CHAPTER IV 



FUNGI AND LICHENS 



THE Fungi form a most interesting group of plants, and 

 one wonders that the average amateur botanist does 

 not give them more attention. Their number is legion. 

 Over 40,000 species have been distinguished, and new 

 species are being discovered. The botanist who would 

 have an intimate acquaintance with all the known 

 species would need to live to a patriarchal age. The 

 activities of the Fungi are so remarkable, and their 

 growth is often so rapid, their appearance is frequently 

 so sudden and unexpected, that we need not wonder 

 that our unscientific and superstitious forebears associ- 

 ated them with the " wee folk." There is, even to the 

 well-trained mind, something uncanny about them. 



The fairies no longer exist, because we do not believe 

 in them. The cold light of science has dispelled the 

 picturesque superstition. Yet I could conduct the 

 reader to folk in the remote Highlands who still men- 

 tion the "wee folk" with "'bated breath." They 

 would readily credit the story of the two Tavistock maids 

 who benefited by the kindness of the fairies, but of whom 

 one happened to offend the little people. The decree 

 of the offended ones was that the maid was to be lame 

 for seven years, after which she was to be cured by a 

 herb with a name so long and cumbrous that she could 



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