6 EDIBLE MUSHROOMS 



duction under such questionable auspices. Most spe- 

 cies of mushrooms are extremely perishable, and 

 their " animal " character, chemically 

 considered, and their tendency to rapid 

 decomposition, render them unfit for 

 transportation for any distance, unless 

 hermetically sealed, or their decay otherwise antici- 

 pated. 



In the possibility of a continuance of this corre- 

 spondence, consequent upon the publication of this 

 present book, the writer, in order to forefend a pre- 

 sumably generous proportion of such correspondence, 

 would here emphasize the fact that he is by no 

 means the authority on mycology, or the science 

 of fungi, which the attitude of his inquiring friends 

 would imply. Indeed, his knowledge of species is 

 -quite limited. An early fascination, it is true, was 

 humored with considerable zeal to the accumulation 

 of a portfolio of water-colors and other drawings of 

 various fungi — microscopic, curious, edible, and poi- 

 sonous — and this collection has been subsequently 

 added to at intervals during his regular professional 

 work. 



More than one of the originals of the accompany- 

 ing colored plates have been hidden in this portfolio 

 for over twenty years, and a larger number for ten 

 or fifteen years, awaiting the further accumulation of 

 that knowledge and experience, especially with refer- 

 ence to the edibility of species, w'hich should warrant 

 the utterance of the long-contemplated book. 



The reader will therefore kindly remember that 

 out of the approximate looo odd species of fungi en- 



