CHAPTER I. 



WHY STUDY MUSHROOMS. Some years ago, while in charge of the 

 schools of Salem, Ohio, we had worked up quite a general interest in the study 

 of botany. It was my practice to go out every day after flowers, especially the 

 rarer ones, of which there were many in this county, and bring in specimens for 

 the classes. There was in the city a wire nail mill, running day and night, whose 

 proprietors brought over, from time to time, large numbers of Bohemians as 

 workers in the mill. Very frequently, when driving to the country early in the 

 morning, I found the boys and girls of these Bohemian families searching the 

 woods, fields and pastures at some distance from town, although they had not 

 been in this country more than a week or two and could not speak a word of 

 English. I soon found that they were gathering mushrooms of various kinds 

 and taking them home for food material. They could not tell me how they knew 

 them, but I quickly learned that they knew them from their general character- 

 istics, in fact, they knew them as we know people and flowers. 



I resolved to know something of the subject myself. I had no literature 

 on mycology, and, at that time, there seemed to be little obtainable. About that 

 time there appeared in Harper's Monthly an article by W. Hamilton Gibson 

 upon Edible Toadstools and Mushrooms an article which I thoroughly de- 

 voured, soon after purchasing his book upon the subject. 



Salem, Ohio, was a very fertile locality for mushrooms and it was not long 

 till I was surprised at the number that I really knew. I remembered that where 

 there is a will there is a way. 



In 1897 I moved to Bowling Green, Ohio; there I found many species which 

 I had found about Salem, Ohio, but the extremely rich soil, heavy timber and 

 numerous old lake beaches seemed to furnish a larger variety, so that I added 

 many more to my list. After remaining three years in Bowling Green, making 

 delightful acquaintance with the good people of that city as well as with the 

 flowers and mushrooms of Wood county, Providence placed me in Sidney, Ohio, 

 where I found many new species of fungi and renewed my acquaintance with 

 many of those formerly met. 



Since coming to Chillicothe I have tried to have the plants photographed as 

 I have found them, but having to depend upon a photographer I could not always 

 do this. I have not found in this vicinity many that I have found elsewhere in 

 the state, although I have found many new things here, a fact which I attribute 

 to the hilly nature of the county. For prints of many varieties of fungi obtained 

 before coming here, I am indebted to my friends. I should advise any one in- 

 tending to make a study of this subject to have all specimens photographed as 

 soon as they are identified, thus fixing thes species for future reference. 



It seems to me that every school teacher should know something of mycology. 



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