. Sharp eyes; a rambler's calendar of fifty-two weeks among insects, birds and flowers; . U may reach a total of ten favorable conditions of growth theiryield would cover an area of two squaremiles. Thousands upon thousands of puff-balls are sow-ing their brown spore smoke upon every autumn breeze,and millions of other fungous growths — toadstools,mushrooms, etc.—are also adding their myriads. Didthe reader ever stop to think what infinite potentialitieswere borne in the cloud of dust that obscures the land-scape just before a storm ? At first glance Nature would seem to be need
. Sharp eyes; a rambler's calendar of fifty-two weeks among insects, birds and flowers; . U may reach a total of ten favorable conditions of growth theiryield would cover an area of two squaremiles. Thousands upon thousands of puff-balls are sow-ing their brown spore smoke upon every autumn breeze,and millions of other fungous growths — toadstools,mushrooms, etc.—are also adding their myriads. Didthe reader ever stop to think what infinite potentialitieswere borne in the cloud of dust that obscures the land-scape just before a storm ? At first glance Nature would seem to be needlesslyprodigal of her means towards the perpetuation of thesesingular and omnipresent plants. But her generosity isthe result of deep design. She knows full well that notone in thousands of these floating atoms will ever veg-etate. And yet they would seem to be common single short walk in the woods almost anywhere willshow us a whole museum of them, for they are almostuniversal in their growth. Hardly a square foot of theleaf mould beneath our feet but what is threaded by. their white roots {uiyceluiui)in the form of a pale stringymore or less visible mould,ready after the first rain-^ to send up its variety of curious shapes, here a puff-ball or a para-sol, there a tiny club or branching yellowtree, now a scarlet berry or a tiny teacup filled withbuttons, or perhaps a wee mortar that bursts and hurlsits balls of spores several inches across the leaves. Atfirst glance they would appear to grow entirely at hap-hazard, but the student of fungi soonlearns that few plants are more partic-ular and consistent in the selection oftheir haunts. Would you put the matter to a sim-ple test? This old dead chestnut-burrat your feet. Let us examine it. Whatdo you find? It seems to be speckledwith tiny white dots barely larger thanthe period of this printed page. If we turn our pocket-glass upon them, we find them to be perfectly formedglobular mushrooms growing from the sides of
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectnaturalhistory, booky
