EEPOET OF THE STATE BOTANIST 



203 



EDIBLE AND POISONOUS FUXGI OF NEW YORK. 



The figures and descriptions of the '• Edible and Poisonous 

 Fungi of New York" here gi^en have been prepared with a 

 view to meet a growing and popular demand for information 

 concerning a much-neglected department of economic botany, 

 and to facilitate and encourage a more general acquisition of a 

 knowledge of the natural food products of our State. Many 

 who would gladly avail themselves of the agreeable and highly 

 nutritious food afforded by our edible fungi are debarred from 

 doing so by a lack of the knowledge necessary for a proper dis- 

 crimination between the edible and the poisonous or worthless 

 species. With this knowledge, the fear of the bad would no 

 longer prevent the use of the good. With it many whose cir- 

 cumstances are such as to make it difficult or impossible to ])ro- 

 cure an adequate supply of animal food might often obtain a 

 very good substitute for it by the slight labor of gathering it in 

 the fields and woods. 



European works on this subject are less satisfactory, because 

 the species in this countr}^ are not wholly the same as in that. 

 Some of them are not readily procurable because of their high 

 price, others and cheaper ones are less desirable because of 

 deficiency in the number or the character of their illustrations. 

 It has been the purpose of the writer in his attempt to elucidate 

 this subject to be satisfactorily profuse in illustrations. The plates 

 are of such dimensions as to admit of figures of natural size in 

 all except a single species. Whenever it was necessary a whole 

 plate has been devoted to a single species. In nearly all cases the 

 appearance of the young as well as of the mature plant has been 

 shown, and in several instances well-marked varieties have also been 

 illustrated. For the benefit of the botanical student the spores 

 of each species have been figured, magnified to a uniform scale 

 of four hundred diameters. A compound microscope and a 

 micrometer are necessary to ascertain the shipe and size of the 

 spore. 



Of each species a brief diagnosis or botanical description is 

 first given for the use of botanists. This is followed b}' a more 

 full description in plain and simple language which may readily 



