December 4, 1895.] 



Garden and Forest. 



489 



ties that one wonders how he found time to write any ser- 

 mons, writers on mushrooms and mushroom-eating have 

 exhibited an enthusiasm for their sul)ject hardly surpassed 

 by that of the professed Wagnerites in the musical world. 

 Mr. Gibson is also an enthusiast, but his enthusiasm is 

 tempered by an admixture of good sense not always found 

 in books of this sort. We are not given to understand that 

 there is nothing vi'orth eating but fungi and that the mil- 

 lenium is coming when, having learned to distinguish 

 between edible and poisonous fungi, every one will have 

 enough to eat. But it seems to us that some even of Mr. 

 Gibson's statements, or, at least, his quotations, are too 

 rosy. When one reads that "the writer never fails upon 

 any day from April to December to find ample supply of 

 healthy, nutritious, delicate toadstools for himself and 

 family," one must admit that this is an exaggeration. Not 

 a few persons fond of fungi were for several weeks of the 

 past summer quite unable to find enough for a single meal. 

 The simple fact is that at some seasons and in some places 

 edible fungi are abundant, but at other times they are 

 scarce, and to obtain enough for a meal requires considera- 

 ble searching, while in exceptionally dry seasons there are 

 times vi'hen there are practically no edible species to be 

 found. Of course, experienced collectors can reap a har- 

 vest where others cannot, but even they sometimes come 

 home empty-handed. It is to be regretted that so many of 

 the inaccurate and sensational statements of Mr. Badham 

 have been constantly quoted in books on mushrooms from 

 1847 to the present time. They mislead the novice; they 

 bore the expert. 



The plan pursued by Mr. Gibson in the treatment of the 

 subject is the only practical one — namely, he describes 

 thirty of the more common species, states their properties 

 and refers the reader to the plates which represent them. 

 Anyone who wishes to know how to distinguish what is good 

 to eat must begin by learning the characters of these com- 

 mon species. Later on he can, by consulting other more 

 technical books or by experimenting carefully himself, 

 increase the list of species which he can eat with safety, 

 but this list of thirty species is complete enough for most 

 persons. The descriptions are good and the illustrations 

 generally life-like as well as artistically pleasing. In the 

 plate of the Fairy-ring fungus the color of the gills is mis- 

 leading, and the upper figure of the plate of the Beefsteak 

 fungus is unlike any form of that species we have ever 

 seen. Plate 29 certainly is not a characteristic figure of 

 Hydnum Caput-Medusae, but seems to us to be rather a 

 young specimen of H. coralloides, a species which it appears 

 to be almost impossible to represent well in colors, if one 

 may judge by the classical figures. 



Although not a difficult matter in course of time to recog- 

 nize the thirty species figured by Mr. Gibson, it can hardly be 

 done at once even by intelligent observers, and it is necessary 

 for the novice to have some rules for distinguishing edible 

 from poisonous species. Mr. Gibson gives the rules laid 

 down in the books, but does not appear to place a very 

 high value on them, as there are exceptions to them all. 

 We should attach rather more value to the rules than he 

 does, for it is better that one should err on the side of safety. 

 Until one is more or less expert, it is far better that he 

 should, through ignorance, throw aside certain edible 

 species which form the exceptions to the rules than that he 

 should partake of one of the dangerous forms. The rules 

 are, at first, an important safeguard. The fallacy of the 

 popular tests of the poisonous character of toadstools is 

 well shown by the writer, and he brings out strongly the 

 distinguishing character of the very poisonous Amanita:, 

 the first point which the fungus collector should learn to re- 

 cognize. The account of the poisonous action of the Amanitas 

 is incorrect in some respects. On p. 69, the active poison- 

 ous principle, muscarine, is said to be volatile. This alka- 

 loid is not volatile on chemical authority. If it were, one 

 would suppose that it would be dissipated on cooking the 

 fungi, but it is well known that that is not the case, nor 

 have we ever known any one to be injured by handling 



Amanitse, or by sleeping in rooms where they were kept. 

