154 MUSHROOM CULTURE. 



both for their flavour and for their value as food. Of 

 this latter quality I had become so well convinced that, 

 during our late war, I sometimes averred, and 1 doubt 

 if there was much, if any, exaggeration in the assertion, 

 that in some parts of the country I could maintain a 

 regiment of soldiers five months of the year upon 

 mushrooms alone. 



" This leads to a remark which should not be over- 

 looked, upon the great abundance of eatable mushrooms 

 in the United States. I think it is Dr. Badham who 

 boasts of their unusual number in Great Britain, stating 

 that there are thirty edible species in that kingdom. I 

 cannot help thinking that this' is an under-estimate. 

 But if the Doctor is correct, there is no comparison 

 between the number in your country and this. I have 

 collected and eaten forty species found within two miles 

 of my house. There are some otjjprs within this limit 

 which I have not yet eaten. In the catalogue of the 

 plants of North Carolina, you will notice that I have 

 indicated one hundred and eleven species of edible fungi 

 known to inhabit this State. I have no doubt there are 

 forty or fifty more, as the alpine portion of the State, 

 which is very extensive and varied, has been very little 

 explored in search of fungi. 



"In October, 1866, while on the Cumberland Moun- 

 tains in Tennessee, a plateau less than 1000 feet above the 

 valleys below, although having very little leisure for exami- 



