PREFACE 



This book is designed to assist persons who are interested 

 in mushrooms in identifying some of the species of gilled 

 fungi found growing in fields, woods and dooryards. 

 It aims to supply the need for a means of ascertaining the 

 names of common kinds that are new to the collector. The 

 name of a fungus is not the vital thing but it is the first 

 thing to be learned if one would wish to talk about it with 

 other persons and read about it. 



The method of the key is new, I believe, and its prepara- 

 tion has occupied some of an amateur mycologist's spare 

 time during the past ten years or more. The reader is ad- 

 vised to read the introduction to the key before using it. 



One portion of the book comprises descriptions of the 

 mushrooms and they are arranged and numbered alpha- 

 betically according to their botanical names. The numbers 

 agree with those of the illustrations of species. The one 

 hundred and twenty-eight species keyed, described and illus- 

 trated include nearly all of the agarics called common in 

 the writings of the late Professor Charles H. Peck, State 

 Botanist of New York. 



The directions for cooking mushrooms have been derived 

 from the writings of many authorities and from my own 

 experience during the past eighteen years. 



In an article on the poisonous properties of fungi by William 

 W. Ford and Ernest D. Clark of Johns Hopkins University 

 and published in Mycologia, the following warning appears: 

 "Unfortunately there are mushroom 'handbooks' in this 

 country which are unfailing sources of misinformation and 



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