TOADSTOOLS AND THEIR KINDRED

IN taking "toadstools" as the text of a little botanical discourse, we start with a familiar notion if not a scientific one; but all science begins with common ideas which it corrects, extends, and develops. Everybody knows what toadstools are, odd-looking things that grow up in the fields and are often kicked aside in rural rambles, of no use to man or beast, and "pizen" to eat. This is the oldest, the widest, and the lowest state of mind upon the subject. But many have got beyond this, an...