1878 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
4=27 
urns ; and, second , they will learn business, very useful to 
learn early in life. The Senior Publisher of this paper 
took his first useful lesson in publishing by canvassing 
for a club of subscribers, while a student. For many years 
we have noticed that boys and girls are often more suc¬ 
cessful than older persons, when they go and show a pa¬ 
per, tell what it contains, and iis usefulness, and ask a 
man to take it. Let. every one of our young readers exam¬ 
ine tlie Premium Sheet, see what is ofl'ered, select what 
they most want, and determine to get subscribers enough 
to obtain it free, and then persistently stick to it, until they 
succeed. If the first dozen persons asked refuse, try 
them again, and go to the thirteenth, and fourteenth per¬ 
son, and so on. What you determine to do, you can do. 
Fig. 1.—COMMON MUSHROOM. 
The Young' Microscopist’s Cluh. 
In telling you about what are called the lower orders 
of plants—such as bear no regular flowers and seeds—I 
began with those that are regarded as the highest among 
such plants ; that is, those which have distinct and com¬ 
plete parts, and most nearly resemble in these respects 
the flowering plants. Thus, the ferns have a root, a 
stem, and green leaf-like fronds; the mosses have roots, 
stems, and leaves. Both ferns and mosses have also a 
regular place for bearing their spore cases. When we 
came to the lichens, this distinctness of parts was lost: 
in the flat lichens there is merely the upper and under 
surface of an irregular flat plate, and the spore-cases, or 
fruit-dots, are placed irregularly on the surface. 
WE NOW COME TO THE FUNGI, 
the plural of Fungus; it is pronounced with a soft g, as 
if spelled Funji. The Fungi are still less like ordinary 
plants. In the 
ferns and mos¬ 
ses, we find 
roots and green 
leaves,andhave 
reason to infer 
that,like higher 
plants,they live 
upon the nour¬ 
ishment they 
draw from the 
soil and the air, 
and the lichens 
mainly live up¬ 
on the air and 
what the rains 
bring them. 
The fungi are 
very different 
in their manner 
of living; they 
feed upon the 
substance on which they grow ; it may be living or dead 
vegetable or animal substances—but they are always rob¬ 
bers or scavengers,feeding upon food already prepared for 
them. This being the case, the fungi never have leaves 
or other green parts, and most of them, if they do not 
prefer darkness, can live as well in the dark as in the 
light. The family of fungi is so large, and it contains 
plants so unlike, that it is difficult to make a simple de¬ 
scription that will include them all. There are fungi so 
small that it takes a powerful microscope to see them, 
while the puff-ball is often a foot across, and some 
fungi are larger than this. The fungi you are most 
likely to notice are those large and showy kinds called 
MUSHROOMS AND TOADSTOOLS. 
The eatable mushroom, common in the fall of the year 
in pastures, will 
serve to illustrate 
this set of fungi. 
As you find it, it 
appears as shown in 
fig. 1, but this is 
only the above 
ground portion,and 
is what in these 
plants corresponds 
to the fruit. There 
is below the sur¬ 
face, a mass of fine, 
white threads, com¬ 
monly called the 
‘‘s pawn,” and 
which botanists call 
the Mycelium, (from 
the Greek word for 
mushroom); this is 
the growing part of 
the plant, so to 
speak, and answers 
to the roots and 
stems of other 
plants. This spawn 
feeds upon the matter it finds underground, and when 
strong enough, it throws up the parts that are to provide 
Fig. 2.— CLUSTER CUP ON LEAP. 
for new plam s, the parts that produce the spores. On the 
under side of the cap of the mushroom,you find thin plates 
running from the center to the edge, and if you had a 
very powerful microscope, you could see that the spores 
were produced by these plates. But the greater number 
of the' fungi, and the most important in the mischief 
they do, are so small, that they are only to he seen by 
the naked eye when in a mass, and to make them out 
properly requires a much more powerful microscope than 
ours. The most common of these small fungi are the 
moulds we find so common 
on vegetable and animal 
substances, on stale bread, 
on cheese, on decaying fruit, 
and in numberless other 
places. I had occasion last 
mouth to speak of mould 
found on a correspondent’s 
boots ; that figure,here given 
(fig. 4), gives a general 6 
idea of the manner of growth of these fungi; it consists 
of the most minute threads, which grow and spread 
rapidly ; these are the mycelium; after a while some 
threads will shoot upwards from this and bear spores at 
the top. All of the mildews, the smuts, the rusts, and 
other pests of the farmer and fruit-grower, are minute 
fuDgi of one form and another, which live upon the 
grain, the grass, the leaves of the fruit trees and vines, 
and the fruit itself. A vast number live upon wild plants 
that are not known to do any damage, but which you 
will find very interesting when examined by your micro¬ 
scope. Among the prettiest and most noticable of these 
ARE THE CLUSTER-CUPS, 
so called, as they appear as little cups in clusters upon 
the leaves and stems of various plants. One of the 
largest of these I ever saw, was on a pear leaf, and is 
shown in fig. 2. These have a growing portion, or my¬ 
celium, that lives in the substance of the leaf, and the 
cluster-cup is what answers to the fruiting part. In fig. 