 We have over and over again placed Amanitas in small 

 bedrooms when on collecting trips in order to kill the flies 

 which annoyed us, and have never felt the least inconve- 

 nience therefrom. The flies were effectively killed by feed- 

 ing on the fungi, not from any exhalations. Furthermore, 

 it should be said that an alkaloid was discovered in 

 Boletus luridus, which is said by the chemist who dis- 

 covered it to be in all probability the same as muscarine, 

 and it cannot be said that we know that muscarine is found 

 only in Amanitse. 



This leads us to speak of one subject on which we think 

 that caution is needed, namely, the dangerous character of 

 the genus Boletus. The trouble is not that the greater part 

 of the species of this large genus may not be safe, but that, 

 unlike the few species of Amanita, it is often very difficult, 

 even for an expert, to distinguish the species. The Rev. 

 M. J. Berkeley, an authority often quoted by Mr. Gibson, once 

 said to us : "I am now over eighty and have studied fungi 

 many years, but I never feel quite sure of Boleti." 

 If an expert like Mr. Berkeley had doubts, it is well 

 that those of less experience should be very cautious. 

 Mr. Gibson, himself an expert, offers an instance of the 

 uncertainty in regard to the species of Boletus. On p. 183 

 we read : "Many species accredited as poisonous he (the 

 author) has eaten repeatedly without the slightest delete- 

 rious consequences, including the crimson Boletus, B. alve- 

 olatus." On p. 207 it is stated: "In plate 24 are shown 

 two examples of the Boleti which have commonly been 

 accounted poisonous — -B. felleus and B. alveolatus — and, 

 in the absence of absolutely satisfactory assurance to the 

 contrary, it is safer from our present point of view to con- 

 sider them still as suspicious." One is at a loss to under- 

 stand why the author, if he has eaten repeatedly B. alve- 

 olatus without the slightest deleterious consequences, 

 nevertheless advises others to regard the species as suspi- 

 cious. It is true, as he says, that the genus Boletus has 

 been unjustly maligned in so far as we know that some 

 species formerly regarded with suspicion are now consid- 

 ered safe. But, on the other hand, it is also true, that if 

 an expert like Mr. Gibson does not feel sure with regard 

 to a species which he has himself tested, it is well that 

 those who are inexperienced in such matters should be 

 given to understand that, with the exception of certain well- 

 known species, the genus Boletus should be regarded as 

 doubtful, and not to be eaten except with great caution. We 

 are led to make this statement because persons whom we 

 know, misled by the statements of enthusiastic mycopha- 

 gists as to there being little or no danger in eating Boleti, 

 have been poisoned. Except that we feel, in some cases, 

 that the author has not been quite conservative enough, con- 

 sidering that by far the greater part of his readers must be 

 persons who know almost nothing about fungi, we can 

 heartily indorse the book as a valuable guide to those who 

 wish to become fungus-eaters, scientific enough without 

 being too technical, and excellently printed and illustrated. 



Notes. 



The Usambara Violet is the name by which the Saintpaulia 

 ionantha is already known in Germany. 



It is announced in Science that the Botanic Garden of the 

 University of Berlin, having become too small for present re- 

 quirements, will probably be removed to Dahlem to a tract of 

 land of one hundred and twenty-five acres. 



Clematis paniculata has come to be recognized as one of the 

 very best of ornamental climbers when in flower, but it is 

 worth noting that the gray feathery tails of its red fruit are 

 very interesting at this season, while tlie late persisting leaves 

 turn to rich bronze and chocolate colors. 



The fourth part of the tliini volume of the Coiilributions 

 from the United States National Herhariutn is devoted to a 

 report upon a collection of plants made by J. H. Sandberg and 

 assistants, in the interesting and little-known region of north- 

 ern Idaho and the adjacent parts of Washington and Montana 



