94 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



erby to the present. When you have placed a specimen in the proper 

 family, you have not in any way defined its quality, since one mush- 

 room may be esculent, and its twin brother poisonous. Yet, the work 

 of Berkeley is a book easily procured, and, having a number of colored 

 plates, is readily understood by persons with botanical tastes. Such 

 will find no study more fascinating. It is surprising how quickly the 

 hand and eye acquire a delicacy in analysis, impossible to communi- 

 cate in words. This talent is essential. No one should attempt to 

 gather mushrooms who has not the power to fix in his mind the exact 

 characteristics of any specimen, so as not to be in the least danger of 

 confounding it with its nearest neighbor. 



The student must sweep the brain clear of various charms and tra- 

 ditional lore. There is no magical way of identifying good mush- 

 rooms; no infallible test for healthful varieties. Here are some speci- 

 mens of newspaper paragraphs : 



"Every mushroom," says one (meaning every edible mushroom), 

 " should peel like a potato." 



Agreed, but nearly all the fungi peel readily. 



" But the stem ought to come out like an umbrella-handle." 



Whole classes (many of them noxious) have free gills, which is the 

 only reason why the stem leaves the cap so easily. 



Then, on the negative side, you will hear such attempts at classifi- 

 cation as the following, taken from a widely-circulated weekly: 



" As a general rule, all found in damp, dark places, or on decaying 

 animal matter, are poisonous. Those that have a very thin cap, or the 

 stem growing from the side instead of the middle, should be avoided. 

 All milky mushrooms, with the single exception of the orange milk- 

 mushroom, ai'e extremely dangerous. So also are those which have 

 the gills of equal length, those which run speedily into a dark, watery 

 liquid, which taste bitter or burn the mouth, or have a fetid., sicMy 

 smell. If a mushroom turns a variety of colors when bruised, or is 

 marked by the trail of a snail, it can under no circumstances be 

 eaten." 



Excepting, perhaps, the phrase I have italicized, the above is a 

 tissue of misapprehension. Damp, dark places produce the very best 

 mushrooms. The edible champignon (3Iarasmius oreades) has a very 

 thin cap. The elm-tree mushroom [Agaricus tdmarius) has an eccen- 

 tric stem. The brown milk-mushroom {Lactarius volenmm) is unques- 

 tioned, and several others are doubtless esculent. A whole family 

 [Mussulce) have equal gills. The maned mushroom ( Coprinus coma- 

 tus), most delicious, and easily recognized, turns to ink without the 

 addition of any fluid. The honey-colored mushroom [Agaricus mel- 

 leus) is very acrid raw, as are also others, equally harmless when 

 cooked. Several esculent Agarics turn red when bruised, and many 

 edible Boleti change color. I never saw a snail on a mushroom. 

 Presuming that the writer means to refer to slugs, I would add that 



