Fungi for the Table 
Never use fungi with milky juice unless the juice is red- 
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 Foop 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- 
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