Marvels of the Universe 1091 
as to the former point. “It has been suggested, but the idea is too fanciful for acceptance, that 
they are fragments of some extinct and broken-up Planet wandering about space. Less 
fanciful, and with some basis of fact to support it, they have been regarded as in certain particular 
cases to be fragments of some broken-up Comet. As regards their coming to the Earth, that would 
be simply the result of the attraction of Gravitation, akin to the reason why Sir Isaac Newton’s 
apple fell to the Earth and other apples fall to the Earth whilst philosophers look at trees. 
A CURIOUS FUNGUS 
AT a little distance the photograph on page 
1093 has always been taken for a representa- 
tion of a group of Japanese ladies. It is really 
a row of a peculiar fungus, very little known 
except to experienced toadstool-hunters, and 
many of these have never had the pleasure 
of seeing it in its native haunts. The White 
Helvella is not one of those species that you 
meet with everywhere. It is what naturalists 
describe as extremely local; but, like many 
other local species, when you have once dis- 
covered its haunt, you may visit the place 
year after year at the proper season with every 
prospect of finding it. 
The Helvellas are near relations to the 
Morels, which are favourably known to epicures. 
They differ from the ordinary types of toad- 
stools, in the fact that their microscopic repro- 
ductive spores are not produced on “ gills,” or 
in tubes, but from the naked surface of the 
strangely lobed and twisted head. These 
spores are so minute that they cannot be seen 
as such without the aid of the microscope. 
But if a Helvella is carefully gathered and 
stood in a quiet room where the air is still, 
you may observe on approaching that it gives 
off from its wrinkled upper surface tiny puffs 
of almost imperceptible smoke. That smoke 
consists of thousands—perhaps millions—of This large Meteor was photographed November 14th, 1901, 
the microscopic spores, which are puffed out of with the telescope pointing to ¢ Leonis. The Meteor is seen 
elastic cells in the apparently smooth surface. Rall ceraub th ewebotan chile (oust en emcne 
The plant is so sensitive that the mere approach of a person, without actual contact, is sufficient to 
cause this discharge of spores. 
It must be confessed that these Helvellas are not so substantial as they appear to be. The 
solid-looking stem is hollow, and the epicure has to have it stuffed with force-meat. Even the 
strengthening ribs of the stem are hollow. The texture is thin and brittle. At first it is pure 
white, but, later, it becomes cream-coloured. There is another species that offers a strong contrast 
to it, in being coloured a sooty black. It does not present the inviting appearance to the toadstool- 
eater that attaches to the White Helvella, but it is considered equally good by those who are not 
wholly guided by appearance in the choice of their food. 
A METEOR 
