Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 August 1895 — Some Forms of Fungl. [ARTICLE]

Some Forms of Fungl.

Scarcely a day passes In which we da not see some forms of fungi, so common are they—inhabiting every nook and corner.lf we walk in the fields, the woods, even in the dooryard, we see the little white, gray and brown umbrellas of the toadstools and mushrooms. Going to the preserve closet,, we see that on the tops of many of the bottles a white growth has formed. Our old slices hidden away in the dark have a greenish dust upon them; thisis another fungus; and the “mother” in vinegar claims cousinship with the yeast which raises our bread. The paste-pot is flecked with pink, green and gray spots, all fungi. Some of the grain crops are often subject to partial or complete destruction from different kinds of fungi—the “smut” of wheat and corn, ergot of rye and others. Silkworms are destroyed in vast numbers by a me:.!. Its spores, entering their bodies, fill tlie whole interior, and cause death in from seventy to a hundred and forty hours. The hop crop is often ruined by “mildew.” One strange fungus attacks a kind of caterpiller, growing like a tree from his back until it is much larger than the poor worm, that crawls about with his unwelcome guest until it kills him—St. Nicholas.