The Chief Gardener took the basket. On top were some mushrooms--two kinds. One had whity-brown tops, and was pink or brown or almost black underneath, while the other had yellow tops with white spots on them, and was very pale underneath. The Chief Gardener looked sharply at the children when he saw these yellow mushrooms. "Go and wash your hands, quickly," he said, "and I hope neither of you have put your hands to your mouth since you touched these." "I haven't," said Davy, "and I picked the yellow ones." "They are deadly poison," said the Chief Gardener, "they are called the Amanita, and even to touch the tongue with your fingers after handling them might make you very ill. The others are meadow mushrooms and harmless. But even they could not be eaten after being in the basket with the Amanitas." The children ran to wash their hands, and were presently back to ask questions. Meantime the Chief Gardener had found a lot of beautiful moss and ferns in the bottom of the basket, and some lichens, which the children had gathered from a rocky cliff not far away. "Papa, _aren't_ mushrooms toad-stools, and _don't_ they build them to sit on, in pleasant weather, and to get under, when it rains?" This was little Prue, and she was quite excited. "I think they are some kind of plants," said Davy, "but I don't see where the flowers are, or how they make seeds." "How about the ferns?" asked the Chief Gardener. "Did you find any flowers on the ferns?" "No, but we found seeds." Davy turned one of the fern leaves over, and, sure enough, there were a lot of little brown seeds under the ends of some of the leaflets. Then the Chief Gardener turned over one of the meadow mushrooms, and divided the little layers beneath with the tip of his pencil. "That is where the mushroom keeps its seeds, too," he said. "We do not call them seeds, though, but spores. Fern seeds are called spores, also." "But toads do sit under mushrooms, don't they?" insisted little Prue. "Why, yes, I suppose a great many toads have done that, but they are really plants, as Davy says." Davy had become thoughtful. "Are they Exogens?" he asked, "or Endogens? I should think the mushrooms might be Endogens from their stems, and the fern Exogens from their leaves." "Well, Davy, that is very well said, but they are really neither one. They belong to a great class of their own. Exogens and Endogens are only the two kinds of flowering plants. These mushrooms and ferns and mosses and lichens all belong to the flowerless plants, and are called Crip-tog-a-mous--a very long word, which I do not expect you to remember. The divisions of flowerless plants are too hard a study for little folks, but the plants are all very interesting, and we can gather them, and see how they grow. In fact, I think we will have to call our meadow and our beach your August garden." "But there isn't anything on the beach," said Prue. "How about all that seaweed you were gathering yesterday?"