Minnesota Plant Life. 



6i 



Mushrooms and toadstools. Related to the pore-fungi, and 

 especially to those in which the pores are elongated or laby- 

 rinthine, are the well-known mushrooms and toadstools. There 

 is little systematic difference between mushrooms and toad- 

 stools. People are in the habit of calling an edible toadstool a 

 mushroom, and a poisonous mushroom a toadstool. The fact 

 is that some of the species 

 of the great mushroom ge- 

 nus are edible while others 

 are not, and it is often ex- 

 tremely difficult even for an 

 expert to distinguish be- 

 tween edible and poisonous 

 varieties. The following are 

 very good rules to follow if 

 one feels an uncontrollable 

 inclination to experiment 

 with mushrooms as an arti- 

 cle of diet : 



Never eat a mushroom 

 that is highly colored. 



Never eat a mushroom 

 that has pink gills. 



Never eat a mushroom 

 that seems to grow out of a 

 little cup at the base. 



Never eat a mushroom 

 that has a milky juice. 



Never eat a mushroom 

 that changes color shortly 

 after its substance is broken. 



Never eat a mushroom 

 with a pungent odor. 



Never eat a mushroom with a sticky or slimy cap. 



Never eat an immature mushroom unless absolutely certain 

 what sort of a form it will be when mature. 



None of these rules is absolute. There are exceptions to all 

 of them, to some more than to others, but, together, they con- 

 stitute a safe code and one cannot go far wrong in observing it. 



Fig. 19. — Deadly variet}' of mushroom. After 

 Atkinson. Bulletin 138, Cornell Ag. Exp. 

 .Station. This is sometimes known as the 

 "poison cup." 



