48 BULLETIN 123, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
REVIEW QUESTIONS, LESSON VIII. 
1. Describe seeds of different types. 
2. Why do seeds contain more concentrated nutritive material than other 
parts of plants. 
3. What groups of seeds are most important for human food? 
4. Describe two principal types of leguminous plants. 
5. What is the main difference in composition between dry beans and fresh 
shelled beans? 
6. Explain the addition of fat meat in baking beans. 
7. What uses have been found for cotton seeds? 
8. What can you say of buckwheat, its characteristics, growth, and uses? 
9. Mention points in favor of and against grinding peas, beans, etc., into a 
flour before using them for soups. 
10. Compare canned and dry beans as to cost, labor of preparation, and 
quality. 
LESSON IX. FUNGI. 
There are many plants quite unlike those already referred to, in 
that they contain no green coloring matter and are flowerless. Mush- 
rooms and puffballs are well-known members of this class of plants 
which is called by the Latin name fungus, and includes many curious 
specimens of varied sizes, forms, and colors. 
A characteristic of this type of plant life is that it draws its sub- 
sistence not directly from the earth, but from other organic matter. 
There are thousands of species thriving either on the living tissues 
of their hosts or on the cast-off cellular matter of the latter. Some, 
like the molds, are very minute, while puffballs and toadstools are 
often very large. | 
Many of the larger kinds of fungi are popularly grouped together 
as mushrooms. Some of these are extremely poisonous; others are 
harmless, but of no particular culinary value, while there are many 
edible varieties much esteemed for their delicate and peculiar flavor. 
Many of the edible mushrooms prove irritating to the digestive . 
tract, if used when past their prime, and are.then very commonly 
infested with insect hfe. None of the common tests of silver spoon, 
etc., for poisonous varieties are safeguards. 
Mushrooms should be gathered without the adhering earth, the 
stems broken rather than pulled, for once sand is scattered through 
the gills it is hard to remove. First wash by floating in water, gills 
down. Young or button mushrooms need not be peeled, but old ones 
should have the skin removed, pulling it from the circumference to 
the center. | 
The common market mushroom (Agaricus campestris), which is 
often found growing in old pastures, is the only kind commercially 
cultivated in this country. It grows 2 to 3 inches high, has a cap 
about as wide when fully expanded, which is a brownish white above 
and sometimes tinged with pink below. The color deepens as the 
