ome bright scarlet cherries, or at least something that resembles
them. We take the trowel and loosen them from the earth, and there,
among the gelatinous matter, we find small round balls as large as a
common marble, covered by a bright red skin. When cut in half we see
they are filled with a pure white substance, like the inside of a young
puff-ball. This is quite a discovery. We must look in our books for its
name. It is not in our British manual, but we learn from Professor Peck
that it is called Calostoma cinnabarinus. Calostoma is a Greek word
meaning beautiful mouth, and cinnabarinus is taken from cinnabaris,
which means dragon's-blood. We are not responsible for the names given
to plants, but cannot help wishing that some might be changed or
shortened.

We could go on prolonging our search, and describe many wonderful fungi,
so easily found on a summer day, but as our object is to excite
curiosity and interest and not fatigue the reader, we will here pause,
and afterward arrange the descriptions of mushrooms in a separate
section. The ones we have described may be found in the Middle States
and in New England.

MUSHROOMS.

ANTIQUITY OF FUNGI.

Fungi have existed from early geological ages. They flourished in the
Carboniferous period, when the enormous beds of coal were formed, a
space of time that occupied many millions of years. Bessey says that the
oldest known member of the order of membrane fungi, Hymenomycetes, was
called by the name of "Polyporites Bowmanii." During the Tertiary period
members of the genera now known under the names of Lenzites, Polyporus,
and Hydnum were all in existence. It is interesting to know that even
before the Tertiary period the undergrowth consisted of ferns and fleshy
fungi. What a time of delight for the botanist! But there were no human
beings in those days to roam amongst that luxuriant undergrowth, and
only the fossil remains in the deposits of coal and peat are left to
tell of their former existence.

MANNER OF GROWTH.

Fungi are either solitary, grow in clusters, in groups, or in rings and
arcs of circles.

The species called the Fairy mushroom, Marasmius oreades, is the most
familiar of all those that grow in rings. Besides this there is the
Horse mushroom, Agaricus arvensis; the Chantarelle, Cantharellus
cibarius; the Giant mushroom, Clitocybe maximus, and St. George's
mushroom, Tricholoma gambosa. The latter species is reproduced in rings
every year