PUFF-BALLS AND TOADSTOOLS. 163 



yellowish cap, well covered with white warty 

 particles, resembling "fly-blows"; this is not 

 considered fatally poisonous, and in some coun- 

 tries it is freely eaten, after a treatment with 

 salt. The natives of Siberia and Kamschatka 

 manage to get drunk on this species, and as all 

 other intoxicants are very scarce, and they pre- 

 fer very often to be drunk rather than sober, 

 they consequently hold this species in great 

 esteem. I have often noticed that our cattle 

 in the autumn, when there is a good crop of 

 toadstools in the woods, and they get a taste 

 of them, become almost crazed for more, and if 

 allowed to range at large will make a bee-line 

 for the place where they grow. They seem to 

 prefer a very large white species, and I never 

 heard of any bad results to them or to those 

 who drank their milk. Our red squirrels eat 

 freely of a small red mushroom of the Agaric 

 family. One may often see them scampering 

 away with a lunch in their teeth. 



The bracket fungus, that grows out from the 

 sides of trees and logs and stumps, is often more 

 than a foot across. It is arranged on a different 

 plan from toadstools : there are no gills, but on 

 the under side there are innumerable holes run- 

 ning up through the latest annual growth ; they 

 are as smooth as rifle barrels. The spores are 