2, the leaf was brown and dead in spots, showing where 
the mycelium had been feeding and had killed it. The 
magnified cluster-cup is shown in fig. 3.; it has around 
the edge, a little fringe, which 
spreads in moist weather and 
curls up in a dry time ; within 
the cup are the spores, which 
you know serve the same pur¬ 
pose that seeds do in other 
plants, i. c., to produce new 
plants. You will find cluster- 
cups on a great number of 
wild plants; sometimes so 
thick that they run together, 
and when old, form a shapeless 
mass. When you find cluster- 
cups—and they will be oftener on the under than on the 
upper surface of the leaf—you can readily preserve 
them by drying the leaf between the pages of a book, 
and make a note of the kind of leaf cn which it grows. 
Some of the cluster-cups are of a pretty orange color, 
while others are brownish. Wherever you find an un¬ 
usual appearance upon a leaf, it will be well to examine 
it with your microscope, as you may find some fungus 
that will be worth louking at. You will find them at 
almost all seasons of the year, and hunting for these, 
mosses and other such plants, may be kept up long after 
other plants are killed by the frost. You all know that 
some fungi are used as food, and that others are poison¬ 
ous. and no doubt several of you will write to ask how to 
tell them apart. Indeed, one of your number, Miss 
Annie J., of Knoxville, Tenn., put the same question 
several months ago; my answer was put in type, but it 
failed to find room in the paper then, and I give it here. 
Her question was—“How can I 
TELL A MUSHROOM FROM A TOADSTOOL?” 
and she probably could not give a more difficult one. What 
is generally called “ The Mushroom,” is Agaricus cam- 
pestris of botanists; it (fig. 1) is the best known, and the 
one that- is often cultivated. In the popular idea, all 
others are “ toadstools,” and to be regarded with suspi¬ 
cion. Instead of there being but one fungus that may be 
eaten, the late Rev. M. A. Curtis, of South Carolina, 
found over a hundred different kinds, some forty of which 
grew near his home, and which he ate regularly. Miss 
Annie’s question means, “ how can I tell between a 
wholesome fungus (or mushroom) that may be eaten, and 
a poisonous one (or toadstool) that should be avoided.” 
—This is a question which I can not answer. If 1 were 
to ask Annie to so describe her most intimate friend, so 
that I should be sure to know her at once, if I met. her on 
the street in Knoxville, she would find it very difficult to 
do so—though were I to be introduced to her friend, and 
see her hut for a minute, I should know her at once 
afterwards. Here is just the trouble with these fungi. It 
is not possible to describe them in popular language, so 
that one who has never seen them can he sure that he 
has a safe one, but if she can see, examine, smell, and 
Fig. 4. 
taste, she will be sure to know it, when she sees it 
again. Now, unless Miss Annie can get some friend 
who knows, to point out the eatable ones, I do not think 
I can help her. All the directions to test them with, 
rubbing silver or putting salt upon them, are useless. 
Aunt Sue’s Puzzle-Box. 
NUMERICAL ENIGMA. 
I am composed of 23 letters : 
My 22, 19, 14, 19. 7, 19, 17, is a kind of cloud. 
My 4, 8, 18, 12, 19, 1(1, is another kind of cloud. 
My 3, 10. 13, is what farmers are busy with in July. 
My 5, 6, 7, 9, is part of my whole. 
My 1, 21, 13, is happiness. 
My 20, 2, 22, 23, is a protection. 
My 1(1, 15, 11; 'is a number. 
My whole is a story and its author. Louisa J. Speed. 
PI, — ! 
