•CHAPTER I. 



- General Introduction. 



The present work is a treatise upon Fungi ; but it does not extend 

 to the whole survey of this department of Botany. It is limited 

 to an examination of what, for want of a better term, we must be 

 satisfied to call " the larger Fungi." It does not touch upon the 

 minuter tribes — the moulds, mildews, blights, and multitudinous 

 small parasites, most of which can only be studied with the aid of 

 a microscope ^ ; it is confined to forms of appreciable size. The 

 student will find here the means of attaining a full botanical 

 knowledge of the orders and genera into which the larger Fungi 

 have been classified. The amateur naturalist, anxious to acquaint 

 himself with certain notable species, will here be guided in doing 

 so. But the main object of the work has been to collect informa- 

 tion relating to such Fungi as have an economic value, either as 

 esculents or poisons. The scope of the treatise is confined to Great 

 Bi'itain. 



' The study of Fungi, particularly from an economic point of 

 view, has been greatly neglected in this country. There exists 

 a mighty prejudice among Englishmen directed against these 

 plants, which seems to forbid the intelligent public from taking 

 any interest in them, or endeavouring to acquire any knowledge 

 conceniing them. It is a national trait, for no other nation evinces 

 it. On the contrary, the various peoples of the continent of Eui-ope ' 

 bestow a great deal of attention on Fungi, regarding them in quite 1 

 a different light from that customary among us. 



Notwithstanding pi^ejudice, hoAvever, advancing knowledge has 

 brought with it some increase of favour as extended to Fungi. A 

 desire for information is more widely expressed, and the old dis- 

 like to plants of this class seems to be slowly giving way. The 

 few English mycologists are increasing in numbers, and more 

 attention is popularly directed to the subject. During one year, 



' 1 Except in the Plates illustrating the Genera. 



1 B 



