Introduction 



ter, 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 clear- 

 ings 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 identi- 

 fying 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. 



After he was able to get European publications upon the subject, and 

 by their aid trace the species he had eaten to their names, descriptions 

 and qualities, he was surprised to read that many of them were warned 

 against as deadly. As informed by these books, he properly ought to 

 have died several times. It soon became evident that authors had fol- 

 lowed one another in condemning species, some because they bore brill- 

 iant hues, others because they were unpleasant when raw (just as is a 

 potato), rather than investigate their qualities by testing them. Here 

 was a realm of food-giving plants almost entirely unexplored. The 

 writer determined to explore it. Instead of the one hundred and eleven 

 species then recorded by the late Doctor Curtis as edible, my number 

 of edible species now exceeds his by over six hundred.* 



Let us clear away the rubbish and superstition that have so long ob- 

 scured the straight path to a knowledge of edible toadstools. Let us 

 bear in mind that a mushroom is a toadstool and a toadstool is a mush- 

 room the terms are interchangeable. If toads ever occupied the one- 

 legged seat assigned them from time immemorial, they have learned in 



* This book contains one hundred and fifty pages more than were originally esti- 

 mated and promised to the subscribers. That all known edible and poisonous species 

 might be fully described and published within one volume, the author was compelled 

 to cut fifty thousand words from his manuscript. The localities from which species 

 have been reported and the names of the reporters have been taken out, excepting 

 where it was desirable to show that foreign species have been found in the United 

 States, and where tested species have been found by the author. The principal cut 

 has been from the notes of the author and of enlarged descriptions. 



xix 



