248 HANDBOOK OF NATURE STUDY 



52. Fungi. 



MATERIAL: Different kinds of mushrooms, or toadstools; puff- 

 balls ; some hard pore fungi growing on old stumps. Also show some 

 of the thread-like or felt-like growth, which may be found in or on the 

 ground or in dead wood, where these fungi grow. See Farmers' 

 Bulletin No. 53, How to Grow Mushrooms. 



All of you, children, have found mushrooms; and some 

 have told me that you could find many more after a rain in 

 the fall. Have you ever tried to find the roots and seeds 

 when you found large specimens, in places where you saw 



FIG. 49. A COMMON MUSHBLOM. 

 About one-half natural size. 



none the day before ? Where did they come from ? How 

 did they grow ? 



Non-flowering plants which have no green tissue are catted 

 fungi. People commonly call the large edible fungi mush- 

 rooms, while they call the poisonous kinds toadstools. This 

 is, however, not a good classification ; and it would be better 

 to speak of edible and poisonous mushrooms. 



What a rich mushroom flora we found on our trip to the 

 damp woods. Some had heads larger than big sandwiches, 

 while others were tiny creatures growing on dead leaves, 

 and their heads were scarcely as large as one half of a pea. 



