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stem/ r though an excellent rule in the main, is not to be relied 

 on implicitly, as the beautiful Amanita Cacsarea, whose base has 

 a very perfect cup, has been the theme of epicures from the time 

 of the Greeks and Romans. Yet as this cup is the badge of the 

 genus Amanita, with a few closely related, and as this genus of 

 plants includes most of the poisonous ones in the United States, 

 it is best to avoid them all. I shall probably be pardoned quoting 

 here a more exact rule as given in Charles Mcllvaine's excellent 

 work on ' 'One Thousand American Fungi, Poisonous and Edible, ' ' 

 though somewhat lengthy, for by its strict observance nearly all 

 the poisonous kinds can be avoided. "Any toadstool with 

 white or lemon-yellow gills, casting white spores when 

 laid, gills down, upon a sheet of paper, having remnants of a 

 fugitive skin in the shape of scabs or warts upon the upper sur- 

 face of its cap, with a veil or ring, or remnants or stains of one, 

 having at the base of its stem in the ground a loose skin like 

 sheath surrounding it, or remnants of one, should never be eaten 

 until the collector is thoroughly conversant with the technicalities 

 of every such species, or has been taught by one whose authority 

 is well known, that it is a harmless species." Luckily, as before 

 mentioned, Amanitas exist, if they exist at all, but. rarely on our 

 Northwest coast, none having been seen by the writer in Idaho. 

 Even should they not exist here, care must be taken in eating 

 mushrooms without sufficient trial by each collector, as nowhere is 

 the old adage truer than with these plants, "What is one man's 

 meat is another man's poison." Even should none of our species 

 prove absolutely poisonous, many of them are intensely disagree- 

 able as well as inedible, and their eating, even if they were not 

 repellant to the appetite, would be followed by indigestion and 

 bowel complaint, if by nothing worse. People are to be met with 

 quite often upon whom strawberries and eggs act'as poisons, and even 

 butter is sickening and causes nausea to some. An acquaintance 

 of the writer is rendered sick whenever he eats liberally of the 

 common mushroom, Agaricus campester. Therefore the best rules 

 to be followed, for any one pretty well acquainted with the study 



