Report of the State Botanist. 7 



to possess a compound microscope, illustrations of the fruit or 

 spores of each species. These are uniformly magnified 400 

 diameters. 



The manuscript designed to accompany the plates consists of 

 19 pages of legal note, 123 pages of descriptions and remarks, 

 explanations of the plates and two pages of index. 



With these plates and their accompanying explanations, 

 descriptions and remarks, it seems to me to be an easy matter 

 for any one of ordinary intelligence, even though without any 

 experience in such things, to recognize the species illustrated 

 by them, (^f the 59 edible species illustrated, 40 at least 

 have been used as food by mj^self and thus proved to my own 

 satisfaction to be good and safe. Xearly all of the remainder 

 have been ]jroved by friends or correspondents in whom I have 

 full confidence, and the few untried ones are such as are ffener- 

 ally recommended as edible by European works on this subject, 

 and such as I would have no hesitation in eating if opportunity 

 should be afforded. A few of the species are such as are not 

 represented in European works or have not been classed as edible 

 in them, but in all these cases they have been proved by actual 

 trial to be worthy of a place among our edible species. 



There yet remains in our flora a goodly number of reputed 

 edible species which I have not tried for lack of opportunity, 

 but it is my purpose to test them as fast as opportunity is 

 given. Eight species not included in the illustrations have 

 been tried the past season. It is my purpose to continue the 

 illustration of these, and others as fast as they have been 

 proved, until all our esculent species have been thus 

 represented. The more I experiment in this direction 

 the more firmly I am convinced that the number of really 

 poisonous or dangerous species of mushrooms is very small. 

 Probably there is not a greater percentage of such species among 

 the flesliy fungi than there is of really dangerous or poisonous 

 species among flowering plants. But there are many fungi 

 which, though harmless, are not to be classed as edible, because 

 of their toughness, insipidity, unpleasant flavor or smallness 

 of size. 



The plan of putting the illustrations of our edible mushrooms 

 upon charts to be suspended upon the walls of our institutions of 



