PREAMBLE. 17

the color to be more accurately determined. The whole series of colors may be classed in five groups: white, pink or salmon, rusty-brown, purple-brown, and black. Of course, the shades will vary in most of the groups, especially in the second and third. It is most important that the color of the spores should be determined first of all, as it will then be less difficult to discover the species to which they belong. A great number of the species with white spores are edible, but some are dangerous, so the color of the spores is not a test of quality. Again, most species with pink or salmon-colored spores are suspicious, while two or three are excellent food. Take, for example, the Common Mushroom, which when young has gills of a beautiful pink color; as it becomes older, the gills darken, and when the spores are ripe enough to fall, they are not pink, but purple-brown. If an inexperienced person finds a species of "mushroom," or fungus of the mushroom type, with pink