Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 3 (1899).djvu/493

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Some orchids have a curious resemblance to insects, after which they have accordingly been named the Bee-orchis, Fly-orchis, Butterfly-orchis, &c, but it has not yet been satisfactorily shown what advantage the resemblance is to the plant. The fungi, known by the name of club-tops, much-branched, flesh-coloured, yellow or white Clavariæ, which often adorn whole tracts of ground in a wood, imitate the structure of corals; Hydneæ are like Sea-urchins, and Geaster like a Starfish, whilst the various species of Tremella, Exidia, and Guepinia, which are flesh-pink, orange, or brownish in colour, and the white translucent Tremellodon gelatinosum, resemble gelatinous Sponges. The small stiff Toadstools (Marasmius) which raise their slender stalks on fallen pine-needles, remind one of the rigid Acetabulariæ. Other Toadstools, with flat or convex caps exhibiting concentric bands and stripes, such as the different species of Craterellus, have an appearance similar to the salt-water alga known by the name of Padina. Dark species of Geoglossum imitate the brown Fucoideæ; and one may fancy the red warts of Lycogala epidendron, a plasmoid fungus inhabiting the rotten wood of dead weather-beaten trees, to be red Sea-anemones with their tentacles drawn in, clinging to grey rocks. However far-