PAGE 2. 



The following definitions are here given, and will be found necessary: — 



PILEU8. The expanded disk or cap of the mushroom or toadstool. 



GILLS. The thin plates set on their edges under the pileus, running to a common 



centre at the stem. 

 TUBES. The spongy collection of pores which take the place of gills under the 



pileus of a Boletus. 

 VEIL. A web or membrane which extends from the margin of the pileus to the 



stem when the mushroom is young, and thus encloses the gills. 

 RING. A part of the veil adherent to the stem, and forming a collar around it. 

 VOLVA. The sheath or wrapper enclosing the young mushroom, when below or just 



above the ground ; the remains of which are found in the ring, the veil, at the 



base of the stem, and in the warty or scurfy top of some varieties of mushrooms. 

 SPOBES. The reproductive bodies, analogous to seeds in some other plants, found 



under the caps of the Agaricini and Boleti, and appearing like fine dust when 



the cap is left for a time lying under-side downward. 



There are as many different flavors and tastes among esculent fungi as are found 

 in any other varieties of diet, and the very general ignorance of this fact is a sufficient 

 reason for the issue of this work. Many persons claim to know a mushroom from a 

 toadstool. This means that there is one variety out of a thousand of which they eat 

 with safety, and it means nothing more. A person might as well select one fish from 

 the sea, and avoid all other members of the finny tribe on the ground that there are 

 poisonous fishes. It is strange that this general ignorance is most apparent in the case 

 of the English-speaking people. The fungus eaters form a little clique in England, 

 but the majority of her people know nothing of this gratuitous offering from Nature's 

 storehouse. No country is richer in mushroom food than America. Were the poorer 

 classes of Eussia, Germany, Italy, or France to see our forests during the autunm rains, 

 they would feast on the rich food there going to waste. For this harvest is sponta- 

 neous; it requires no seed-time, and asks for no peasant's toil. At the same time, 

 the economic value of mushroom diet ranks second to meat alone. With bread, arid 

 mushrooms properly gathered and prepared, a person may neglect the butcher during 

 the summer months. This is self-evident to the unscientific mind by the simple facts 

 that mushrooms make the same use of the air we breathe as is made by animals, that 

 cooked they resemble no form of vegetable food, and that in decay their odor in some 

 cases cannot be distinguished from that of putrid meat. To this feast, abundantly pro- 

 vided by Nature for the poorest as well as the most epicurean, we invite the American 

 people. ^ 



