Page:Coloured Figures of English Fungi or Mushrooms.djvu/12

 PREFACE. one species often happens to have been figured or described ten times over. It is indeed easier to describe or draw an individual variety, than to ascertain to what species it belongs, while it may be compared to so many in different authors. When they are more clearly ascertained, we shall possibly be able to cultivate the useful kinds; for only one, the common Mushroom, or Agaricus campestris, is at present cultivated. Some I am sure would be admired as ornaments; others are already made use of for culinary and œconomical purposes, more particularly in foreign countries. Some I am persuaded would assist in dyeing. Several of the Sphærias yield the finest black I ever met with. The Lycoperdons afford in their ripe state different browns very copiously, in a fine impalpable powder, fit for immediate drawing when mixed with a little gum arabic water. I intend when I figure some of the Lycoperdons to use their own powder to represent itself.