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The Museum Gazette 



OUR LEXICON PAGE. 



It will be our constant endeavour to express ourselves in 

 plain English with as few learned terms as possible. The 

 latter, however, cannot be wholly avoided even in the early 

 stages of study, and they are increasingly needful as the 

 pupil advances in knowledge. Ignorance of them is a most 

 serious source of hindrance to students. We earnestly advise 

 our readers to procure good lexicons and dictionaries and to 

 take great pains to become acquainted with the meanings of 

 all the words which they encounter. The knowledge of the 

 meaning of a word, previously obscure, will often at once 

 clear up a difficult subject and render advance easy where 

 before it was impossible. Our Lexicon page is designed 

 to give in familiar language expositions of technical words 

 in common use. We shall not attempt any alphabetical 

 arrangement, but shall be chiefly guided in our selection by 

 the subjects which from time to time come under discussion 

 in our Gazette. We advise our readers to study our ex- 

 planations regularly, whether or not the information is 

 needed at the time. 



Sporophore, lit., the spore-bearer. All the visible out- 

 growths of fungi, e.g. j mushrooms, &c, are sporophores; that 

 is, they are destined to develop and carry the spores of the 

 plant. The sporophores of some fungi live for many years 

 and become woody. Plowright defines as sporophore " a 

 mycelial hypha that bears spores." 



Hypo-myces, lit., upon fungi. The name given to those 

 mould fungi which grow on other fungi. 



Hymeno-mycetes, lit., a fungus which possesses a spore 

 sheet or hymenium. It is used in a more restricted sense to 

 designate the family of fungi in which the spore-bed is from 

 the first exposed and without covering. It is thus made to 

 distinguish certain other forms from the Gastero-mycetes and 

 the Asco-mycetes. 



