6g 
a brilliant yellow colour with small dark scales, and has a striking 
and beautiful appearance. 
Page 34 represents the Soft Crepidotus (Agaricus mollis). This 
is another Toadstool with yellowish brown spores. It is frequently 
met with on rotten stumps and usually has no stalk. Its cap is 
irregularly shaped, somewhat soft and gelatinous, and of a pale dingy 
tan colour. Its gills are crowded together and light brown in 
colour. 
The common Mushroom (Frontispiece) is the best known Fungus 
with purplish-black spores. Though usually cultivated from spawn, 
Mushrooms have occasionally been successfully grown by sowing 
the spores on a glass plate, kept constantly moist, and sprinkled with 
dung. Sometimes the Mushroom grows to an enormous size, and 
three large specimens are stated to have lifted a flagstone weighing 
80 lbs. in the city of Worcester. On Page 25 is shown the Red 
Pratelle (Agaricus campestris, var. rufescens) a near relation of 
the Mushroom, but differing from it in that it changes to a bright 
pink tint, when cut or bruised. 
The Wood Mushroom (Agaricus silvaticus, page 26), another 
nearly related species, is very different from the common Mushroom 
in appearance. Its cap is light brown in colour, and is covered 
with dark scales, and its stalk is long and slendtr. It is an edible 
Mushroom although growing in woods. 
The Green Stropharia (Agaricus aeruginosus, Page 27) has 
purplish brown spores. It is a most characteristic Toadstool which 
cannot possibly be mistaken for any other. Its cap is light bluish- 
green in colour, with a few white scales on top. The colouring 
matter is contained in the slimy pellicle, which sometimes in wet 
weather gets partly washed off, thus laying bare the yellowish upper 
surface of the cap. The gills are light purple-brown. It is common 
in woods and hedgerows in late Autumn, and is probably poisonous. 
Page 28 shows a pretty group of the Sulphur tuft (Agaricus fasicu- 
laris). This is probably the commonest British Toadstool, and abounds 
everywhere on rotten wood and stumps of trees. The cap is rarely 
more than two inches across, and is of a sulphur-yellow colour with 
greenish-grey gills and purple-brown spores. It is usually regarded 
as a poisonous species, but the taste is so bitter and nasty, that it is 
difficult to imagine how anyone could eat sufficient of it to do him- 
self any real harm. Page 29 also shows a group of the same kind of 
Toadstools with their caps not fully expanded. 
Another group of dark purple spored Toadstools (Agaricus 
canobrinneus) is seen on Page 30. The upper surface of the cap in 
this species is pale brown, or pallid flesh colour, and as the cap 
expands radial cracks often appear. The stem is rooting and hollow. 
This Fungus is moderately common in open places and fields in early 
autumn. 
Page 3 1 shows a typical group of a very common Toadstool (Agaricus 
spadiceus). The cap is light brown and the gills crowded together 
and of a whitish or reddish brown colour. The Fungus is very 
brittle if touched. It grows in clusters among dead leaves and on 
stumps of trees. 
A curious group of Toadstools, which grow on dirt heaps, dead 
wood, etc., have the peculiar property of desolving into an inky fluid, 
when they have shed their black spores. The Brown Ink- 
Cap (Coprinus fuscesceus, Page 32) is one of these. This delicate 
