210 FUNGI. 
possible, and probably would be if every baneful fungus had tue 
word POISON inscribed in capitals on its pileus. 
The inquiry is constantly being made as to what plain rules 
can be given for distinguishing poisonous from edible fungi, and 
we can answer only that there are none other than those which 
apply to flowering plants. How can aconite, henbane, cenanthe, 
stramonium, and such plants, Le distinguished from parsley, 
sorrel, watercress, or spinach? Manifesily not by any general 
characters, but by specific differences. And so it is with the 
fungi. We must learn to discriminate Agar?cus muscarius from 
Agaricus rubescens, in the same manner as we wouid discriminate 
parsley from thusa cynapium. Indeed, fungi have an advantage 
in this respect, since one or two general cautions can be given, 
when none such are applicable for higher plants. For instance, 
it may be said truly that all fungi that exhibit a rapid change 
to blue when bruised or broken should be avoided; that all 
Agarics are open to suspicion which possess an acrid taste ; that 
fungi found growing on wood should not be eaten unless the 
species is well known; that no species of edible fungus has a 
strong, unpleasant odour, and similar cautions, which, after all, 
are insufficient. The only safe guide lies in mastering, one by 
one, the specific distinctions, and increasing the number of one’s 
own esculents gradually, by dint of knowledge and experience, 
even as a child learns to distinguish a filbert from an acorn, or 
with wider experience will thrust in his mouth a leaf of Ovals 
and reject that of the white clover. 
One of the most deleterious of fungi that we possess is at the 
same time one of the most beautiful. This is the Ayaricus 
muscarius, or Fly Agaric, which is sometimes used as a fly 
poison.* It has a bright crimson pileus studded with pale 
whitish (sometimes yellowish) warts, and a stem and gills of 
ivory whiteness. Many instances have been recorded of poison- 
ing by this fungus, and amongst them some British suldiers 
abroad, and yet it cannot be doubted that this fungus is eaten in 
* A detailed account of the peculiar properties of this fungus and its employ- 
tient as a narevtic will be found in Cooke's ‘‘Seven Sisters of Sleep,” p. 337. 
It is figured in Greville’s ‘‘ Scottish Cryptogamic Florn,” plate 54. 
