Bracket Fungus
Perhaps you have thought the bracket-like shelves you have seen on some tree, pretty.
You did not know, then, that some spores of the bracket fungi had fastened into a wound in the bark, and had sent long threads down into the living part of the tree.
The poor tree cannot help itself, and after a while it will die of starvation because the bracket fungi have used up all its food material.
So do be careful never to injure the bark of a tree; for wherever it is torn, it leaves an open wound—just as when you scratch your finger or your arm.
There are other fungi which you’ve seen oftener than toad stools. They are—