1 68 THE PLANT WORLD. 



whose limits are nearly i6o degrees of longitude apart. It is an in- 

 teresting fact that at both Jaffa and Jericho the inhabitants have used 

 this great Opuntia for hedges, as did the missionaries of Mexico and 

 California. 



It is doubtless because of the thrifty spontaneity with which this 

 Opuntia grows among the native plants of Southern Europe and the 

 Orient, and the long time that has elapsed since its introduction there, 

 that the popular belief that it is also native there is so general. This 

 popular belief has found expression in various ways. For example, 

 there have been published pictures of considerable artistic merit, rep- 

 resenting biblical scenes and personages, in which the great Opuntia 

 was introduced. 



A friend of mine, also, who accompanied me on my journey to 

 Palestine, and who believes that the leading structural feature of all 

 Christ's parables and sayings was similitude, and not hyperbole, 

 reached the conclusion that the thistle referred to in the saying, " Do 

 men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles ? " was really the 

 Opuntia that grows now side by side with a thorny Crataegus there. 

 The fruit of the Crataegus resembles grapes in size and shape, but 

 they are not grapes; men do not gather grapes of thorns. The fruit 

 of the Opuntia is fig-like, but they are not true figs; men do not 

 gather figs of thistles. This pretty theory makes the similitude of 

 the saying complete, but unfortunately Christ's audiences knew noth- 

 ing of Opuntia Tuna. 



Smithsonian Institution. 



MUSHROOMS VERSUS TOADSTOOLS. 



"The question which every one asks first is: How can you tell a 

 mushroom from a toadstool ? This is one of the questions which no 

 one can answer. You cannot tell a mushroom from a toadstool be- 

 cause mushrooms are toadstools. The reason why the question is so 

 frequently asked is because the belief is well-nigh universal in this 

 country that the fleshy, umbrella-shaped fungi are divided into two 

 classes — mushrooms which are edible, and toadstools which are poi- 

 sonous. This assumed difference does not in fact exist. All the 

 fleshy, umbrella-shaped fungi are toadstools, and to a small number 

 of the best known edible forms the name mushroom is applied popu- 

 larly and in commerce ; but not a small number of the other toadstools 

 are edible, and a great many of them, probably the most of them, are 

 not poisonous." — Dr. W. G. Farloz^' in the Yearbook of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture for iSgj. 



