PREAMBLE. 19 



the fungus eaten was not a poisonous one, 

 but no one had ever tested it, and it was 

 regarded with suspicion. 



It is a popular error that a " mushroom ' 

 may be distinguished from a "toadstool 5 

 by the cuticle of the cap. Some j3ersons 

 hold that if the cuticle, or skin, of the cap 

 or pileus can be stripped off readily, then 

 the fungus in question is an edible mush- 

 room ; but if it cannot be stripped off, in that 

 case it is poisonous. The cuticle is certainly 

 separable in the mushroom, both wild and 

 cultivated, but in numerous instances where 

 it is separable in other species, they are 

 certainly dangerous ; whereas in some ex- 

 cellent species, which are constantly eaten, 

 there is no separable cuticle. A wag was 

 once heard to declare that he knew of 

 only one universal and infallible method 

 for determining an edible from a poisonous 

 mushroom, and that was by eating it. If 

 it did you no harm it was edible, but if it 

 killed you, or made you ill, then it was unfit 

 for food. Against this experimental method 



