30 
NATURE STUDY. 
the prodigious growths of mushrooms upon the surface. 
When viewed under the microscope, this mycelium or true 
mushroom plant is seen to lose its cobweb structure and to 
resolve itself into tiny, interlaced filaments or threads, 
which meander about in the most bewildering manner 
through the mass of the earth or wood in which it grows. 
The filaments which form this true fungous plant are seen 
to be made up of separate cells, the addition of which con¬ 
stitutes the growth of the plafit. 
When a mushroom or toadstool (for these terms are used 
synonymously) is pulled from the ground and carries with 
it a little of the soil, the mycelium may usually be found 
in it, and it will repay careful examination under a com¬ 
pound microscope. Someone has likened the underground 
mushroom plant and its mushrooms to an apple-tree which 
bears its fruit upon its topmost branches, and which is 
imagined to have been sunk in the ground until only the 
fruit is visible. 
Among the unique accomplishments of the mushroom is 
that of subscribing its own signature when it is given a 
good chance. If it cannot write, it can certainly ma.ke its 
mark. And its mark is characteristic of its own species 
and forms a ready help in correctly placing it among its 
numerous relatives. M. Bertliillon, the French criminolo¬ 
gist, recognizes his man by the characteristic print of his 
thumb in wax. The mycologist recognizes his specimen 
largely by the print or image of its under surface traced by 
the falling of its own spores. Fortunately, the vast major¬ 
ity of toadstools are the friends and not the enemies of so¬ 
ciety. The under surface of the ordinary mushroom or 
toadstool is supplied with a delicate and beautiful system 
of membranous plates, which are called the gills or lamel¬ 
lae. They are placed vertically on edge and radiate from 
a common center—the stem—to the outer edge of the cap. 
Upon them are produced and matured, as the plant ripens, 
