"Fungi: Their Nature and Uses" by M. C. Cooke is an informative text that aimed to teach readers about the interesting and often underappreciated world of fungi. Fungi are complex and can be both dangerous and extremely useful. Mordecai Cubitt Cooke was an English botanist and mycologist who was, at various points, a London schoolteacher, a Kew mycologist, curator at the India Museum, journalist and author. He uses his expertise in this book so diligently that even modern readers can find a use for it.

Reproduction of the original: Fungi: Their Nature and Uses by Mordecai Cubitt Cooke

Reprint of the original, first published in 1875.

This new edition of The Fungi provides a comprehensive introduction to the importance of fungi in the natural world and in practical applications, from a microbiological perspective.

The fifth order of the natural kingdom is made up of an estimated 1.5 million species of fungi, found in every habitat type worldwide. The Book of Fungi takes 600 of the most remarkable fleshy fungi from around the world and reproduces each at its actual size, in full colour, and accompanied by a scientific explanation of its distribution, habitat, association, abundance, growth form, spore colour and edibility. Location maps give at-a-glance indications of each species known global distribution, and specially commissioned engravings show different fruitbody forms and provide the vital statistics of height and diameter. Theres a place, too, for readers to discover the more bizarre habits of fungi from the predator that hunts its prey with lassos to the one that entices sows by releasing the pheromones of a wild boar. Mushrooms, morels, puffballs, toadstools, truffles, chanterelles fungi from habitats spanning the poles and the tropics, from the highest mountains to our own gardens are all on display in this definitive work.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1875.