HOW NATURE STUDY SHOULD BE TAUGHT 143 



confidential and candid in exposing the mycolo- 

 gist's real motif. 



" And the collecting of mushrooms is, after all, 

 their real value. Our stomachs are too much with 

 us. It is well enough to beguile ourselves with 

 large talk of rare flavors, high per cents of pro- 

 teids, and small butcher's bills ; but it is mostly 

 talk. It gives a practical, businesslike complexion 

 to our interest and excursions ; it backs up our ac- 

 cusing consciences at the silly waste of time, with 

 a show of thrift and economy ; but here mushroom 

 economy ends. There is about as much in it as 

 there is of cheese in the moon. No doubt tons 

 and tons of this vegetable meat goto waste every 

 day in the woods and fields, just as the mycologists 

 say ; nevertheless, according to my experience, it is 

 safer and cheaper to board at a first-class hotel, 

 than in the wilderness upon this manna, bounty of 

 the sky though it be. 



" It is the hunt for mushrooms, the introduction 

 through their door into a new and wondrous room 

 of the out-of-doors, that makes mycology worthy 

 and moral. The genuine lover of the out-of-doors, 

 having filled his basket with fungi, always forces 

 his day's gleanings upon the least resisting mem- 

 ber of the party before he reaches home, while 



