EDIBLE FUNGI. 157 



fectly detestable. 1 had one specimen cooked, but no 

 amount of seasoning could abate the offensiveness of the 

 odious thing ; yet within a hundred yards of these I gather 

 specimens of the same identical species, which are of fine 

 flavour, equal to that of the best mushrooms. As I have 

 before intimated the varying flavour of mushrooms grow- 

 ing on different kinds of wood, so here I suppose the 

 unpleasant qualities of some specimens of these two well- 

 known and favourite species, may be owing to something 

 in the soil where they grow which they cannot assimilate, 

 and so render a palatable and wholesome species totally 

 unfit for the table. Whether such specimens, if eaten, 

 would be poisonous or unwholesome, I do not feel any 

 temptation to prove. It is not probable that they will 

 ever do any mischief, for it is incredible that any human 

 being should so pervert his instincts as to swallow such 

 a villanous concoction. 



"Experience and observations like these would perhaps 

 justify the inference that an innocent species may some- 

 times be deleterious, on account of its taking up some 

 bad element from the soil. But as I have never known 

 a case of poisoning in families that are well acquainted 

 with the common mushroom or pink gill, that gather the 

 specimens for themselves, and have used this article of food 

 annually for many generations, I cannot agree with a sug- 

 gestion somewhere made by you, that perhaps all mush- 

 rooms contain a poisonous element, but some of them ID 



