4 EDIBLE MUSHROOMS 



vitation and a recommendation to the feast thereof, 

 with the author as the host — that the digestive func- 

 tions of his confiding friends or guests are to be 

 made the final arbiters of the correctness of his bo- 

 tanical identification — the ban of bane may as well 

 be pronounced at the threshold. Let the too eager 

 epicurean be " scared to death at the outset," on the 

 general principle ^r<? bono publico, and to the concilia- 

 tion of the author's conscience. 



The oft-repeated queries of other correspondents 

 suggest the wisdom of a clearer definition of the 

 limitations of the present work. Sev- 

 To corre= eral individuals have written in surprise 

 spondents of their discovery of a new toadstool 

 which I " did not include in my pict- 

 ured magazine list," with accompaniment of more or 

 less inadequate description and somewhat enigmatical 

 sketches, and desiring the name of the species and 

 judgment upon its esculent qualities. Such corre- 

 spondence is a pleasing tribute to an author, and is 

 herewith gratefully acknowledged as to the past and, 

 with some mental reservations, welcomed as to the 

 future. The number of these communications — oc- 

 casionally several in a day, and with consequent rapid 

 accumulation — renders it absolutely impossible for a 

 busy man to give them the prompt personal atten- 

 tion which courtesy would dictate. My " mushroom " 

 pigeon-hole, therefore, is still plethoric with the un- 

 honored correspondence of many weeks; and inas- 

 much as the continual accession more than balances 

 the number of my responses, a fulfilment of my obli- 

 gations in this direction seems hopeless in contem- 



