| 828 THE STUDY OF MINUTE FUNGI. 
time to half a dozen species which he can get named for him by 
some one who has the necessary facilities for so doing in the shape 
of identified specimens. For instance, having ascertained that 
he has a specimen of Valsa stellulata, let him first see whether he 
can get the spores to germinate. First, he may try them with a 
little water on some form of growing slide, the simplest form of 
which is to take the slide with the spores on it covered with a 
piece of thin glass just as he has been examining it under the 
microscope, and laying it across a narrow dish of water (a soap 
‘dish or toothbrush dish is just the thing) let two or three threads 
lead from the water to the edge of the thin glass cover. The 
growing slides of Hoffman, De Bary, Dr. Maddox, and those de- 
scribed by Dr: Curtis and the author in their report on Fungi in 
connection with the Texas cattle fever, are all good and useful. 
The spores should be tried not only in water, but in fluids which 
will afford them some nutriment, such as juice of fruits or plants, 
Pasteur’s fluid, or on such media as a slice of potato, blotting 
paper soaked in lemon juice, ete., ete. 
But the most essential, and what will prove to be the most 
interesting, experiments will be the culture of the fungus in its 
native habitat, viz., on, or in the small branches of the tree on 
which it is found. Cut off a small branch of oak and cut it into 
lengths, say a foot long. Examine these carefully to make sure 
that the bark is smooth and unbroken, and then on half a dozen 
of these pieces plant your Valsa by placing it both on and under 
the bark at marked points. Plant the same Valsa in like manner 
on similar pieces of branches from other trees, for instance, elm, 
beech, and blackberry or green-brier (Smilax) or on the grape- 
vine. For purposes of comparison, keep half a dozen similar 
pieces of each kind of wood without planting anything on them. 
Now place your pieces of wood, two of them in a miniature hot- 
bed, two of them under glass over water, and two of them simply 
on the ground in the open air, where they will not be disturbed. 
Observe that wherever you put a planted specimen, you must put 
an unplanted branch of the same wood under the same circum- 
stances. i 
Having planted this new kind of garden you have to watch for 
results. If the theories of Tulasne are correct you ought to find, 
preceding the true Valsa, little perithecia which however will con- 
tain no asci, but minute colorless bodies embedded in a sort of 
