. Fungi; their nature, influence, and uses;. Fungi. STRUCTUEB. 51 but there are points in tlie structure which can best be alluded to here. Again taking Professor de Bary's researches as our guide,* we will illustrate this by the common Mucor mucedo: If we bring quite fresh horse-dung into a damp confined atmosphere, for example, under a bell-glass, there appears on its surface, after a few days, an immense white mildew. Upright strong filaments of the breadth of a hair raise themselves over the surface, each of them soon shows at its point a round little head, which gradually becomes black, a
. Fungi; their nature, influence, and uses;. Fungi. STRUCTUEB. 51 but there are points in tlie structure which can best be alluded to here. Again taking Professor de Bary's researches as our guide,* we will illustrate this by the common Mucor mucedo: If we bring quite fresh horse-dung into a damp confined atmosphere, for example, under a bell-glass, there appears on its surface, after a few days, an immense white mildew. Upright strong filaments of the breadth of a hair raise themselves over the surface, each of them soon shows at its point a round little head, which gradually becomes black, and a closer examination shows us that in all principal points it perfectly agrees with the sporangia of other species. Each of these white filaments is a sporangia-bearer. They spring from a mycelium which is spread in the dung, and appear singly upon it. Cer- tain peculiarities in the form of the sporangium, and the little long cylindrical spores, which, when examined sepa- rately, are quite flat and co- lourless, are characteristic of the species. If the latter be sown in a suitable medium, for example, in a solution of ^ Fig. 31.—Mii-cor mucedo, with three sporangia. sugar, they swell, and shoot a. Portion of Wll with sporangiola. forth germinating utricles, which quickly grow to mycelia, which bear sporangia. This is easily produced on the most various organic bodies, and Mucor mucedo is therefore found sponta- neously on every substratum which is capable of nourishing mildew, but on the above-named the most perfect and exuberant specimens are generally to be found. The sporangia-bearers are at first always branchless and without partitions. After the sporangium is ripe, cross partitions in irregular order and number often appear in the inner space, and on the upper * De Bary, "On Mildew and Fermentation, "in "Quarterly German Magazine," or Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced
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