XXXI. Mushrooms and Other Spore Plants 



Mushrooms and toadstools are the fruiting or spore-pro- 

 ducing parts of fungi. The main body of the fungus is the 

 leaf-mold or tree-trunk, with only the mushroom visible above 

 the surface. The term mushroom is used in a popular sense 

 to designate edible species, toadstool to designate poisonous 

 or inedible species. There is no sure way of distinguishing 

 between these two artificial groups except to know the species. 

 Many of the popular " rules " are sadly fallible. The food 

 value of mushrooms is not great, so that unless one is sure of 

 the species, they are not worth the risk. Cultivated and 

 canned mushrooms are safe, for the species are known. 

 Mushrooms produce vast quantities of spores, and are widely 

 distributed in moist places. They are all strictly parasitic 

 and dependent upon elaborated food prepared by other plants. 



The spore-plants, algae, fungi, lichens, mosses, liverworts, 

 ferns, ground-pines, scouring rushes, form a vast assem- 

 blage, widely differing in structure and appearance but alike 

 in their mode of reproduction by spores and never by seeds. 

 Many are parasitic; many are independent. Many of them are 

 of enormous importance to human welfare, and cannot be over- 

 looked in any adequate system of education. For example, 

 the disease-producing bacteria; the plant-disease-producing 

 fungi; the great seaweed industry; the primitive fern-allies that 

 formed part of the gigantic Coal Forests, and thus helped to 

 give to us our present Age of Industrialism. Many of these 

 spore plants are attractive and beautiful; for example, every 

 year more ferns are planted at Chautauqua. The abundant 

 moss is a charming feature of our moist woodland. 



Plant diseases are very abundant, both in cultivated places, 

 and in Nature. These diseases occur in all parts of the plant 

 body, both internally and externally. The diseases are pro- 



94 