Hot drowl si a koolgin-slags, dan siveg kabc ot reyve 
liam bet intoclefer fo ski now cafe. Wronf ta ti, dan ti 
litvl ni runt kool rusly pottn ouy; hagul ta ti, dan thivv 
ti, dan ti si a lojly, dink notnoepain.— Keraychat. 
ANAGRAMS./ j 
1. Trip Laura C. 2. Sly chairs. 3. I tie bold man. 4. 
Lament, love. 5. A vast code. 6 Singes deer. 7. One 
can not stir. 8. Trying fire. 9. Sand places. 10. Cased ape. 
WELL-KNOWN CITIES CONCEALED. 
1. What royal, good cloth this is. Bob. 
2. A wooden cellar, Jacob! O ! stone is better. 
3. I am to lie mediator on Tom’s account. 
4. Please give me the chart for Dan. 
5. We rode up the hill on donkeys. 
6. In the evening we went to see “ Romeo and Juliet.” 
7. I got that rent on a blackberry-bush. 
8. She placed the gauzy fabric on corded silk. 
9. Is a lemon as sour as a lime ? 
GEOGRAPHICAL DOUBLE ACROSTIC. 
The initials form a portion of Asia; the finals, a noted 
“Rock” of Europe. 
1. A German city with a University dating from 1386. 
2. The birthplace of the celebrated “Fra Diavolo” in 
South Italy. 
3. A post office in Barren Co., whose inital and final 
letters are the same as those of a celebrated leader of the 
Sepoy revolt in 1857, and also of his Hindu title of nobility. 
4. A U. S. western city, 6,000 feet above the sea, cele¬ 
brated, among other things, for its wonderful system 
of irrigation. 
5. Another marvel of the West, which thought it had a 
great future in “Train.” 
6. A village in N. Y. once noted for its “ stated preach¬ 
ing of the Gospel.” 
7. A suburban village of New York City. 
8. A city of Pern. 
9. A river ol New York. J. A. B. 
CROSS-WORD. 
My first is in satin but not in silk, 
My next is in cheese but not in milk, 
My third is in made but not in wrought, 
My fourth is in mind but not in thought, 
My fifth is in brass but not in tin. 
My sixth is in crime but not in sin, 
My seventh is in churl hut not in thief, 
My eighth is in bush but not in leaf, 
My ninth is in onion but not in leek, 
My tenth is in look but not. in seek, 
My eleventh is in man but not in boy, 
My twelfth is in glee but not in joy. 
My thirteenth is in smile but not in laugh. 
My fourteenth is in some but not in half, 
And now if you make my letters agree, 
A character in Dickens you will see. 
CHARADE. 
My first steals forth as night descends, 
And prowls around in search of food. 
And many longing wishes sends, 
T”wards old dame Partlett and her brood. 
My second, in the good old time 
Was gift of love, and battle gage, 
The theme of many a tuneful rhyme 
By Poet, Troubadour, and Page. 
My whole adorns where e’er it grow, 
In garden, field, or leafy dell ; 
In skillful hands ’twill health bestow. 
Though deatli lurks in each tiny cell. C. K. S„ 
ANSWERS TO PUZZLES IN THE SEPTEMBER NUMBER. 
Classical Acp.ostic. 
Hercules—Saturnus.. 
II— erme —S 
E— cliidn—A 
R— udl —T 
C— ri — ti 
U— lterio —B 
L— aocoo—N 
E- he -U 
S—partacu— S 
Numerical Enigmas.—T„ 
No man ever became a villain 
at once. 2. Education. 
Hidden Household Arti¬ 
cles.—1. Dish. 2. Cup. 3. 
Pan. 4. Stool. 5. Fork. (i. 
Towel. 7. Trav. 8. Bowl. 9. 
Chair. 10. Stove. 
Cross-word.— Loving kind¬ 
ness. 
Hollow Square. 
F A T H 
E R 
A 
E 
R 
N 
M 
D 
K 
E 
R A T II 
E 11 
Square-Word. 
SCARS 
C K O A IC 
A O K T A 
li A T A N 
S K A N E 
A bout Aunt Sue,— Aunt Sue has for a long time 
felt that tlie large correspondence that grew out of the 
answers to puzzles, required more time than she could 
spare, and finding her home cares increase—for she has 
grand-children who have demands upon her time—she 
can not take the entire care of the Puzzle Box. She 
will, however, contribute to it when she can; but 
hereafter the answers to puzzles and all matters that 
were formerly sent to Aunt Sue, may he directed to- 
“The Doctor,” No. 245 Broadway, New York. 
