Amanitas have similar characteristics. 

 As a rule, it is well to collect Mush- 

 rooms for eating by the proxy of some 

 botanist who is familiar with the vari- 

 ous forms, for if by chance the poison 

 Amanita, or death cup, enters into the 

 feast, fatal results are almost sure to 

 ensue. 

 x The poisonous principle is known as 

 Vphallm. It is a tox-albumin similar to 

 ^V" ~th€^)Gf3on^plrhe rattlesnake and is said 

 to be the cause of death in cholera and 

 diphtheria. It liberates the serum of the 

 blood by dissolving" the blood corpuscles, 

 thus removing all vitality from the sys- 

 tem. 



It is not to be wondered at that the 

 Mushroom has been an object of interest 

 and admiration for many centuries. The 

 brilliant reds, greens and violets that 

 adorn the trees, the pastures, or the dark, 

 damp spots in the woods ; the fanciful 

 and bizarre shapes and the value attached 

 to many forms as an article of food, have 

 caused the plants to be sought after and 

 widely studied. In the microscopic 

 forms no other members of the vegetable 

 kingdom play so great a part for good 

 or evil as do the fungi. In fact, they are 

 intimately connected with the welfare of 

 _ the human race. As ferments in yeast, 

 wines and beer they are indispensable^ 

 but when operating as mildews, rust and 

 smuts on vegetation or as dry rot in lum- 

 ber, their services could cheerfully be dis- 

 pensed with. . 



Our illustration shows an edible form 

 of Mushroom whose beautiful colors con- 

 tradict a prevailing idea that the highly 

 colored forms are poisonous. The plant 

 is known as the greenish Russula (Rus- 

 sula virescens). It can hardly be called 

 green; greenish-gray better describes it. 

 The top is dry and has upon it small 

 warts or patches of the characteristic 

 color. It is at first rounded, then flat, 

 and later may become centrally de- 

 pressed. It is usually thin and smooth 

 at the edge, marked there with short lines 

 following the direction of the gills. Old 



ipecimens will occasionally split at inter 

 /als along" the edge. 



The gills are white 



s 



va.o 



or nearly so, and are very fragile, being 

 shattered by a slight blow. They are nar- 

 row near the stem, hardly reaching it. 

 The flesh is firm and of a creamy white, 

 the spores being white. The stem is 

 thick, solid and rather short. 



It is not surprising that forms exhibit- 

 ing such a variety of color and form and 

 mystery of development should have be- 

 come a subject for myth and story. It 

 was thought that the red forms growing 

 on the trees were Dryad's tongues put 

 forth to obtain moisture. The puff balls 

 were called Devil's snuff boxes, and the 

 toadstools received their name from the 

 fact that toads were supposed to sit on 

 them. Another form of this name is 

 pixy stool. Pixy is the feminine or 

 diminutive of Puck, the king of the 

 fairies. In Friesland Puck is known as 

 Pogge, and in Ireland as Pook, both 

 meaning toad. Hence the toadstool 

 comes honestly by its name from the 

 pixy or Puck stool. 



The puff ball is also known as the 

 Puck or Pouk ball, and as Puck was con- 

 sidered to be a devil, the devil's snuff box 

 came as a matter of course. 



Mushrooms are also responsible for the 

 fairy rings so often noticed in pastures. 

 They were thought to be formed by the 

 dancing feet of the Oreades, but science 

 conies along and replaces the fancy by 

 cold facts. 



A Mushroom soon exhausts from the 

 soil the food necessary for its growth. 

 Hence its spores must fall beyond this 

 depleted area in o?der to germinate, and 

 by so doing a -ring of the toadstools is 

 formed. When they decay the ground 

 becomes fertilized, causing the grass to 

 spring up along the line of the ring with 

 greater luxuriance than elsewhere. But 

 after all, if the path was not made by 

 fairy feet, the presence of the toadstools 

 proves that Puck has been there, and 

 whether toad or devil, he has helped to 

 make the grass grow. 



Charles S. Raddin. 



89 



