a 
THE GEELONG NATURALIST. à 1097 
base of the high grounds, which rise up from therivers. In the grass, 
amongst the loose stones, on fallen logs, and on old stumps, they 
could be seen in great abundance after the fall of rain during the 
Autumn and Spring. ^r 
If any of my hearers happen to be in the neighbourhood of 
fern tree gullies and wish to become better acquainted with the 
subject of our paper, they have only to examine the old stumps 
or fallen logs which abound in these gullies to find an 
immense variety of these singular plants. Let us imagine that we are 
walking up a gully after some days’ rain; peering under the first 
rotten log we are almost certain to see the white gleam of a toads- 
tool among the green ferns or grass, or mayhap on the log itself. 
Let us examine it; if it is one of the commonest kinds such as belong 
to the genus Agaricus we may remark at the first glance that its 
color is white, yellow, or brown. That it seems to have three 
distinct parts:—a long stem surmounted by a broad convex cap, 
and long white threads connected with the base of the stem. These 
threads which are called the mycelium, act as roots, fixing the plant to 
the matrix from whichit obtains Ng nourishment and moisturerequisite 
for its growth. Turning now to the stem we find an infinite variety 
of shapes, long or short, thick or thin, straight or crooked, hard or . 
soft, dark or light, with all the graduations between these extremes. 
If we split the stem down through the centre we may find it hollow 
or solid, or what is called stuffed, that is, the hollow portion filled 
either with long hair-like threads, or a spongy soft amorphous mass. 
But the great convex cap is the most interesting part of the 
plant; if we examine it carefully we may find that it is of a white fleshy 
substance covered above with a distinct skin and beneath with a 
number of thin plates somewhat resembling the gills ofa fish, only they 
are arranged in a radial manner from the stem to the outside edge of 
the cap or pileus as it is termed. Now these fan-like plates are 
entirely enveloped with a thin membrane. If a portion of this 
membrane is placed under a good microscope it will be seen to be 
completely covered with a miniature forest of differently shaped 
cells. (1) Sterile cells, (2) Basidid, each with 4 sterigmata, 
each sterigmaty bearing a spore, (8) very large sterile cells 
termed cystedia. Ifthe stem of a mushroom be cut off close to the 
gills and the cap be placed on a piece of white or colored paper 
with the gills downward and left there for a few hours a number of 
radiating lines will be seen on the paper, each line corresponding 
with the spaces between the gills, these lines are made up of 
thousands of the tiny spores which have fallen from the sterigmata. 
The wonderful membrane which I have described is essentially the 
same in all mushrooms which bear what are called naked spores. 
But the membrane, or as it is termed, the hymenium may be spread 
over a great variety of surfaces; in one, the surface so covered is 
gill-like, in another it may be full of little holes or pores in which 
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