Fungi for the Table 



Never use fungi with milicy juice unless the juice is fed- 

 dish. 



Never use fungi with caps thin in proportion to the width 

 of the gills when the gills are nearly all of equal length, especially 

 if the caps are bright coloured. 



Never use for food tube-bearing fungi in which the flesh 

 changes colour when cut or broken, nor those with the tubes 

 reddish. Be very cautious with all fleshy tube-bearing fungi. 



Never use for food fungi with a web-like ring around the 

 upper part of the stem. 



The novice may safely experiment with Clavarias, coral 

 fungi, morels, and puffballs. 



The Food Value of Fungi. — Many people thoughtful for the 

 welfare of those with limited opportunities for varying their bill 

 of fare have hoped to solve the problem by introducing into 

 more general use the varied and abundant fungi which grow 

 everywhere throughout our country. In order to accomplish 

 this object, bulletins have been published by the several agricul- 

 tural departments, and have been distributed freely to those 

 wishing to have them. The result has been that a wide-spread 

 interest has been created in this branch of botany, and fungi 

 have become a common dish on tables where they were never 

 before seen. 



As accessories, for relish or variety, edible fungi are undoubt- 

 edly valuable ; but that they can never take the place of meat, as 

 many fondly hoped, nor rank very high as an essential food, has 

 been shown by the experiments of Mr. L. B. Mendel in the 

 Sheffield Laboratory of Physiological Chemistry, Yale University. 

 Mr. Mendel has demonstrated by chemical analysis and by ex- 

 periments in artificial digestion that the proportion of proteid 

 matter — the material which meat supplies — is smaller than it was 

 formerly supposed to be, and also that a large proportion of that 

 present is not acted upon by the digestive juices. Since, also, 

 the proportion of water to solid matter is very great, being from 

 seventy to ninety per cent, in the most desirable edible species, 

 it would be necessary that a man should eat a great many 

 pounds of even the richest fungi in order to obtain the daily 

 requisite of proteid matter necessary to maintain a healthy 

 constitution. 



The specimens marked edible in this book have been repeat- 



152 



