EDIBLE FUNGI. ii 



should not be kept too long before they are cooked. If more have 

 been collected at one time than are needed for a single meal, it will 

 be generally better to cook them all at once and keep them in the 

 refrigerator in a cooked condition rather than in the raw. As a rule 

 it is better to cook them the same day they are collected. Puff-balls 

 should only be used while the inner flesh is pure and white ; when the 

 yellowish stains of maturity begin to appear they are no longer fit for 

 food. No one would think of eating them after the flesh has changed 

 to the cottony, dusty mass of inaturity." 



Besides this larger book of Prof. Peck's, which may be had for 

 one dollar, there has been issued a pamphlet entitled "Mushrooms 

 and Their Use, " illustrated by uncolored wood-cuts. This is a valuable 

 little book, containing keys to the families, and in many cases to the 

 species, with descriptions of the commoner kind, and may be had for 

 fifty cents from the Cambridge Botanical Supply Co. On the cover 

 is given a price list of works on mushrooms, and it may be of interest 

 to know that one feature of the work of the Boston Mycological Club 

 has been to hold regular exhibitions on Saturdays during the season 

 from twelve to three, at which our native mushrooms, both edible and 

 poisonous, are exhibited. 



The New York society was organized in March of last year, with 

 Prof. Lucien M. Underwood of Columbia University as President, and 

 Dr. Smith Ely Jelliffe of the College of Pharmacy as Vice-President. 

 A series of illustrated lectures, given at the Museum of Natural His- 

 tory in March, under the auspices of Columbia University, were largely 

 attended, and Prof. Underwood continued the course by a series of 

 weekly talks during the springtime. Field excursions were also held 

 to various points in the vicinity of the city and a large number of in- 

 teresting species obtained. Prof. Underwood visited Europe for the 

 purpose of studying the types of North American fungi at Kew. 

 These are pressed in a dried condition, but a collection preserved in 

 formaline, with a view to retaining the natural shapes, is much to be 

 desired. Dr. Jelliffe and several members of the New York Club have 

 been making water-color studies and spore-prints as well as testing 

 many of the edible species found. 



Since the acquirement of the Ellis collection of North American 

 fungi by the managers of the New York Botanical Garden, and the 

 prospect of a speedy erection of the museum at Bronx Park, New 

 York will not long be without ample means for educating the public 

 and supplying information on these as well as other subjects of 

 botanical interest. 



The Russian Thistle is the subject of a recently issued bulletin by 

 Prof. L. H. Pammel (Bulletin No. 38, Iowa Experiment Station). 



