7° 



EDIBLE MUSHROOMS 



ach, they were enforced upon my attention. The 

 whites of my eyes became livid, and even until noon 

 the day following the leaden color of my face was 

 noticed by more than one person." 



The moral of this story is that the less the reader 



has to do with Amanita fungi the better. Let them 



have a wide berth, or at most an an- 



A wide berth nihilating kick, lest by their alluring 



to Amanita beauty they tempt the next unwary 

 traveller who shall encounter them. 



But you desire a specimen " to show a friend," or 

 " to make a photograph of, or a sketch," perhaps. 

 In such case it were well to consider further the ex- 

 periences of Mr. Palmer, which will show the wisdom 

 of keeping your gustatorial and artistic mycology 

 in separate expeditions, or at least of providing your 

 poison-exhaling Amanita specimen with a cage by it- 

 self. In the same article he continues : 



" Mushrooms make the same use of the atmosphere 

 as men, even their exhalations are accordingly viti- 

 ated with their properties. Those not 



Inooliatwr 'i^^dly thus attack humanity— namely, 



by contact by absorption of their essential elements 



by the whole system. They also hi- 



oculate each other with or without contact, so that if 



edible and noxious toadstools are gathered together the 



former will absorb the properties of the latter!^ 



In proof of this assertion he instances a personal 

 experience as follows : " About four years ago a num- 

 ber of poisonous mushrooms (not Amanitae, but of a 

 totally different family) were sent me with edible fun- 

 gus. The two varieties had lain twelve hours in the 



