Page:First course in biology (IA firstcourseinbio00bailrich).pdf/140

 example. Lay a piece of moist bread on a plate and invert a tumbler over it. In a few days it will be moldy. The spores were in the air, or perhaps they had already fallen on the bread but had not had opportunity to grow. Most green plants are unable to make any direct use of the humus or vegetable mold in the soil, for they are not saprophytic. The shelf-fungi (Fig. 134) are saprophytes. They are common on logs and trees. Some of them are perhaps partially parasitic, extending the mycelium into the wood of the living tree and causing it to become black-hearted (Fig. 134).

(Polyporus igniarius) on beech log. The external part of the fungus is shown below; the heart-rot injury above.

Some parasites spring from the ground, as other plants do, but they are parasitic on the roots of their hosts. Some parasites may be partially parasitic and partially saprophytic. Many (perhaps most) of these ground saprophytes are aided in securing their food by soil fungi, which spread their delicate threads over the root-like branches of the plant and act as intermediaries between the food and the saprophyte. These fungus-covered roots are known as mycorrhizas (meaning "fungus root"). Mycorrhizas are not peculiar to saprophytes. They are found on many wholly independent plants, as,