XLIII 
THE OUTCAST FUNGI 
I SN’T IT ODD that the vegetable world has its outcast 
plants, which instinctively repel members of the hu¬ 
man family, just as do snakes or snails or spiders in the 
animal world! 
Yet it is true that mushrooms and their cousins of the 
fungus world, a cold and slimy lot, are generally shunned 
by man. 
These plants usually appear in the fall of the year or 
at other rainy seasons or in places where it is dripping 
wet and there is much decay upon which they may feed. 
They live by the death of other plants. They are pallid 
and bloated, suggesting death. They appear and disap¬ 
pear quickly and mysteriously. They are outcasts of the 
plant world, and a heritage of prejudice against them has 
come down through the ages. 
In days gone by the appearance in great numbers of 
mushrooms or toadstools or any of their kin was thought 
to prophesy a calamity. Often they did forecast plague, 
because the conditions that created them also caused ill¬ 
ness. Thus back in the Middle Ages there was a plague 
known as the Black Death. It came after Europe had 
suffered two months of unceasing rain. Crops rotted in 
the fields. The woods were blanketed with decaying 
leaves. Everywhere out of the dampness grew these 
fungus children of the dampness. They covered the 
world. They were credited with having brought the 
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