ous Morel

Beefsteak mushrooms

Inky coprinus]

All the Puffballs are good before they begin to puff, that is as long as
their flesh is white and firm.

All the _colored_ coral toadstools are good, but the _White Clavaria_ is
said to be rather sickening.

All of the Morels are safe and delicious.

So also is Inky Coprinus, usually found on manure piles. The Beefsteak
Mushroom grows on stumps--chiefly chestnut. It looks like raw meat and
bleeds when cut. It is quite good eating.

So far as known no black-spored toadstool is unwholesome.

The common Mushroom is distinguished by its general shape, its pink or
brown gills, its white flesh, brown spores, and solid stem.

SNAKES GOOD AND BAD

Snakes are to the animal world what toadstools are to the vegetable
world--wonderful things, beautiful things, but fearsome things, because
some of them are deadly poison.

Taking Mr. Raymond L. Ditmars[4] as our authority, we learn that out of
one hundred and eleven species of snakes found in the United States,
seventeen are poisonous. They are found in every State, but are most
abundant in the Southwest.

These may be divided into Coral Snakes, Moccasins, and Rattlers.

The coral snakes are found in the Southern States. They are very much
like harmless snakes in shape, but are easily distinguished by their
remarkable colors, "broad alternating rings of red and black, the latter
bordered with very narrow rings of yellow."

The Rattlesnakes are readily told at once by the rattle.

But the Moccasins are not so easy. There are two kinds: the Water
Moccasin, or Cotton-mouth, found in South Carolina, Georgia, Florida,
Alabama, and Louisiana, and the Copperhead, which is the Highland, or
Northern Moccasin or Pilot Snake, found from Massachusetts to Florida
and west to Illinois and Texas.

[Illustration: Types of Poisonous Snakes

Coral Snake
Copperhead
Moccasin
Pigmy Rattler
Timber Rattler
Diamond-back Rattler]

Here are distinguishing marks: The Moccasins, as well as the Rattlers,
have on each side of the head, between the eye and nostril, a deep pit.

The pupil of the eye is an upright line, as in a cat; the harmless
snakes have a round pupil.

The Moccasins have a single row of plates under the tail, while the
harmless snakes have a double row.

The Water Moccasin is dull olive with wide black transverse bands.

The Copperhead is dull hazel brown,