collected them,
induced many friends to join in eating those which proved to be
palatable and delicious--really meddled for years with the various kinds
which are edible and otherwise, and then recently he has decided to
publish a book on his favorite subject. The interesting occupation of
photographing the mushrooms and the toadstools doubtless has contributed
largely to the determination culminating in the materialization of the
treatise.

If I have correctly apprehended the origin and the contributing causes,
we would expect this book to be different from the other books on
mushrooms--not of course in scope and purpose; but the instruction and
suggestions given, the descriptions and general remarks offered, the
wide range of forms depicted in word and picture, the whole make up of
the book in fact, will appeal to the people at large rather than the
college student in particular. The author does not write for the
specially educated few, but for the mass of intelligent people--those
who read and study, but who observe more; those who are inclined to
commune with nature as she displays herself in the glens and glades, in
the fields and forests, and who spend little, if any, time chasing the
forms or sketching the tissues that may be seen on the narrow stage of a
compound microscope.

The book then is for the beginner, and for all beginners; the college
student will find that this is the guide to use when he is ready to
begin studying the mushrooms; the teachers in the schools should all
begin to study mushrooms now, and for the purpose they will find this
book advantageous; the people who see mushrooms often but do not know
them may find here a book that really is a help.

We might wish for color photography when the subject is a delicately
tinted mushroom; but if with it we should lose detail in structure then
the wish would be renounced. The colors can be, approximately,
described, often not so the characteristic markings, shapes and forms.
The halftones from the photographs will, we anticipate, prove a valuable
feature of the book, especially if the plants be most carefully examined
before turning to the pictures. For half an hour the pages may be turned
and the illustrations enjoyed. That, however, would give one no real
knowledge of mushrooms. If such use only is made of the pictures, better
had they never been prepared by Mr. Hard and his friends. But if a
charming little toadstool, a delicately colored mushroo