ABOUT POISONOUS FUNGI. 207 



work, so as to ensure a popular price, would not 

 permit of the introduction of noxious species, without 

 a corresponding diminution in the number of edible 

 species described and figured. 



It has always been supposed by the uninitiated that 

 the number of noxious species as compared with the 

 edible is enormous, and are by very far in the majority. 

 Upon investigation this will be discovered to be an 

 error. There are species undoubtedly virulent, which 

 we cannot for a moment deny, but the number of 

 these is much inferior to the number of those which 

 are innocuous, whilst the experience of every year 

 tends to the diminution of the suspected species, 

 many of which have been suspected without any 

 sufficient cause. Select any one hundred consecutive 

 species from a list, and assume that a dozen of them 

 are known to be esculent, hitherto it has been very 

 much the practice to condemn the residual eighty- 

 eight as noxious, which is a cardinal error. There may 

 be a number of species so small that no one would 

 ever enquire whether they were poisonous or not. 

 There would also be a considerable number which 

 might be termed botanical curiosities, species once 

 seen and recorded, but never met with for a quarter 

 of a century, or species so rare that only one or two 

 are met with at intervals. Finally, there will always 

 be a number known to possess some quality other 

 than noxious, such as toughness, deficiency in flesh, &:c., 

 which forbids, and always would forbid, their being 



