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MUSHROOMS OF AMERICA, EDIBLE AND POISONOUS. 



EDITED BY JULIUS A. PALMER, JR. PUBLISHED BY L. PRANG & CO., BOSTON. 



(COPYRIGHT, 1888, BY L. PRANG 4 CO.) 



GENERAL DIRECTIONS. 



These charts are prepared for popular use, rather than for students of botanical 

 science ; all technical terms are, therefore, as far as possible, avoided. 



The names "mushroom" and "toadstool" are indefinite, are both applied with equal 

 reason to any fleshy fungus, and are here used as synonymes, like the corresponding 

 terms "plant" and "vegetable," or "shrub" and "bush," in common conversation. 



No general test can be given by which a poisonous mushroom may be distinguished 

 from an edible mushroom. But each species of fungus has certain marks of identity, 

 either in appearance, quality, or condition of growth, which are its own, and never 

 radically varied ; none can contain a venomous element at one time, and yet be harmless 

 under other conditions. Like other food, animal or vegetable, however, mushrooms 

 may, by decay or conditions of growth, be unfit for table use ; yet in this state no 

 fatality would attend such use. 



Therefore the identification of species is a safe guide, and is the only means of 

 knowing what mushrooms should be eaten, and what varieties of fungus should be rejected. 

 Having once learned to distinguish any species of mushrooms as esculent % perfect security 

 may be felt in the use of that species wherever and whenever found ; but any specimen 

 varying from the type in the slightest degree should be rejected by an amateur. 



There are about one thousand varieties of mushrooms (exclusive of small or micro- 

 scopic fungi) native to the United States ; many will therefore be found which are not 

 represented on either of these plates. Those here depicted are of three classes, namely, 

 the Lycoperdacese, or Puff-ball fungi ; the Agaricini, or Gill-bearing fungi ; and the Boleti, 

 which last is one division of the Polyporei, or Pore-bearing fungi. 



