CHAPTER XX 
ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE OF FUNGI 
In the preceding chapter we have frequently referred 
to ways in which our own lives are related to the life of 
plants. It would be difficult to say what particular group 
of plants affects us most, but certainly none more than 
the fungi. They are among the direct causes of human 
sorrow and happiness, of health and disease, of poverty 
and wealth, life and death. They are at once the founda- 
tion and the arch enemy of agriculture, the objects and ob- 
stacles of commerce, the source and hindrance of human 
industry. 
EDIBLE FUNGI. 
278. Mushrooms and Toadstools. Everyone is f amiliar 
with edible "mushrooms;" they are now on sale at every 
grocery. Nearly everyone thinks there is a difference 
between mushrooms and " toad-stools," Such, however, is 
not the case. These two terms are applied indiscrim- 
inately by the botanist to any "fleshy " fungus. The word 
"mushroom" is used by most people to designate the 
meadow-agaric (Agaricus campestris), which is the mush- 
room of commerce, par excellence. There are over 1,000 
fleshy fungi that are good to eat, and many more that 
are not poisonous, but non-edible because they are 
tough, or fibrous, or ill-tasting. Many of those good 
to eat resemble the meadow-mushroom in having 
a stalk and gills, and are closely related to 
it (Fig. 212); while others, like the "puff-balls," 
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