Minnesota Plant Life. 



61 



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 variety of mushroom.' After 

 Atkinson. Bulletin 138, Cornell Ag. Exp. 

 vStation. This is sometimes known as the 

 "poison cup." 



