CHAPTER XIX 



FUXGI CONTIXUEI): MU8I1R00MS, I'OLSOXOUS 



AXD EDIBLE 



To know several different kinds of edible mushrooms, which occur in 

 greater or less quantity through the different seasons, would enable those in- 

 terested in these plants to provide a palatable food at the expense only of the 

 time required to collect them. To know several of the poisonous ones also is 

 important, in order certainly to avoid them. — Atkinson, ''Mushrooms," p. iv 



General. Persistent search extending through a series of 

 years in an}- favorable locality would reveal the presence of 

 about 1000 species of these our largest and most conspicuous 

 fungi. In one season one might expect to find from 200 to 

 400 species. Of the entire number, according to ]McIlvane, 

 nine species (all amanitas) are deadly poisonous, about a 

 dozen contain minor poisons, and are rated as suspicious or 

 dangerous, 735 are edible, while the rest have either not been 

 tested or, on account of woodiness, disagreeable taste, small 

 size, or extreme rareness, are of interest only to the specialist. 



Form and structure. ]Mushrooms, like other fungi, are active 

 in causing decav, chieflv in waste matters of plants and ani- 

 mals, but a number attack the roots and wood of trees, and, 

 naturally timber and wooden structures. 



From our knowledge of the molds it is an easy step to the 

 life history of a mushroom. Both organisms begin as spores ; 

 in both, these sprout and grow to form a mass of food-absorb- 

 ing mycelium. In mushrooms this may extend many feet in 

 the soil, in leaf mold, or in the wood of a tree. In both, some 

 of the mycelial threads finally grow out of the food substance 

 and complete the life cycle by producing the spores with which 



200 



