MISCELLANEOUS 



27 



Death of Thomas Edwards. 

 Thomas Edwards of Rye, Xevv York, 

 for many years a Sustaining" [Member of 

 The Agassiz Association, died on 

 Wednesday, May 5th, at the Greenwich 

 Hospital fohowing" an operation per- 

 formed a httle more than a week pre- 

 viously. Mr. Edwards was born Oc- 

 tober 20th, 1843. He was a farmer, car- 

 penter and veteran of the Civil War. Al- 

 ways a lover of outdoor life he was in 

 the broadest and best sense of the term 

 an ideal member of the AA. While not 

 in any sense a technical scientist, his love 

 of the country and the seashore was 

 heartfelt. His mentality was great, and 

 as a lover of music and the fine arts he 

 excelled. His disposition was quiet. He 

 disliked notoriety, and his reluctance to 

 attract attention always kept him in the 

 background. In his hotel work he was 

 famed for his management of everything 

 that tended to increase the enjoyment of 

 the seashore, but when he had large par- 

 ties to serve he usually kept out of sight, 

 preferring to oversee the affair from 

 Avithin, rather than to mingle whh the 

 visitors. He disliked ostentation of all 

 kiiifls. and InA-ed ? life of inward con- 

 temnlation. appreciation of educational 

 unlift. and of commonnlace nnture with 

 uncommon interest, that made him m-ie 

 of the most valued members of the AA. 



A Camping and Sight-seeing Tour of 

 the West. 



Our readers were interested in Pro- 

 fessor J. Chester Bradley's advertise- 

 ment in the last number of ThK Guide 

 TO Nature, repeated in this, oft'ering to 

 take several boys on a sight-seeing tour 

 through the Canadian Rockies, Yellow- 

 stone Park, Yosemite Valley, and other 

 places. Interesting phases of nature will 

 form an important part of the sight-see- 

 ing. The editor of The Guide to Na- 

 ture has been acquainted with Professor 

 Bradley for many years and knows him 

 to be thoroughly trustworthy. He has 

 had much experience with students, is 

 thoroughly competent to take charge of 

 such a tour. He says : 



'T believe that nothing is so conducive 

 to pleasure in travel, and in life in gen- 

 eral, as an interest in nature, and in the 

 phenomena of the world around us. Such 

 a trip as we are about to undertake is a 

 great object lesson. It is geography and 



geology, as well as history and human 

 activities lived instead of studied from a 

 text-book. 1 shall consider myself to 

 blame if any Iwy of our party fails to tind 

 such an interest in all that we see, 

 whether desert or mountains, whether 

 birds or butterflies, whether flowers 01 

 trees, and in the 'how' and 'why' of them 

 all" 



We urge every reader of this maga- 

 zine to send to Professor Bradley, Cor- 

 nell L'niversity, Ithaca, New York, for 

 further particulars. 



Spring Mushrooms. 



Schenectady, N. Y. 

 To the Editor : 



During May and June, in the latitude 

 of New York and Boston, there is found 

 in the woods, especially after warm rains, 

 an edible fungus popularly knowai as the 

 morel or spring mushroom. 



The botanical names for the three prin- 

 cipal species are the Morchella deliciosa, 

 M. esciilenta and M. conica. These close- 

 ly resemble one another in that the hol- 

 low top is a lig"ht gray or buff yellow, 

 pitted so as to look somewhat like a 

 sponge, and supported on a white or 

 whitish hollow stem. Their height 

 usually varies from three inches to six 

 inches and the diameter of top from 

 three-quarters of an inch to one and one- 

 half inches. 



Owing to their peculiar appearance, 

 and the fact that they do not in any way 

 resemble the more common mushrooms 

 with an umbrella-shaped cap on top, it 

 is rather difficult to describe them in 

 words ; and as a result of their peculiar 

 and distinctive characteristics, an inex- 

 perienced person seeing one for the first 

 time would probably not consider it a 

 mushroom. However, an examination 

 of one or the study of a good picture, 

 such as is shown in Bulletin No. 85 of 

 the V. S. Department of Agriculture, 

 will serve to familiarize any person with 

 this interesting plant. 



Owing to the ease with which thev are 

 identified, and the fact that all species of 

 this genus are said to be edible, various 

 authors highly recommend them for 

 amateur mushroom hunters to begin 

 with. Thev are also credited as being 

 one of the finest of our mushrooms. 

 B. D. Miller. 



Here is a good suggestion. Will our 

 nature photographers please obtain some 

 good photographs of this peculiar mush- 

 room ? 



