A TALK ABOUT MUSHROOMS. 115 



no butter will be uecessary. If the mushrooms are large and 

 fresh and the supply adequate, he would broil them. He regarded 

 Agaricus comatKS (the Shaggy Maned) as the best, except ^1. cam- 

 pestris. It requires about twenty minutes to cook the stems, but 

 only ten minutes for the caps. He had never found them infested 

 with maggots. Where the A. co7natus grow at all, they grow 

 profusely, crowded together. They are found in filled land, in the 

 suburbs of cities, and often on or near disreputable looking 

 rubbish heaps. 



Professor Benjamin M. Watson, Jr., said that an easy rule for 

 cooking mushrooms is, to put into a blazer two large spoonfuls 

 of butter for each pound of mushrooms ; then put in the mush- 

 rooms, gills upward, and add salt and pepper as the taste requires. 

 Let them stew until cooked. Just before the cooking is completed, 

 a spoonful of sherry or a gill of cream may be added. They 

 should be served on hot, buttered toast. Agaricus campestris can 

 be easily distinguished by the color of the gills, which, when fresh, 

 are of a beautiful pink color. Another distinction is its location, 

 which is always in grassy places, in fields and rich pastures, but 

 never in woods or damp ground. Every one should know, how- 

 ever, that there are many poisonous mushrooms, some of which 

 will make one sick, while others will cause death. 



A lady asked how one could distinguish the poisonous species 

 and varieties ; also if any sources of information were readily 

 accessible. 



Professor Watson advised, as the best method of learning 

 how to distinguish the edible from the poisonous mushrooms, to get 

 some one who knows these plants to take a walk in the fields and 

 woods with you, and show you the characteristics peculiar to each 

 variety ; also to read authoritative papers upon the subject, espec- 

 ially those that are illustrated faithfully, such as are published in 

 the Annual Reports of the United States Department of Agricul- 

 ture, and the articles written by Professor William G. Farlow, of 

 Harvard University, that have been coming out in ' ' Garden and 

 Forest," and are now published in pamphlet form. This plan will 

 be all the more successful if the paper or the book is taken into 

 the field or forest, and read when a specimen is found. The 

 study of the natural object is far preferable to the best picture 

 that can be made. 



