IV PREFACE 



The attempt has also been made in the following pages to meet 

 the popular interest in fungi as an article of food, by treating the 

 fleshy forms with a greater degree of fulness than others, and one 

 should be able from this treatment to discriminate the ordinary 

 edible, suspicious, and poisonous species, and recognize with suf- 

 ficient certainty what forms are safe to test for food. Those whose 

 interest centers in edible species alone, will find the groups that 

 interest them on pages 63-66, 97-129, and 136-145. It is sug- 

 gested that, in the field of exploration for edible species, it is safest 

 to make haste slowdy, and the novice is hereby warned of the 

 danger of eating any species which is not thoroughly known. 



In the general arrangement of the system the writer has largely 

 followed the treatment in Die natiirlichen Pflanzeiifaviilieii, tho 

 deviations from the sequence of groups there adopted will fre- 

 quently appear, and group names — orders and families — are made 

 rigidly to conform to the system proposed at Berlin, but indiffer- 

 ently followed in their recent publications. 



The writer is deeply indebted to his friend and former col- 

 league, Professor F. S. Earle, for his kindness in reading those 

 parts of the proof relating especially to parasitic species, and for 

 making many valuable suggestions ; and to his assistant. Dr. 

 Marshall A. Howe, for much kindly assistance and many useful 

 suggestions. 



The colored plate which introduces the book was painted from 

 nature by a former student, ]\Iiss Julia E. Clearwaters, and has 

 been faithfully reproduced in six colors by the Heliotype Printing 

 Company of Boston. The nine plates which conclude the work 

 were drawn under the writer's direction by Miss IM. E. Baker; 

 these are from various sources which are duly credited in the ex- 

 planations of figures ; a few were drawn direct from nature. 



Columbia University, 

 20 July, 1899. 



