haped, or bush-like and branched. Clavarei.
Fig. 6. Whole plant irregularly expanded, substance gelatinous.
Tremellini.

Copyright, 1897, by
Thomas Taylor, M. D.,
and
A. R. Taylor.

INTRODUCTION.

In the year 1876, as Microscopist of the Department of Agriculture, I
prepared, as a part of the exhibit of my Division at the Centennial
Exhibition at Philadelphia, a large collection of water-color drawings
representing leading types of the edible and poisonous mushrooms of the
United States, together with representations of about nine hundred
species of microscopic fungi detrimental to vegetation.

In the preparation of the first collection I had the valuable assistance
of Prof. Charles H. Peck, State Botanist of New York, and in the second
the hearty co-operation of Rev. M. J. Berkeley and Dr. M. C. Cook, the
eminent British mycologists.

The popular character of this exhibit attracted the attention of the
general public, and many letters were received at the Department showing
an awakening interest in the study of fungi, particularly with regard to
the mushroom family, as to methods of cultivation, the means of
determining the good from the unwholesome varieties, etc.

My first published paper on the subject of edible mushrooms, entitled
"Twelve Edible Mushrooms of the U. S.," appeared in the annual report of
the Department of Agriculture for 1885. This was followed by others to
the number of five, and as the demand for these reports increased,
reprints were made and issued, by order of the Secretary of Agriculture,
in pamphlet form, under the general title of "Food Products." Numerous
editions of these reprints were issued by the Department up to 1894.
During the year 1894, and the first half of 1895, 36,600 of these
reports were sent out by the Department, and the supply was exhausted.
They have been out of print for more than two years. It is in view of
this fact, and in response to a great and constant demand for these
publications, that I have undertaken to publish a series of five
pamphlets on the edible and poisonous mushrooms of the United States,
which shall embody the substance of the five pamphlets on "Food
Products" above alluded to, supplemented by new matter relating to
classification, general and specific, analytical tables of standard
authors, and a continu