Toads and Toadstools: H

The Natural History, Folklore, and Cultural Oddities of a Strange Association by Adrian Morgan While many field guides and cookbooks have been written on mushrooms, fewer books have been devoted to frogs and toads (certainly field guides and perhaps a cookbook), --but none that we know of has ever addressed their curious historical relationships throughout the world. Artist and scholar Adrian Morgan has spent twelve years collecting, studying, drawing, painting, observing, and casting his subjects. The result is a glorious feast for the eye as well as the intellect. An astonishing compendium of art history, cultural anthropology, pharmacology, herpetology, micology, --and serious conjecture--TOADS AND TOADSTOOLS will delight and amaze any armchair biologist. Brimming over with almost 150 illustrations. A reader: 'I was pleasantly surprised by this well illustrated work after I picked up a copy at the San Francisco Fungus Fest (where else?). The author points out that mushrooms and toads are linked in the mythologies of many different cultures, that both can be entheogenic (hallucinogenic), and both are credited with spiritual characteristics. He never does answer the central question - why are toads and 'toadstools' so often linked? - but he gives you so much neat art and interesting mushroom/historical lore that you don't really mind. Enthusiastically recommended.' Paperback - 224 pages