JOURNAL 
OF 
The New York Botanical Garden 
VoL. 1X. December, 1908. No. 108. 
EDIBLE MUSHROOMS IN BRONX PARK. 
The popular interest in mushrooms of all kinds is almost phe- 
nomenal. This is due to their beauty of form and color and the 
supposed mystery surrounding their origin and growth, as well 
as to the use of certain kinds for food. Their nutritive value is 
not great, being about equal to that of cabbage, but they afford 
variety in flavor and add greatly to the relish for other foods. 
Mushroom eating is much more in vogue in Europe than in 
this country. The struggle for existence is greater there, and 
the edible and poisonous varieties are better known by all classes 
of.people. In China it is almost impossible for a botanist to get 
specimens, on account of the thorough manner in which all wild 
food is collected by the natives. 
The use of mushrooms in this country is as yet very limited, 
being confined chiefly to our foreign-born population. Even in 
New York City many excellent kinds go to waste every season 
because they are different from kinds known in Europe. This 
is especially true of the puffballs, which do not seem to be gen- 
erally recognized here as edible. On the other hand, many 
common mushroom and the stumps for the ‘‘beefsteak”’ mush- 
room and the honey agaric, appear to gather everything they 
find at all resembling edible forms known to them. 
’ All knowledge regarding the edible and poisonous properties 
of mushrooms is based on experiments, either intentional or un- 
