ix

Chapter I. Why Study Mushrooms? 1

Mushrooms and Toadstools 3

What Any One May Eat 4

How to Preserve Mushrooms 5

Terms Used 5

What Is a Fungus or a Mushroom? 10

Six Groups of Mushrooms 12

Group I--Hymenomycetes 13

Family I--Agaricaceae 13

Spore Prints 14

Analytical Key 16

Chapter II. The White-Spored Agarics 20

Chapter III. The Rosy-Spored Agarics 236

Chapter IV. The Rusty-Spored Agarics 257

Chapter V. The Purple-Brown-Spored Agarics 307

Chapter VI. The Black-Spored Agarics 331

Chapter VII. Polyporaceae. Tube-Bearing Fungi 350

Chapter VIII. Fungi With Teeth 432

Chapter IX. Thelephoraceae 450

Chapter X. Clavariaceae--Coral Fungi 459

Chapter XI. Tremellini 477

Chapter XII. Ascomycetes--Spore-Sac Fungi 485

Chapter XIII. Nidulariaceae--Bird's Nest Fungi 517

Chapter XIV. Group Gastromycetes 522

Chapter XV. Lycoperdaceae--Puff-Balls 531

Chapter XVI. Sphaeriaceae 573

Chapter XVII. Myxomycetes 577

Chapter XVIII. Recipes for Cooking Mushrooms 582

Chapter XIX. How to Grow Mushrooms 586

Glossary 595

A Brief History of Mycologists 598

CHAPTER I.

=WHY STUDY MUSHROOMS.= Some years ago, while in charge of the schools of
Salem, Ohio, we had worked up quite a general interest in the study of
botany. It was my practice to go out every day after flowers, especially
the rarer ones, of which there were many in this county, and bring in
specimens for the classes. There was in the city a wire nail mill,
running day and night, whose proprietors brought over, from time to
time, large numbers of Bohemians as workers in the mill. Very
frequently,