152 MUSHROOM CULTURE. 



with any whose knowledge of mushrooms extended beyond 

 the common species (A. campestris) , called pink gill in this 

 country. Several such families live near me, but not one 

 of them was aware, until I informed them, that there 

 are other edible kinds. Everything but the pink gill, 

 which had the form of a mushroom, was to them a toad- 

 stool, and poisonous. When I first sent my son with 

 a fine basket of Imperials (A. Casareus), to an intelligent 

 physician, who was extravagantly rond of the common 

 mushroom, the lad was greeted with the indignant ex- 

 clamation, ' Boy, I wouldn't eat one of those things to 

 save your father's head I' When told that they were 

 eaten at my table, he accepted them, ate them, and has 

 eaten many a one since, with all safety and with no little 

 relish. Since that time our mycophagists eat whatever 

 I send them, without fear or suspicion. 



" I have interested myself to extend the knowledge 

 of these things among the lovers of mushrooms, and also 

 their use among those who have not before tried them. 

 In the latter work I am not always successful, on account 

 of a strong prejudice against vegetables with such con- 

 temptible names, and an unconquerable fear of accidents. 

 Yet, as in my own case, curiosity often conquers these 

 errors. When away from home I have frequently ob- 

 tained permission from a kind hostess to have cooked a 

 dish of mushrooms that I have found on her premises. 

 It has rarely occurred in such cases that the dish, then 



