FUNGI AND BEECH 241
soil, would be a very long one. The total of fungi would
greatly outnumber all the green plants of the beechwood
and, what is more, would take a lifetime to compile. It is
evident from numbers alone that fungi play a great part
in the ecology of a beechwood. And let me make this final
point—fungi are busy all the time. We do most of our
collecting in the early autumn when the large toadstools are
at their best, but let us not forget that it is only the fruit-
bodies that we gather. The mycelia of the fungi are active
the year through, hidden away in the nutrient substratum
and continually destroying all kinds of vegetable matter.