INTRODUCTION 7 



titled by their dimensions to the dignity of "toad- 

 stools " or " mushrooms " — after separating the 2000 

 moulds, mildews, rusts, smuts, blights, 



muThroom Y^^^ts, " mother," and other microscopic 

 species species — and out of the 150 recom- 

 mended edible species, the present work 

 includes only about thirty. This selection has direct 

 reference to popular utility, only such species having 

 been included as offer some striking or other indi- 

 vidual peculiarity by which they may be simply iden- 

 tified, even without so-called scientific knowledge. 



The addition of color to the present list enables 

 its extension somewhat beyond the scope of a series 

 printed only in black and white, as in the distinction 

 of mere form alone an uncolored drawing of a certain 

 species might serve to the popular eye as a common 

 portrait of a number of allied species, possibly includ- 

 ing a poisonous variety. 



While the study of " fungi " has a host of devotees, 



the mysteries which involve the origin of life in this 



great order of the cryptogamia having 



Mycology and had fascinating attractions to micro- 



mycophagy scopical students and specialists, the 

 study of economic mycology has been al- 

 most without a champion in the United States. Thus 

 we have many learned treatises on the nature, struct- 

 ure, and habits of fungi — vegetative methods, chem- 

 ical constituents, specific characters, classification — 

 learned dissertations on the microscopical moulds, 

 mildews, rusts and smuts, blights and ferments, to 

 say nothing of the medico-scientific and awe-inspiring 

 potentialities of the sensational microbe, bacterium 



