OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA. 
11 
When a fungus spore finds a suitable medium in which to grow and begins to 
develop, it becomes transformed into a mycelial or fungous thread, both the spore 
and the thread being of microscopic size. This, as nourishment is absorbed, 
becomes longer and longer, transverse septa appear and branching takes place. 
The food supply becomes permeated by these strands. For days or weeks, or 
perhaps for years, the young fungus plant continues growing in this way when 
conditions, such as warmth and moisture, are favorable. Eventually a large 
portion of the food supply may in the end be converted into the fungous 
mycelium which may form a considerable mass of tissue, though not' necessarily 
a compact mass. During this active growth surplus material is stored up to be 
made use of, when the favourable time comes, for the rapid production of a 
definite fruiting structure in or on which multitudes of fresh spores will be 
formed. To take the common mushroom as an example, for many months the 
fungus plant labours at producing an abundant “spawn,” in which is stored 
up material that can be rapidly transferred to produce the mushrooms them- 
selves. The spawn may live for several or many years, annually under suitable 
weather conditions producing a crop of mushrooms. These, though they may 
“come up in a night," do not really represent the result of a single night’s 
work on the part of the fungus plant. The materials of which the mushroom is 
composed have taken a long time to elaborate. They have been stored up ready 
to be rapidly transferred to those points where, on the mass of fungous hyphae. 
the buds of the future mushrooms have been laid down. When the auspicious 
time comes, the transfer is rapidly made and in a single night, or at least in a 
short space of time, the mushroom itself emerges from the ground, in the words 
of Milton rising “like an exhalation,” raises itself aloft, expands its cap and 
exposes its gills. We sometimes hear of a house being built in a day — more 
•correctly speaking we should say erected in a day. Much labour over many 
days has been spent in making the doors and fashioning the rafters and collecting 
the materials. The mushroom may be erected in a day, but the materials used 
in building it up have required weeks of constant incessant toil unseen, 
it is with these finished products, the fruiting bodies of the fungi concerned, 
that this Handbook deals. The more or less hidden mycelial strands of the 
various kinds of the higher fungi differ not so very much from each other, and 
are rarely compacted into definite masses or possess any special architecture. 
With the fruiting bodies, however, it is different, and by the arrangements of 
the parts, the colours, sizes, and shapes of the structures, the characteristics of 
the spores and other features, the various species can be readily recognised and 
described and their relationships with each other ascertained or con jectured. 
Though individual variations may lie considerable, the factors in common render 
the recognition of species possible to the mycologist who takes the pains to ascertain 
and define them. 
