thought they were productions of the dead matter upon which they grew, but now we know that a mold, as any other plant, cannot originate spontaneously; it must start from something which is analogous to a seed. The "seed" in this case is a spore. A spore may be produced by a vegetative process (growing out from the ordinary plant tissues), or it may be the result of a fertilization process.
Favorable conditions for the growth of fungi.—Place a piece of bread under a moist bell jar and another in an uncovered place near by. Sow mold on each. Note the result from day to day. Moisten a third piece of bread with weak copper sulfate (blue vitriol) or mercuric chlorid solution, sow mold, cover with bell jar, note results, and explain. Expose pieces of different kinds of food in a damp atmosphere and observe the variety of organisms appearing. Fungi are saprophytes or parasites, and must be provided with organic matter on which to grow. They are usually most abundant in moist places and wet seasons.
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Fig. 271.—Mucor mucedo, showing habit.
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Fig. 272.—Spores of Mucor, some germinating.
Mold.—One of these molds (Mucor mucedo),
which is very common on all decaying
fruits and vegetables, is shown in Fig.
271, somewhat magnified. When fruiting, this mold appears as a
dense mass of long white hairs, often over an inch high, standing
erect from the fruit or vegetable on which it is growing.
The life of this mucor begins with a minute rounded spore (a, Fig. 272), which lodges on the decaying material. When the spore germinates, it sends out a delicate thread that grows rapidly in length and forms very many branches that soon permeate every part of the substance on which the plant grows (b, Fig. 272). One of these threads is termed a hypha. All the threads together form the mycelium of the fungus. The mycelium disorganizes the material in which it grows, and thus the mucor plant (Fig. 271) is nourished. It corresponds physiologically to the roots and stems of other plants.
When the mycelium is about two days old, it begins to form the long fruiting stalks which we first noticed. To study them, use a compound microscope magnifying about two hundred diameters. One of the stalks, magnified, is shown in a, Fig. 274. It consists of a rounded head, the sporangium, sp, supported on a long,
