MUSHROOMS OR AGARICS. 325 



" Winds, water, and animals, are also instrumental in dis- 

 seminating plants. Many seeds, with winged and feathery 

 appendages, are easily wafted about; others are carried by 

 rivers and streams, and some can be transported by the ocean 

 currents to a great distance, with their generating powers un- 

 impaired." 



MUSHROOMS OR AGARICS ( Order FUNGI). 



Every year principally in autumn we are startled by hear- 

 ing or reading of cases of poisoning by mushrooms. Erudite 

 connoisseurs, however, who have profited by Dr Badham's 

 book on " Esculent Fungi," do not suffer themselves to be in- 

 timidated by these sad narratives, though, unfortunately, they 

 are frequently too well founded ; because they know how to 

 distinguish the good from the ill, the true from the false, the 

 edible from the poisonous mushroom. But this security ought 

 not to embolden the inexperienced amateur in risking his life 

 for the sake of a delicacy. It is true, nevertheless, that we 

 frequently see men's lives exposed for something less. 



" Look, what a splendid mushroom I have discovered ! " a 



