•CHAPTER III. 



• On the DlSCRIillNATIOX OF FUXGI. 



The first lesson it is necessary to impress upon the student of 

 Mycology is to adyocate the importance of exercising tlie faculty 

 of Discrimination. It is peculiarly needful to enforce this upon 

 English people, because their extraordinary disdain of Fungi makes 

 them almost unable, at first, to acknowledge the line of demar- 

 cation between one species and another. The predisposition to 

 regard Fungi as one collective whole is so strong that it is by 

 no means easy to eradicate it. And yet the first principles of 

 Mycology cannot be understood until this is done. It is needful 

 to supplant it with a comprehension that Fungi consist of a vast 

 number^ of individual and independent species. Little groups of 

 these individuals are more or less linked together ; but still each 

 species preserves independence. There is some characteristic 

 feature or property which identifies and individualizes each species, 

 separating it from its nearest congener. 



It seems absurd to insist upon this point, which is such an 

 obvious truism. But the fact is there are many English people 

 to whose appreciation Fungi appear only in the mass. The idea of 

 Fungus species is to them hardly a reality. Their conception is 

 only that of variation among members of one common stock. 

 They find it difficult to understand the diversity existing among 

 Fungi, and still more difficult to comprehend the immutability 

 of species from parent to offspring, and the radical, insuperable, 

 and everlasting differences between one species and another. To 

 enable such minds to grasp the full meaning of the word Discrimi- 

 nation is the object of this chapter. 



Those who enter upon the study of Fungi purely as a branch of 

 Botany will scarcely require to be urged to adopt discriminating 

 views, for the mode of their investigations necessitates differen- 

 tiation. It is to persons wishing to acquire some slight and 

 superficial knowledge of Fungi — what may be termed a popular 



