TOADSTOOL-EATING. 95 



I have often cut them out of mushrooms, rejecting only the part 

 they had spoiled. 



I have given but one example of each inconsistency, but they mifht 

 be multiplied almost indefinitely. Then comes your believer in 

 charms : dropping salt on the mushroom to see if it turns black or yel- 

 low, or stirring them with a coin spoon to watch for evidences of dis- 

 coloration. Another rejects all which grow from wood. But no test 

 of any kind, in form, color, or basis of growth, will distinguish health- 

 ful from harmful fungi. 



"What, then?" despairingly asks an inquirer "what, then, can be 

 done?" 



Exactly what is done in every other department from domestic 

 economy to high art. How does Mr. Jarves tell the difference 

 between a painting by Leonardo da Vinci and one by Guide Reni ? 

 How could you explain (to one who had never seen either) the dif- 

 ference between a hyacinth-bulb and an onion? From essays on the 

 early painters, you draw conclusions which enable you to distinguish 

 at sight the works of two artists. In kitchen-lore, the child acquires 

 distinctions with its earliest lessons at the mother's apron-string. 

 Only by these two means can practical knowledge of the kingdom of 

 Fungi be increased : first, exact scientific analysis; second, the circu- 

 lation of arbitrary, traditional information, such as saying to igno- 

 ramus : 



" There, sir, that is an elm-tree mushroom ; mark it well : whenever 

 you find one iust like it on your elm, eat it." 



With a view of encouraging research, I shall make an attempt at 

 an original but very limited classification, and also describe a few 

 varieties of mushrooms. The first distinction is in the nature of the 

 surface bearing the reproductive bodies or spores. Pick the next 

 toadstool you find; look under the top or cap. You will observe 

 one of four things : 



1. There is a series of thin i)lates set on their edges running in 

 to a common centre, like the spokes of a wheel. The spokes are called 

 the gills ; the stem corresponds to the hub. This is the largest family 

 of mushrooms, the Agaricini or Agarics. 



2. In the place of gills, your specimen may have a substance 

 resembling fine sponge. It is then a pore-bearing mushroom, ge- 

 nerically a l^olyporus. Supposing the stem to be distinctly defined, 

 of ordinary length, and the pores or tubes easily separable from each 

 other, it is a Boletus. 



3. Instead of the sponge, you may find a number of small points 

 or spines. It belongs then to the teeth-bearing fungi, generically 

 the Hydnei. 



4. When you invert the mushroom, you may find neither gills, 

 pores, nor teeth. It may be globular. In the three other classes, the 

 spores are borne externally ; here they are inclosed. If young, the 



