"I haven't," said Davy, "and I picked the yellow ones."
"They are deadly poison," said the Chief Gardener, "they are called the Amanita, and even to touch the tongue with your fingers after handling them might make you very ill. The others are meadow mushrooms and harmless. But even they could not be eaten after being in the basket with the Amanitas."
The children ran to wash their hands, and were presently back to ask questions. Meantime the Chief Gardener had found a lot of beautiful moss and ferns in the bottom of the basket, and some lichens, which the children had gathered from a rocky cliff not far away.
"Papa, aren't mushrooms toad-stools, and don't they build them to sit on, in pleasant weather, and to get under, when it rains?"
This was little Prue, and she was quite excited.
"I think they are some kind of plants," said Davy, "but I don't see where the flowers are, or how they make seeds."
"How about the ferns?" asked the Chief Gardener. "Did you find any flowers on the ferns?"
"No, but we found seeds."
Davy turned one of the fern leaves over, and, sure enough, there were a lot of little brown seeds under the ends of some of the leaflets. Then the Chief Gardener turned over one of the meadow mushrooms, and divided the little layers beneath with the tip of his pencil.