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The Grisette (Agaricus vaginatus, Page 10) is a common inhabitant 
of the woods in Autumn. Its cap is light brown and its gills white. 
Though closely related to the varieties just described, it differs from 
them in having no ring. The sheath at its base, which in the early 
stages encloses the whole Toadstool, is clearly seen in the 
photograph. 
The Grey Parasol (Agaricus rachodes, Pages it and 12 ) is another 
handsome Fungus, with white spores, It grows in clusters, on dead 
leaves in Autumn. The cap is covered with scales, and is usually of 
a light brown colour, but owing to the more rapid growth of its 
inner part, deep fissures are produced, through which the white flesh 
is seen. It is edible and said to be much more palatable than the 
ordinary Mushroom. 
In England the Mushroom is practically the only Fungus used ai 
food, but in other countries people are less fastidious, and some 
varieties, here despised as loathsome Toadstools, form part of 
the regular diet in Russia and Italy. In China and Japan Fungi are 
cultivated on decaying trunks of trees, as are Mushrooms in the 
catacombs of Paris. Mushrooms and edible Fungi are probably 
excellent as food, and contain a high precentage of flesh forming 
elements. It is further stated, that in nutritive matter they surpass 
any other vegetable, and observations on a dietary, composed 
mainly of Fungi, have proved, that they are nourishing 111 an 
unusual degree. It is also noteworthy that on wet seasons, when 
the crops generally have failed, Fungi are extremely abundant. 
Dr. Badham, deploring the little use that is made of edible Fungi, 
says, “ I have this Autumn myself, witnessed whole hundredweights 
of rich wholesome diet rotting under trees, woods teeming with food, 
and not one hand to gather it, and this perhaps in the midst of 
potato blights, poverty and all manner of privations, and public 
prayers against imminent famine." 
But how do Toadstools live? Ordinary plants with green leaves 
obtain their mineral food from the soil, their organic food from the 
air, and the energy by which they decompose the air, and obtain 
what is necessary from it, from the sun. But the fine filaments 
composing the Toadstool plant below the surface of the ground, are 
cut off from both air and sun, nor could they make use of them, if it 
were otherwise. They therefore live on dead and decomposing 
vegetable matter, acting, as it were, as scavengers, and using up the 
rotting material in the soil. A few Toadstools are less kind, and 
attack living plants, and trees, on the tissues of which they live. 
Some of these parasitic Fungi can attack a tree direct, but most of 
them require a wound to be made, as when a branch is broken or 
sawn off. There, the spores blown by the Wind settle and germi- 
nate, and the plant threads growing from the spores penetrate the 
tissues of the tree, and slowly but surely destroy its life. 
The Stump-tuft (Agaricus melleus, Page 13)15 one of the common- 
est of parasitic Toadstools, and is a frequent cause of timber disease. 
It is somewhat variable in form, but almost invariably has a well 
marked ring. It usually grows in great clusters at the base of a tree 
or stump, shedding its white spores like mildew all around. The 
roots of a tree are first attacked, and soon both the roots and the 
lower part of the trunk are covered by blackish cord like threads, 
about as thick as fine twine, which form a network immediately 
beneath the bark. From these strands fine fibrils pass inwards, and 
absorb the nourishment of the plant, while the coarser branches 
radiate in the ground, and spread to other trees. Conifers, as well 
