TOADSTO OL-EA TIN G. 9 3 



TOADSTOOL-EATING. 



By JULIUS A. PALMEE, Je. 



IDG not mean in this article to consider the origin, reproduction, 

 nature, and extent of the family of Cryptogamous plants called 

 Fungi ; for I do not claim the culture of the scientist, or the disin- 

 terested enthusiasm of the naturalist. "Art for art's sake" is not 

 my war-cry. I propose to detail in popular language the experiences 

 of an amateur toadstool-eater who desires to encourage personal in- 

 vestigation of a neglected subject. 



Not long since, a course of lectures was announced on " Fungi." 

 My call for circulars and tickets revealed the fact that the lecturer 

 proposed to explain all about smut in distinction from potato-rot; the 

 difference between blue-mould, black-mould, and white-mould, was also 

 to be clearly defined, for which purpose a microscope of wonderful 

 power had been provided. It seemed to me that, after people were 

 able to tell healthful food from certain poison, it would be in place to 

 give them a popular course on microscopic organisms. 



Three years ago, I was detaching a large fungus from the famous 

 Liberty-Tree on Boston Common. An over-cautious stranger tapped 

 my shoulder and said, "My friend, that is not a mushroom ! " 



" Now that looks to me like a big toadstool," exclaimed another 

 by-stander. 



"Every mushroom is a toadstool, and every toadstool is a mush- 

 room," I replied, and I repeat the answer here. You might as well 

 call a beet a " vegetable," and every other representative, from the 

 garden a " plant," as to consider one fungus a " mushroom," and all 

 others of a thousand species " toadstools." 



Yet, people cannot be blamed for ignorance where there are so 

 few sources of information. The difficulties experienced by the 

 amateur can scarcely be overrated. Excepting the writings of Dr. 

 Curtis, of South Carolina, I have not seen an original contribution to 

 American literature on this obscure topic. Even Dr. Curtis (in a 

 very interesting correspondence with Charles James Spragiie, de- 

 posited at the rooms of the Boston Society of Natural History) gives 

 little information regarding toadstools, devoting most of his letters 

 to the revelations made by the microscope. I, however, procured 

 from London the works whose titles I give in the note at the end 

 of this paper, and began the study of fungology as a science. 



Still, discrepancies and obscurities will confront the student. The 

 descriptions are by no means exact. All these authorities describe 

 fungi of foreign parts, i. e., not necessarily American species. The 

 classification is not even harmonious, as the generic names of the dif- 

 ferent species vary with leading authorities, from the time of Sow- 



