they iia])ort large quantities from Japan and other islands of the 

 Pacific ocean. In some of the cities of Europe, the consumption 

 of them is so great that a superintendent of the market is em- 

 ployed to inspect those offered for sale, and to destroy those that 

 are unwholesome or unfit for food. In this way it has been as- 

 certained that more than thirty tons are annually consumed in 

 Rome alone! They are not used by the jioorer classes of people 

 exclusively, for the wealthy and the nobility are apparently as 

 fond of them as any other class. They are served at the tables of 

 the hotels and on great occasions. 



In this country, the high price of the common or cultivated 

 niushroom (usually fifty cents to a dollar a pound) excludes it 

 from the tables of the poor who live in cities or where they are 

 unable to gather it in the wild state; but, fortunately for them, 

 there are many other species quite as good as this, which it is 

 possible to have in the season for the trouble of gathering. No 

 labor is exjDended in their cultivation, no costly hot-houses or 

 mushroom cellars are occupied by them; nature produces them 

 at her own expense, and often in great abundance. They afford 

 palatable and nutritious food; and yet they are generally al- 

 lowed to decay where they grew. In this state alone, at least 

 seventy-five species are known to occur that are available for 

 food. There are here also nearly six hundred other fleshy or 

 similar fungi, many of which will doubtless yet be found to be 

 edible. Experimenters are already in the field, and additions 

 are frequently made to the esculent list. It is true that some are 

 of small size, or of rare occurrence or limited range; but others 

 occur with frequency, are of fair size and wide range, and in fa- 

 ^'orable seasons and localities are found in great profusion. Some 

 occur early in the season, others in midsummer, and many in 

 late summer and in autumn; so that there is a succession of 

 crops, which in wet seasons at least make an almost continuous 

 sup]ily possible. 



They constitute a very nutritious and sustaining diet. Chemi- 

 cal analysis, as well as experience, indicates this. The former 

 has shown that they contain in their dry matter from 20 to 50 

 per cent, of protein or nitrogenous material, and they may there- 

 fore be called a vegetable meat, and be used as a substitute for 

 animal food. 



Like other vegetables, they are largely composed of water, 

 A\hich generally constitutes 80 or 90 per cent, of the wdiole. So 

 much water causes them to shrivel greatly in drying, and so 

 mu.ch nitrogenous material induces rapid decay and loathsome 



