Preservation of Fungi 



445 



made side by side on the same paper would give the outline of 

 the gills, and by a little care and practice it would be found 

 easy to draw the line from the stem to the edge of the cap, 

 indicating the point of junction of the gills with the flesh of 

 the cap. This should be done very carefully and accurately, 

 as it must be depended upon to show whether the gills are 

 quite free from the stem at their inner extremity, or whether 

 they are adnexed, or whether they are decurrent, and to what 

 extent they run down the stem. Then, also, it should be 

 shown whether the stem is solid or hollow. A little colouring, 

 even if not artistic, would be more useful than mere descrip- 

 tion of general appearance. Of no less importance is the 

 addition of notes, giving such particulars as cannot be con- 

 veyed by the sketch, and these would embrace a statement of 

 habitat, whether growing on the ground or on wood. Amongst 

 other details it should be stated whether the pileus was dry 

 or moist, or glutinous, whether the odour was agreeable, or 

 foetid, or indistinct, whether the taste was mild, or acrid, or 

 pungent, and whether the gills exhibited any tendency to 

 deliquesce. Finally, if the drawing was not coloured, then 

 the colour or the pileus and stem must be indicated as 

 explicitly as possible, and not vaguely as red, brown, or grey, 

 but what particular tone of each colour, whether bright red, 

 or dull red, dark red or light red, vermilion or crimson, and 

 so on, with any other colour, so that at any time the sketch 

 might be completed in colour and made to represent the 

 species. — From Dr. M. C. Cooke's " Introduction to the 

 Study of Fungi." 



One of Goethe's axioms, so pregnant in meaning and so 

 valuable as affording a clue to discovery, was that there is 

 " a law of unity which presides in the structure of all living 

 bodies." 



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