Thus aided the author believes that his own conscientious, patient, loved labor in the study of edible and non-edible fungi and the production of this volume will be far-reaching in its one object—encouraging the study of toadstools.
The time for writing a complete flora of the United States has not yet come; a large part of the country remains as yet unexplored by mycologists; new species are being constantly discovered in the districts best known. Every book on the subject must be necessarily incomplete.
On the other hand, so far as concerns the known fungus-flora, there is imperative need of some guide to the student, which shall at least save him some part of the weary toil of hunting through the scattered literature in which alone, as things are at present, can be found the information he seeks. In this book I have tried to meet this need. It is not complete, but I have tried to so arrange the matter that the student can always decide whether the particular specimen in hand is or is not included, and, at least for all of our more conspicuous fungi, determine the family and genus. If the student can do so much, the task of finding the specific name, even when not included in this book, becomes very much simpler.
So much for the more scientific aspect of my book. But I have also kept in constant view the needs of the large and constantly growing number of persons who have no aim further than to learn to know the principal toadstools seen in their walks, just as they wish to know the principal trees and the more conspicuous birds. For such as these, the difficulty of deciding whether or no a particular individual fungus is described in the brief (sketching) manuals hitherto accessible is even more formidable than with the special student of botany.
Finally, I have kept in view throughout the work the needs of the mycophagists. They are not pot-hunters; they care much less for the physical pleasure of the appetite than for the close study of Nature that their inclination leads them into. Some day the delights of a mushroom hunt along lush pastures and rich woodlands will take the rank of the gentlest craft among those of hunting, and may perchance find its own Izaak Walton.
Author’s and Publisher’s Note.
It is the intention of the author and the publisher to keep this book up to date. Recognizing that future testing will prove many more species of toadstools to be edible, and that scientists will have more exact knowledge of toadstool poisons and their antidotes, they announce that illustrated sheets publishing new edible species and current information upon fungi will be, from time to time, issued, conforming in shape and style to this volume and at an acceptable price.
That the author and publishers may keep in touch with the owner of each volume, and be informed of new discoveries in species and of new experience, owners are requested to communicate their book numbers to Captain Charles McIlvaine, or the Bowen-Merrill Co., Indianapolis, Ind.
INSTRUCTIONS TO STUDENTS
To catch fish one must know more than the fish; to find toadstools one must know their season and habitats. They are propagated by their spores and from their mycelium—that web-like growth which is the result of spore germination.