62 FIELD AND FOREST. 



and the impressions made in the nursery fling back their light or their 

 shade, their good or their evil, upon the whole of a lifetime. 



It has bjen said that those which part with their skin easily are 

 edible. So far from this several of the most. deleterious peel as easily 

 as our edible Ag. campestris. 



The popular idea of testing their posionous properties by stirring the 

 stew with a silver spoon, that if it turns black the mushroom is poison- 

 ous, is a delusion indulged in by old Maryland cooks. The proof of 

 the pudding is in the eating, and the faithful can experiment. As for 

 ourselves we are content to taste only. If the fungus is acrid or 

 burns the tongue it had better be discarded. We confide only in the 

 Ag. campestris as a friend without guile. 



A very important rule to be observed in eating our edible mush- 

 room is to cook it as soon as gathered. If it remains a few hours it is 

 not so good or so wholesome. More than this the removal of the gills 

 is thought by some epicures to be an improvement to the sauce. The 

 following is an old family recipe which perhaps had as well be re- 

 corded, though there is as much in the cook as in the materials to be 

 compounded : 



The gills of the mushroom were removed, nothing being left but the 

 flesh of the pileus, after it was skinned, and the stem. These were 

 Washed, then sprinkled with a little salt and pepper; placed in a stew pan 

 with a piece of butter, and to every pint of prepared mushrooms was 

 added half a pint of cream. This when well cooked was used as sauce, 

 poured over beefsteak or over toasted bread. When on bread or steak it 

 was served as a breakfast dish. Gathered in the early morning and 

 cooked for breakfast according to this recipe they were considered very 

 ifrrie. 



Another popular delusion is to compare anything which springs sud- 

 denly into life to a mushroom. We know from observation that the 

 growth of some fungi is not more sudden than a rose-bud. The young 

 fungus is in many cases some weeks, perhaps months in forming before 

 it "appears upon the surface. Though compressed into a button 

 Sniped ball it is as perfect in all its parts as a full grown mushroom, 



and'each weighs its equivalent. The absorption of the moisture by 



flOifr 



exposure to the air in the full grown specimen accounts for this. 



'When gathering the Ag. procerus on the 17th of last September 



we" were attracted by the whiteness of the earth, looking as if meal or 



