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THE YOUNG NATUEALIST. 



credible that certain species emit a delicious fragrance such as Anise, Myrrh, 

 Cinnamon, or Melilot. Unfortunately these forms are scarce and unobtru- 

 sive, so as to be passed unnoticed and unheeded. On the other hand, who 

 that has wandered along a country lane in Autumn, has not had his nostrils 

 assailed by a whiff of intolerable fetor exciting the supreme disgust of his 

 olfactory organs, and conjuring up visions of rotting carrion. Yet it is pro- 

 duced by a simple though curious and common fungus {Phallus impudicns), 

 popularly known as the " Stinkhorn," Evolutionists maintain that the frag- 

 rance of flowers is emitted as a lure to entice the visits of insects whose 

 attentions are beneficial to the future of the plant itself, but the effluvium of 

 the " stinkhorn " seems obscure, if not inscrutable, on any such hypothesis. 

 Although it, as well as most others of the Order, form a nidus for the egg of 

 various insects, — even the most deleterious swarm with maggots before pass- 

 ing finally to decay. 



Placed by botanical classifiers at the bottom of the scale of vegetable 

 organisms, Fungi compensate for their lowly structure by their ubiquity, for 

 whether we ignore them or not there is no escaping from their influence. 

 Their invisible spores swarm in every breath of air we inhale, and it is only 

 vigorous vitality that enables us to resist their attacks, for as soon as one 

 form of life is extinct, another in which they play an important part takes 

 its place. Putrefaction and decay afford them suitable sustenance. Nothing 

 is secure from their ravages. The housewife's bread and jam, the grocer's 

 bacon and cheese, the draper's cloth, the shoemaker's leather, the carpenter's 

 timber, and even the student's books in his library are alike the objects of 

 attack. Nothing that has had an organic existence can claim to be exempt, 

 and even living tissue succumbs to their assaults. The premature decay of 

 the florist's flowers, the gardener's fruit, the farmer's wheat and potatoes, and 

 numberless other instances which might be adduced all testify to blighted 

 hopes, and the necessity for a more intimate study of the life-history and 

 nature of Fungi. 



Bishop Auckland, August, 1887. 



SLUGS AND THEIR VARIETIES. 



By Dr. J. W. WILLIAMS, M.A. 

 Editor of "The Naturalists* Monthly." 



I have been asked by your Editor to write an article for these pages deal- 

 ing more specially with the types and varieties of some one molluscan group. 

 To this request I gladly comply, and the group 1 have selected is the Lima- 



