STUDY-INSPIRING MUSHROOMS. 231 



• STUDY-INSPIRING MUSHROOMS. 



•A similar incident raised up the two greatest mycologists of past 

 and present times. Christian Henry Persoon, styled " The Creator 

 of Mycology," was led to take an interest in fungi at an early age 

 through accidentally finding a fine specimen of the Orange Elfcup, 

 Peziza aurantia. Its beauty and singularity induced him to take 

 up the study of fungi from that moment, and he afterwards intro- 

 duced a system of classification and nomenclature. 



■ Ellas Fries, the great Swedish mycologist, was similarly drawn 

 to the study, when a boy, by finding a superb example of one of 

 the strangest and most beautiful of fungi. The Coralline Hydnum, 

 H. coralloides. The system formed by him has superseded that of 

 Persoon (except to French mycologists, who still cling to their 

 own countryman's measure of the science) ; and he has greatly 

 advanced mycological knowledge. 



• The author of this work ventures to add his own humble expe- 

 rience to these illustrious examples. In boyhood, w^hile gathering 

 Pratelles in the meadows, he was struck by their varieties and 

 by the conflicting information he "was alone able to obtain respect- 

 ing the relative excellence, or the contrary, imputed to them 

 by those whom he questioned. Interest being thus aroused, he 

 began to study fungi where and how he could ; the result being, 

 so far, the present work. 



