648 
Mushrooms  and  Fungi. 
/Am.  Jour.  Pharai. 
L  December,  1896. 
A  cross- section  Fig. 56,  showed,  a  thick-walled  epidermis,  not  sup- 
ported by  a  sclerenchymatous  hypoderma;  an  epidermal  cell  at  each 
edge  conspicuously  larger  than  the  rest ;  a  distinct  palisade  tissue  on 
the  upper  side,  composed  of  a  layer  of  large  ceils  slightly  elongated 
in  a  direction  vertical  to  the  epidermis ;  a  more  loosely  arranged 
interior  parenchyma,  also  large-celled,  and  having  the  cells  mostly 
elongated  in  a  direction  parallel  to  the  epidermis  and  perpendicular 
to  the  mid-rib.  All  of  the  mesophyll  cells  were  plain- walled  and 
contained,  besides  protoplasm  and  chlorophyll-bodies,  abundance  of 
tannin ;  the  endodermis  was  rather  large-celled,  with  walls  but  little 
thickened,  the  cells  forming  a  circle,  except  for  an  indentation  on  the 
under  side,  where  pressed  against  by  the  large  secretion  reservoir 
which  lies  between  the  mid-rib  and  the  lower  epidermis.  There 
were  no  other  secretion  reservoirs  observed  in  the  leaf  The  endo- 
dermis enclosed  a  thin  area  of  transfusion  tissue,  in  which  was 
embedded  a  small,  double,  fibro-vascular  bundle,  similar  in  other 
respects  to  those  which  occur  in  the  leaves  of  the  pines  and  firs. 
( To  be  continued. ) 
EDIBLE  AND  NON-EDIBLE  MUSHROOMS  AND  FUNGI.1 
By  Charges  McIxvaine. 
My  principal  object  to-day  will  be  to  interest  you  in  the  immense 
field  that  is  everywhere  about  you  in  the  study  of  toadstool  life> 
and  in  endeavoring  to  induce  you  to  so  study  their  habits  that 
you  may  bring  your  skill  and  experience  to  bear  upon  the  culti- 
vation of  very  many  of  the  wild  varieties,  assuring  you  that  the 
field  is  virtually  an  unoccupied  one,  and  that  success  will  redound 
to  your  honor  and  profit. 
The  many  and  expensive  books  upon  fungi  are  excellent  in  their 
classification  and  description  of  toadstools  ;  but  their  authors, 
through  following  one  another  in  assertions  and  lack  of  original 
investigation,  falsify  their  edible  and  non-edible  qualities. 
The  books  are,  therefore,  of  little  use  in  designating  which  can 
be  eaten  and  which  can  not. 
Here  let  me  say  that  I  prefer  to  call  all  visible  fungi — except- 
ing the  common  mushroom — by  their  popular  name — toadstools — 
1  An  address  delivered  at  a  pharmaceutical  meeting,  held  at  the  Philadelphia 
College  of  Pharmacy,  November  18,  1896. 
