CHAPTER XVII.
THE FUNGUS FOREST.--ENCHANTMENT.
Along the chamber through which we now passed I saw by the mellow lightgreat pillars, capped with umbrella-like covers, some of them remindingme of the common toadstool of upper earth, on a magnificent scale.Instead, however, of the gray or somber shades to which I had beenaccustomed, these objects were of various hues and combined thebrilliancy of the primary prismatic colors, with the purity of cleansnow. Now they would stand solitary, like gigantic sentinels; again theywould be arranged in rows, the alignment as true as if established bythe hair of a transit, forming columnar avenues, and in other situationsthey were wedged together so as to produce masses, acres in extent, inwhich the stems became hexagonal by compression. The columnar stems,larger than my body, were often spiral; again they were marked withdiamond-shaped figures, or other regular geometrical forms in relief,beautifully exact, drawn as by a master's hand in rich and delicatelyblended colors, on pillars of pure alabaster. Not a few of the stemsshowed deep crimson, blue, or green, together with other rich colorscombined; over which, as delicate as the rarest of lace, would bethrown, in white, an enamel-like intricate tracery, far surpassing inbeauty of execution the most exquisite needle-work I had ever seen.There could be no doubt that I was in a forest of colossal fungi, thespecies of which are more numerous than those of upper earth cryptomaticvegetation. The expanded heads of these great thallogens were as variedas the stems I have described, and more so. Far above our path theyspread like beautiful umbrellas, decorated as if by masters from whomthe great painters of upper earth might humbly learn the art of mixingcolors. Their under surfaces were of many different designs, and were ofas many shapes as it is conceivable could be made of combinations of thecircle and hyperbola. Stately and picturesque, silent and immovable asthe sphinx, they studded the great cavern singly or in groups, remindingme of a grown child's wild imagination of fairy land. I stopped beside agroup that was of unusual conspicuity and gazed in admiration on thehuge and yet graceful, beautiful spectacle. I placed my hand on the stemof one plant, and found it soft and impressible; but instead of beingmoist, cold, and clammy as the repulsive toadstool of upper earth, Idiscovered, to my surprise, that it was pleasantly warm, and soft asvelvet.
"Smell your hand," said my guide.
I did so, and breathed in an aroma like that of fresh strawberries. Myguide observed (I had learned to judge of his emotions by his facialexpressions) my surprised countenance with indifference.
"Try the next one," he said.
This being of a different species, when rubbed by my hand exhaled theodor of the pineapple.
"Extraordinary," I mused.
"Not at all. Should productions of surface earth have a monopoly ofnature's methods, all the flavors, all the perfumes? You may with equalconsistency express astonishment at the odors of the fruits of upperearth if you do so at the fragrance of these vegetables, for they arealso created of odorless elements."
"But toadstools are foul structures of low organization.[3] They areneither animals nor true vegetables, but occupy a station below that ofplants proper," I said.
[3] The fungus Polyporus graveolens was neglected by the guide. This fungus exhales a delicate odor, and is used in Kentucky to perfume a room. Being quite large, it is employed to hold a door open, thus being useful as well as fragrant.--J. U. L.
"You are acquainted with this order of vegetation under the mostunfavorable conditions; out of their native elements these plantsdegenerate and become then abnormal, often evolving into the poisonousearth fungi known to your woods and fields. Here they grow toperfection. This is their chosen habitat. They absorb from a pureatmosphere the combined foods of plants and animals, and during theirexistence meet no scorching sunrise. They flourish in a region ofperfect tranquillity, and without a tremor, without experiencing thechange of a fraction of a degree in temperature, exist for ages. Many ofthese specimens are probably thousands of years old, and are stillgrowing; why should they ever die? They have never been disturbed by abreath of moving air, and, balanced exactly on their succulent,pedestal-like stems, surrounded by an atmosphere of dead nitrogen,vapor, and other gases, with their roots imbedded in carbonates andminerals, they have food at command, nutrition inexhaustible."
"Still I do not see why they grow to such mammoth proportions."
"Plants adapt themselves to surrounding conditions," he remarked. "Theoak tree in its proper latitude is tall and stately; trace it toward theArctic circle, and it becomes knotted, gnarled, rheumatic, and dwindlesto a shrub. The castor plant in the tropics is twenty or thirty feet inheight, in the temperate zone it is an herbaceous plant, farther northit has no existence. Indian corn in Kentucky is luxuriant, tall, andgraceful, and each stalk is supplied with roots to the second and thirdjoint, while in the northland it scarcely reaches to the shoulder of aman, and, in order to escape the early northern frost, arrives atmaturity before the more southern variety begins to tassel. The commonjimson weed (datura stramonium) planted in early spring, in rich soil,grows luxuriantly, covers a broad expanse and bears an abundance offruit; planted in midsummer it blossoms when but a few inches in height,and between two terminal leaves hastens to produce a single capsule onthe apex of the short stem, in order to ripen its seed before the frostappears. These and other familiar examples might be cited concerning thedifference some species of vegetation of your former lands undergo underclimatic conditions less marked than between those that govern thegrowth of fungi here and on surface earth. Such specimens of fungi asgrow in your former home have escaped from these underground regions,and are as much out of place as are the tropical plants transplanted tothe edge of eternal snow. Indeed, more so, for on the earth the ordinaryfungus, as a rule, germinates after sunset, and often dies when the sunrises, while here they may grow in peace eternally. These meanderingcaverns comprise thousands of miles of surface covered by these growthswhich shall yet fulfill a grand purpose in the economy of nature, forthey are destined to feed tramping multitudes when the day appears inwhich the nations of men will desert the surface of the earth and passas a single people through these caverns on their way to the immaculateexistence to be found in the inner sphere."
"I can not disprove your statement," I again repeated; "neither do Iaccept it. However, it still seems to me unnatural to find suchdelicious flavors and delicate odors connected with objects associatedin memory with things insipid, or so disagreeable as toadstools and therank forest fungi which I abhorred on earth."