126 THE BOOK OF NATURE STUDY 



growing up as white rounded bodies. When a " button " gets 

 fairly large it swells up and becomes somewhat pear-shaped, 

 then it splits right round, and the upper part is carried up to 

 form the cap, the lower part forming the stalk. The under side 

 of the cap shows the radiating gills thin plates which are at 

 first white, but later turn pink and finally purple-brown. Where 

 the cap has split away from the stalk you will notice a ring, or 

 collar-like fringe, round the stalk. 



While the " spawn " is growing you should go out and find 

 various kinds of mushrooms and toadstools. The commonest 

 kinds of toadstools have gills like those of the mushroom itself. 

 In many cases you will find the same sort of toadstool coming up 

 again and again in successive crops on the same patch of soil, 

 for the buried part of the toadstool lasts year after year. In 

 some cases the toadstools are arranged in circles, the so-called 

 " fairy-rings/ 1 which keep on widening as the buried part uses 

 up the food in the soil and spreads out in search of more. 



The spores, which are produced by the gills, are very small 

 and light, so that they are easily blown away by the wind as 

 they fall from the cap. The use of the stalk is, of course, to 

 hold the cap up, so that the spores may have a good chance of 

 catching the wind. If you cut across the top of the stalk, just 

 below the cap, and lay the cap, gills downward, on a sheet of 

 white paper, the spores will of course fall out in their usual way 

 and collect in heaps, forming lines each of which corresponds 

 to the space between two adjoining gills. If the paper has been 

 moistened with weak gum a little gum mixed with water 

 the " spore-print " thus obtained can be kept as a permanent 

 specimen. You should make spore-prints of all the toadstools 

 you come across. 



The Common Mushroom is not, as a rule, difficult to dis- 

 tinguish from other fungi, but there are a few unwholesome 

 fungi which might possibly be mistaken for it. We have not 

 space enough to describe all the edible fungi, or to give complete 

 rules enabling one to decide whether or not a fungus is good to 

 eat. The common mushroom grows in open fields, from June 

 to the end of September ; its stalk is white, short, and solid ; 

 its cap is dry and cottony on the upper surface ; its gills are 



