOPIC FORMS.* 

 By T. H. McBEEDE, 



PEOFESSOB OF BOTANY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA. 



THE microscopic world is ever fair. In every department of 

 research we revert to our instruments, certainly expecting 

 to be charmed by beauty, whether of movement or mechanism. 

 Rarely are we disappointed, certainly not in the realm of organic 

 form. Here everything is beautiful, and, as the heavens to the 

 astronomer, everything is clean. Even the rudest fungi offer no 

 exception. In them the microscope finds no exception to the law 

 of beauty. The simplicity of structure noted in the previous arti- 

 cle runs through nearly all, only varied a thousand times ; but 

 whether mycelial thread or spores, one or other or both conjoined, 

 the result, as we hope by illustration here to show, is always sym- 

 metry and elegance itself. 



To begin, let us revert to the lilac-bush, whose whitened leaves 

 may readily afford illustration of mycelial webs and threads. By 

 September, if not sooner, the entire foliage will have taken on its 

 peculiar whiteness as if thickly dusted with chalk or flour. On 

 certain leaves, however, appear suspicious-looking dark-brown 

 specks or grains, very small, but plainly visible to the naked eye. 

 Removing some of these granules to the microscope, we find the 

 field filled with tiny sculptured spheres ornamented with a pro- 

 fusion of long, interlocking filaments, starting out like so many 

 extended radii of each sphere. A gentle pressure on the cover- 

 glass breaks the sphere, and forthwith (Fig. 1) a dozen tiny sacs 



* Illustrations from drawings by 51. F. Linder and the author. 



