MUSHROOMS 



We are now going to read about mushrooms, or 

 toadstools. Perhaps you will like them the best of any- 

 thing in this book. It seems almost strange to call 

 them plants — the}^ have no separate root, stem, or leaf. 

 They are not green, nor are they the shape of other 

 plants. Such plants are called fungi. People who have 

 studied them, however, find that fungi grow somewhat 

 as other plants do, and that they bear spores from which 

 we get new plants. 



Like the ferns and mosses, mushrooms are found 

 ever}^vhere. In the woods, you maA^ see bright-red, 

 orange, or yellow toadstools peering out from among 

 the dead leaves at your feet. Tall gray, brown, or white 

 ones are seen here and there growing around the roots 

 of trees and stumps. Dense clusters of them grow out 

 like brackets on the trunks of standing trees. Others 

 may be seen on the fallen logs which lie across the path. 

 Some looking like branches of dainty coral light up the 

 wood with their pink or golden coloi'ing. 



In the cattle pastures and along the roadside they 

 are the companions of the ferns, the mosses, and the 

 flowering plants. On the lawn we find them springing 



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