92 NEW ZEALAND NATURE-STUDY BOOK 
decaying organic matter—such as that presented by the 
bread or the leather. If the conditions be favourable, the 
woolly growth may reach the height of an inch or more, 
and on examination will be found to consist of fine white 
threads many of which bear at their ends a small dark 
knob containing spores. The bursting of these knobs 
scatters the spores into the air where they float about as 
detailed above. Like the Mushroom, these moulds do not 
contain the chlorophyll possessed by the higher plants, and 
hence are dependent on other plants and on animals for a 
supply of organic matter. 
NotsE.—There is no reason why lessons on the Mushroom should 
not claim attention in: the Infant Department. The teaching 
here, however, must be very simple, and should attempt nothing 
more than a general description in exceedingly simple language of 
the plant itself. Such details as those dealing with the food 
supply and the production of spores, belong to the more advanced 
stages of a Nature-study course. 
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