COMMON AMERICAN MUSHROOMS 



BY DR. R. W. SHUFELDT, C. M. Z. S., ETC. 



(WITH PHOTOGRAPHS BY THE AUTHOR) 



IT' VERY sensible writer who undertakes to publish an 

 '-^ article on mushrooms, generally starts by pointing out 

 the great danger that attaches to the gathering and eating 

 of mushrooms by people lacking the knowledge to en- 

 able them to distinguish the poisonous from the edible 

 or harmless species. No warning is more necessary than 

 this, as hundreds of persons have died from eating the 

 poisonous varieties fc>f our mushrooms or toadstools, as 

 they are familiarly called. Nina L. Marshall, in her work, 

 "The Mushroom Book," is no exception to this rule, 

 as she says, almost at the very outstart, that "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 of them flourish have caused them to be 

 despised by others." 



Every word of this can be endorsed by the present 

 writer; and inasmuch as the poisonous species of mush- 

 rooms met with in nature are numerous, and often closely 

 resemble some of the harmless ones, one should be as 

 certain of diagnosis of a harmless or edible species as 

 knowing black from white, or arsenic from gunpowder. 



When properly prepared, some of our mushrooms 

 stand among the most delightful foods known ; and when 

 the forester is serving far from civilization, in a country 

 where many species grow in plenty at certain seasons of 

 the year, it is of great advantage to him to be able to 

 gather, with certainty as to their non-poisonous quali- 



FIG. 1 THE DEATH CUP OR DESTROYING ANGEL 



This is the name by which the big toadstood in the center of the picture is known. It is a fine specimen of the Amanita phal- 

 loides, one of the most deadly fungi known, and is frequently m istaken for a mushroom and eaten with nearly always fatal re- 

 sults. Possibly the tall, more slender specimen to the right is al so a death cup. 



