PECULIAR FUNGOID GROWTH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13938, 21 December 1908, Page 4

PECULIAR FUNGOID GROWTH.

A remarkable find, was made recently by Mr. Lichner, in the Geraldine Bush, of what seems to be another of the weird creations of Nature which are continually coming under notice. It was a fungoid growth, but so closely approximating to animal life that it would be difficult to say where the vegetable ended and the animal began. Not only in texture, but also "in appearance, was the resemblance to animal life striking, for the growth at first suggested an octopus. From a central body, extending six tenacle-like arms, dividing a short distance from the body into two sections, and gradually tapering away at the end to the thickness of a pin. In the centre of the body was a ragged opening apparently fulfilling the functions of a mouth, leading into a pouch about three-quarters of an inch in diameter, the texture of which resembled in appearance a fowl's, crop. The body and tentacles were 'crimson in colour, and the stomach a dirty white, and the whole thing looked and felt like flesh. The find was submitted to Nature students, who were convinced that the growth was a vegetable, and this is borne out by the fact that close alongside it was found another growth apparently exactly similar, and emerging from a globular covering of gelatinous consistency, to which was attached an empty shell, evidently the former covering of the mature fungus. From' the mass white fibrous roots were growing. It has sine© been identified as a specimen of a peculiar fungus that grows in -the New. Zealand forests*