THE MUSHROOM BOOK 



CHAPTER I : THE HOMES AND HABITS 



OF FUNGI 



For centuries epicures have used certain fungi for food. 

 The Greeks and Romans esteemed them highly, and gave a great 

 deal of consideration to favourable times and places for gathering 

 them, and to choice methods of preparing them for the table. 

 Juvenal tells us of one old Roman enthusiast who was so carried 

 away by his love for them as to exclaim, "Keep your corn, O 

 Libya, unyoke your oxen, provided only you send us mush- 

 rooms! " Horace says that mushrooms which grow in the fields 

 are the best, and that one can have but little faith in other kinds. 

 Mushroom eaters of the present day would perhaps not agree 

 with him, for they find edible species in every imaginable place 

 where fungi grow, and are constantly adding to their list new 

 varieties which they esteem delicious. 



Although for centuries it has been known that some fungi 

 contain most virulent poisons, still, through ignorance of those 

 points which distinguish the poisonous from the edible, frequent 

 cases of poisoning occur in all classes of society. The mistakes 

 resulting in death have been frequent enough to inspire the timid 

 with an overpowering dread of all fungi, while the damp and 

 grewsome places in which many fungi flourish have caused them 

 to be despised by others. The following lines from Shelley very 

 aptly express the general sentiment : 



" And plants, at whose names tlie verse feels loath, 

 Fill'd the place with a monstrous undergrowth. 

 Prickly and pulpous, and blistering and blue, 

 Livid, and starr'd with a Uirid dew. 



I 



