MUSHEOOMS AND OTHER FUNGI 



look for these. Of recent years also our foreign 

 immigrants may sometimes be seen searching for and 

 gathering fungi which were familiar to them in their 

 native land. 



Of course, the chief cause of this general neglect 

 of fungi as articles of food is the still pretty general 

 notion that all toadstools are poisonous. Recent 

 research has shown that mushrooms of all kinds have 

 nutritive qualities much inferior to what was at one 

 time supposed to be the case; but in this respect 

 they probably stand as high, while they have at least 

 as conspicuous gastronomic attractions, as the uni- 

 versal turnip. There seems to be no good reason 

 why the general advance in nature study should not 

 bring us to a sufficient knowledge of the fungi to 

 enable us to use the good and to know and eschew the 

 few poisonous or deleterious ones which grow amongst 

 the good. 



POISONOUS SPECIES. 



Some really poisonous species, of course, there 

 are, and, until the recognition of them forms part 

 of ordinary rural lore, any general use of wild-grow- 

 ing fungi as articles of food need not be hoped for. 

 Almost every year, about the month of September, 

 the newspapers report a case or two of fatal mush- 

 room poisoning. It would seem that Amanita phal- 

 loides is, in all cases, the culprit. In the district 

 with which we are at present concerned, lying within 

 a radius of fifty miles from Toronto, there would 

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