CHAPTER MI 

 ECOLOGY OF FUNGI 



As previously stated in this l)()ok, probably more than once, the 

 object is not merely to enable the student to ascertain the names of 

 certain toadstools, but, having once learned the names purely as a 

 matter of convenience, in enabling other persons to connect what- 

 ever observations you may make with a specific fungus ; the point 

 is to endeavour to make observations of some kind, which, if 

 accurately done, will be certain to add to our information respecting 

 the why and wherefore of these interesting organisms. At this 

 point the question naturally arises. What shall I do ? or, What can I 

 do ? in this direction. Much depends on temperament, and on 

 interpreting failures as simply indications that the line of work 

 decided upon must be doggedly persevered in until light begins to 

 dawn, after which progress is more rapid, and results commence to 

 manifest themselves. 



Some of the well-known points to be elucidated are as follows. 

 Everyone who has studied fungi in the field for any length of time, 

 knows that during certain seasons fungi belonging to one particular 

 group are predominant ; whereas, in the same locality during other 

 seasons, fungi of some other group are present in great abundance, 

 and the members of the section that were in quantity the previous 

 season are scarce, or practically absent. For instance, white-spored 

 agarics may abound in one particular locality during one season, 

 almost to the entire exclusion of brown or purple-spored kinds, 

 whereas the following season the opposite may hold good for 

 exactly the same district. New if we attempt to sift the reason by 

 the process of elimination, we are speedily forced to the conclusion 

 that weather, in the broader sense, is not the cause, because in 

 different districts very different results are met with. That is, 

 in one district white-spored species will predominate, whereas in an 

 adjoining district brown-spored forms are in the ascendency, at 

 the same time and under practically similar climatic conditions. 

 On the other hand, seasonal differences certainly do account, almost 

 entirely, for the presence or absence of some groups of agarics. 

 Certain pink-spored open pasture species belonging to Lcptonia, 

 Nolanea, etc., are never met with in abundance except following a 



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