824 Marvels of the Universe 
soft, white felt-work, two inches thick, and spreading in circular fashion from the original centre. 
So long as it has a base on woodwork the felted sheet can spread over brickwork or masonry, even 
penetrating mortar, in order to reach other woodwork many feet away. When once it has attained 
a footing in a building, it can only be got rid of with much difficulty and at great expense. When 
it becomes mature, it produces fruiting organs analogous to the mushrooms and toadstools of some 
of the better-known fungi. These sporophores, as they are termed, are usually fan-shaped or half- 
circular, prettily marked with zones of brown and silvery grey, and having a yellowish margin. Some- 
times these sporophores measure six or seven feet across at their broadest part. The wedge-shaped 
sheet in the photograph on page 826 is a segment of one such large sporophore, which had unfortu- 
nately been broken up by workmen before I had the opportunity for photographing it. On the 
under surface there are numerous 
pits sunk from which are pro- 
duced millions of rust-coloured 
spores, by which this pest is dis- 
seminated. 
Sometimes the Dry Rot may 
be found attacking standing 
trees—but rarely, if ever, in this 
country—before they are con- 
verted into timber, and any 
wood so used is likely to produce 
trouble if used for constructional 
purposes where the atmospheric 
conditions are at all favourable. 
Wood that is suspected of con- 
tamination in this way should be 
treated before use with either 
creosote or sulphate of copper, 
which are absolute enemies of all 
forms of fungi. 
of SPAFIGCOOSIIBURIRIUTS ~ 
BY J. SINEL. 
Photo bu} [W. Saville Kent. 
THE FRILLED LIZARD. Or the myriads of living things 
Showing it in its ordinary posture with the umbrella-like frill folded 
that paddle and pulsate, gyrate, 
glow and scintillate, in the great 
up over the neck. 
world of waters, few can rival, and none can surpass for wondrous, delicate and modest beauty, the 
little organisms popularly known as “ Sea-Gooseberries.”’ 
These radiant things are tentatively placed by naturalists in the class of animals with a simple 
stomach sac—the class to which belong the sea-anemones, jelly-fishes, and coral polyps—but they 
present so many deviations from the type that there is now a tendency to place them in a class 
by themselves. Several species occur around the British coasts, the most plentiful of which are the 
little globose forms that have suggested the popular name. The most abundant one, on, at least, 
the northern side of the English Channel, is named Cydippe, while on the southern side this 
species is to a large extent replaced by the Plumed Hormophora. 
If the visitor to the coast will, on some calm summer day, sail or row a little distance from the 
shore, and proceeding very slowly, lean over the side of the boat and closely scan the surface of the 
water, he will scarcely fail to see numbers of these beautiful things floating past. Let one or two 
