PREAMBLE. 13

be overlooked in scanning a figure, but these may be emphasized in the description. Moreover, there are features which cannot be represented in diagrammatic form—such as stickiness, odor, and taste—which may nevertheless be very evident in the fungus itself.

With one or two exceptions, all the figures are representations of fungi that possess a stem and a pileus (cap). However much these may vary in size and form, these two parts are present. In the majority of instances, the cap, which surmounts the stem, is furnished on the underside with numerous parallel plates, or gills, which radiate from the stem to the margin of the cap. The Common Mushroom is one of this type of gill-bearing fungi. There are, however, a few illustrations of species in which the gills are replaced by pores; the whole underside of the cap is smooth and punctured with very numerous little holes, as if pricked with a pin. These are the pore-bearing fungi, of which