FIEL1 AND FOREST. 59 



at our command, and the mere turning of a thumb-screw will reveal a 

 new world to our vision. 



If by any curious chance we should become fatigued with a story 

 which has become old to us, we can vary our amusement by exhibiting 

 our treasures to others. Surely in this matter of teaching, it is more 

 blessed to give than to receive. It is worth many days of arduous 

 effort to note the delight with which a beginner views some object 

 which we have brought within his ken. If, now, we can tell something 

 of its structure and purport, ahno.t unconsciously we find ourselves 

 growing enthusiastic, or may be eloquent. The momentary ennui has 

 yielded before the impulse of effort. We are rescued from self-tor- 

 menting thought and are actually doing good. 



One of the pleasantest features of our winter evening work is the 

 memory which each plant recalls of some wild or pleasant spot where 

 it was collected. It may have been a crag of the White Mountains 

 where we found it, a dense tangle in the Maine woods, or a sea-side 

 beach made musical by the billows. There are a great many facts of 

 auto-biography laid away in a herbarium — -but the author alone has 

 the key to these. Sometimes we will laugh outright when some spec- 

 imen comes in view; it was gathered mayb^ under the most comical 

 circumstances. Again we will feel sad, for with some familiar flower 

 will be associated kind eyes and pleasant voices which we no longer 

 cheer. But these sadder memories are not to be cast off. 



" He who lacks time to mourn, 

 Lacks time to mend."' 



We cherish a certain reverence for our collection, and can well un- 

 derstand the sorrow that must attend a sudden loss of such. It is 

 with a fond and gentle touch that we turn over its pages; with much 

 the same feeling, in fact, with which we greet the living plants, for to 

 us these often possess a certain personality. We love them for them- 

 selves. 



Providence, R. I. W. W. Bailey. 



Notes on the Fungi of Maryland. * 



There is undoubtedly a distinct and permanent structure which 

 marks each species of the agarics, but we think in none is this so 

 clearly defined as in the Amanita, and we may include the Volvatia. 



* Continued from page 47, September number. 



