Photographing Trees, Fungi, etc. 277 



In photographing the fungi we come to the 

 easiest branch of all nature work, and, for that 

 very reason, the most satisfactory so far as results 

 are concerned ; for, if we do not get a good nega- 

 tive with every exposure, then it is our own fault. 



There is a great diversity of form in the Fungi 

 family, from the mould on our bread and cheese 

 to the large " toadstools," some of them over a foot 

 in breadth. In this family, however, are many 

 members whose forms, markings, and coloring are 

 exceedingly striking and beautiful, and exquisite 

 photographs can be made of them with a little care. 



The Clavarias, or coral fungi, make most excel- 

 lent subjects from a point of beauty, as do also 

 many of the genus Pleurotus, and there are great 

 numbers of others, notably the Amanitas, whose 

 beauty must not, nor can it be, overlooked. The 

 hunt for the different species is most enjoyable, 

 taking one, as it does, to those parts of the woods 

 that would never be visited by him otherwise, for 

 many of them grow in grewsome places. From 

 this fact the " toadstools," as the larger growths 

 are commonly called, have long been considered 

 as a kind of uncanny growth, all of them poison- 

 ous except the species ordinarily used as an article 

 of food and which, by most people, is the only one 

 given the name of " mushroom." In point of fact this 

 distinction between the " mushrooms " and " toad- 

 Stools " has no scientific basis. They are all one 



