MUSHROOMS. 297 




























minute organisms, which serve for seeds and known as 
spores, float in the air and lodge in the water, waiting op- 
portunity to germinate and grow. Even the cavities of nuts, 
and the tough kernels of apples develop certain species; 
and roots and solid timber alike are rent asunder by the 
presence of particular kinds. The mildews which cover our 
gooseberries and hops, and the foliage of the vine, or the 
husk of the ripening grain, are forms of the smaller fungi, 
and all powerful in their littleness. 
“Nor are these plants less worthy of notice on account of 
the rapidity of their growth. The great puff-ball springs up 
in a marvellous manner to the size of a pumpkin during 
the night, and Dr. Lindley has computed that the cells of 
which its structure is composed have multiplied at the ex- 
traordinary rate of sixty millions in a minute. Dr. Greville 
mentions an instance of one of the largest of British fungi 
(Polyporus squamosus) attaining a circumference of seven 
feet five inches, and weighing thirty-four pounds after 
having been cut four days. It was only four weeks attain- 
lng to these dimensions, thus acquiring an increase of growth 
‘qual to nineteen ounces per day.” ‘This rapidity of growth 
- only equalled by the amazing power which vegetables, so 
fragile and tender in their tissues, possess ; instances being 
cited Where pavements have been lifted by the growing of 
ne beneath ; but somewhat of the same phenomena may be 
- Yearly seen in the woods, where clusters of brittle fungi, by 
Perpendicular pressure, lift masses of earth and leaves up- 
ards as they issue into the air and light; and in the early 
ag the same phenomena may be seen where the flowers 
NATURALIST, VOL. 11. 38 
