There are other species which contain minor poisons producing very undesirable effects. These are soon remedied by taking an emetic, then one or two doses of whisky and sweet oil; or vinegar may be substituted for the whisky. A few species of fungi are innocuous to the majority of persons and harmful to a few. So it is with many common foods—strawberries, apples, tomatoes, celery, even potatoes. The beginner at toadstool eating usually expects commendation for bravery, and fearfully watches for hours the coming of something dreadful. Indigestion from any other cause is always laid to the traditionary enemy, fright ensues, a physician is called, the scare spreads, and a pestilential story of “Severe Poisoning by Toadstools,” gets into the newspapers. The writer has traced many such publications to imprudences in eating, with which toadstools had nothing to do. The authoritative analysis of several common food species by Lafayette B. Mendel, of Sheffield Laboratory of Physiological Chemistry, Yale University, is given, and will correct the popular error about the great nutritive value of fungi, arising from previous erroneous analyses. While species are reported as found in certain localities, it by no means follows that their growth is confined to these places. A species reported as found in the Adirondack mountains, unless belonging to the few peculiar to northern regions and high altitudes, is reasonably sure to be more plentiful in a like habitat south and west of them. South it will appear earlier and its season last longer. Size is largely dependent upon latitude and may vary greatly in the same group. Temperature, moisture, favorable nourishment are important factors in growth. Each species has its favorite habitat, and will thrive best upon it. There are few things under the sun upon which fungi do not grow. Their mission is particularly directed toward converting decaying matter, or matter which has accomplished its work in one direction, into usefulness in another. They are the wood-choppers, stewards, caterers of the forest, converters in the fields and chemists everywhere. They can not assimilate inorganic matter because of the absence of chlorophyl in their composition, but in organic matter they are omnivorous. When they feed on dead substances they are called saprophytes; when their support is derived from living tissues, parasites. Scores of species of fungi were found in the forests, ravines and clearings of the West Virginia mountains from 1881 to 1885 inclusive, and eaten by the writer years before he had the opportunity to learn their names from books or obtain the friendly assistance of experts in identifying them. He knew the individuals without knowing their names, as one knows the bird song and plumage before formal introduction to the pretty creatures that charm him.