210 FUNGI. 



possible, and probably would be if every baneful fungus had tLe 

 word POISON inscribed in capitals on its pileus. 



The inquiry is constantly being made as to what plain rules 

 can be given for distinguishing poisonous from edible fungi, and 

 we can answer only that there are none other than those which 

 apply to flowering plants. How can aconite, henbane, cenanthe, 

 stramonium, and such plants, be distinguished from parsley, 

 sorrel, watercress, or spinach ? Manifestly not by any general 

 characters, but by specific differences. And so it is with the 

 fungi. We must learn to discriminate Agaricus muscarius from 

 Agaricus rubescens, in the same manner as we would discriminate 

 parsley from ^thusa cynapium. Indeed, fungi have an advantage 

 in this respect, since one or two general cautions can be given, 

 when none such are applicable for higher plants. For instance, 

 it may be said truly that all fungi that exhibit a rapid change 

 to blue when bruised or broken should be avoided; that all 

 Agarics are open to suspicion which possess an acrid taste ; that 

 fungi found growing on wood should not be eaten unless the 

 species is well known ; that no species of edible fungus has a 

 strong, unpleasant odour, and similar cautions, which, after all, 

 are insufficient. The only safe guide lies in mastering, one by 

 one, the specific distinctions, and increasing the number of one's 

 own esculents gradually, by dint of knowledge and experience, 

 even as a child learns to distinguish a filbert from an acorn, or 

 with wider experience will thrust in his mouth a leaf of Oxalis 

 and reject that of the white clover. 



One of the most deleterious of fungi that we possess is at the 

 same time one of the most beautiful. This is the Agaricus 

 muscarius, or Fly Agaric, which is sometimes used as a fly 

 poison.* It has a bright crimson pileus studded with pale 

 whitish (sometimes yellowish) warts, and a stem and gills of 

 ivory whiteness. Many instances have been recorded of poison- 

 ing by this fungus, and amongst them some British soldiers 

 abroad, and yet it cannot be doubted that this fungus is eaten in 



* A detailed account of the peculiar properties of this fungus and its employ- 

 ment as a narcotic will be found in Cooke's "Seven Sisters of Sleep," p. 337. 

 It is figured in Greville's "Scottish Cryptogamic Flora," plate 54. 



