A REMARKABLE MUSHROOM.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 10580, 8 October 1910, Page 1 (Supplement)

A REMARKABLE MUSHROOM.

A vegetable organism that grows so fast that it is hard to photograph 't would appear to belong to Alice's Wonderful, but such "ait organism actually exists in the jungles of Java. It is a fungus, and shows a very remarkable growth. The Director of the Washington Agricultural Department, says :

"This mushroom, the ' Dictyophora,' or ' net-bCarcr,' grows in' tho junglos of Java, where it frequently attains a height of six or eight inches. I triotl to photograph it by time exposure, but failed, for the reason that it grew so rapidly during tho exposure that tho outlines wore blurred on the platol Tho photograph was accordingly taken by 'quick exposure,' almost a snap-shot. 'Dictyophora' propagates itself by means of inserts, and its whole appearance is accordingly designed to appeal to the eyes and appetites of flics. Both the stem and the liollowy veil or ' not ' from which it gets its name, aro pure white—a color which is most attractive to tho fly—while the hood ac the top of the' stem consists of a greenish,' r.t.icky mass, that gives out a vile stench of moat in the last stages of decay. This odor, which can bo detected for rods, attracts swarms of ' flies, 'who gorge themselves on too mushroom in tho belief that they_ aro _ enioying a- particularly .delicious bit of ' put refaction. As a,mattir of fact thoy are nnlv entinc" millions of mushroom spores, which aro deposited elsewhere an J provide for the propagation of tlvo . ■ species."