COMMON MUSHROOMS OF THE UNITED STATES 



391 



Curiously enough, some of the ancient 

 beliefs as to the origin of poisonous fungi 

 persist at the present time in Italy. A 

 Sicilian laborer whom the writer inter- 

 rogated on the "funghi," vouchsafed the 

 "information" that the poisonous kinds 

 grow from rusty iron (nails, etc.) in the 

 ground, but that they are easily to be dis- 

 tinguished from the wholesome kinds in 

 the process of cooking by simply drop- 

 ping a piece of bright silver (a new coin 

 or the like) into the stew : if the fungi 

 are poisonous, the silver will blacken ; if 

 not, it will retain its luster. The efficacy 

 of this "test" is believed in by an aston- 

 ishing number of people. 



But not only tradition is active in pro- 

 mulgating error in this life-and-death 

 matter. Newspapers occasionally and in- 

 advertently publish "general rules" that 

 are often misleading. For example, an 

 article in a representative daily in one of 

 our large cities, after assuring the reader 

 that there are but six poisonous kinds 

 among more than a thousand, adds : 



"No poisonous mushroom is ever found 

 growing in cluster form." 



In refutation of such a generality, the 

 reader is referred to the symptom pro- 

 duced by Olitocybe illudcns, a poisonous, 

 though not a deadly poisonous, agaric 

 that grows in dense clusters (see Plate 

 III and text, page 403). 



GENERAL RULES FOR BEGINNERS 



General rules for the guidance of 

 mushroom-hunters are trustworthy and 

 serviceable only when formulated by ex- 

 perienced botanists. The following six 

 rules* by the late Dr. W. G. Farlow, Pro- 

 fessor of Cryptogamic Botany in Har- 

 vard University, will prevent, if scrupu- 

 lously observed, the eating of notoriously 

 poisonous species : 



"(1) Avoid fungi when in the button 

 or unexpanded stage ; also those in which 

 the flesh has begun to decay, even if only 

 slightly. 



"(2) Avoid all fungi which have death 

 cups, stalks with a swollen base sur- 

 rounded by a sac-like or scaly envelop, 

 especially if the gills are white. (Study 

 the Amanitas and diagram, page 389.) 



"(3) Avoid fungi having a milky juice, 

 unless the milk is reddish. 



* Published in Bulletin No. 15, U. S. Dept. 

 of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 



"(4) Avoid fungi in which the cap, or 

 pileus, is thin in proportion to the gills, 

 and in which the gills are nearly all of 

 equal length, especially if the pileus is 

 bright-colored. 



"(5) Avoid all tube-bearing fungi in 

 which the flesh changes color when cut 

 or broken or where the mouths of the 

 tubes are reddish, and in the case of 

 other tube-bearing fungi experiment with 

 caution. 



"(6) Fungi which have a sort of 

 spider web or flocculent ring round the 

 upper part of the stalk should in general 

 be avoided." 



Professor Farlow adds that "Rules 1, 

 2, and 5 may for the beginner be re- 

 garded as absolute, with the exception to 

 Rule 2, Amanita cccsarca (Plate IX), the 

 gills of which are yellow. Rules 3, 4, 

 and 6 have more numerous exceptions, 

 but these rules should be followed in all 

 cases unless the collector is content to 

 experiment first with very small quanti- 

 ties and learn the practical result." 



Other rules that will help to protect 

 from serious poisoning are : 



Do not collect mushrooms in or near 

 wooded areas except for study purposes. 



This rule is very general, as it does 

 not protect against the green-gilled Le- 

 piota (see illustration on page 393), nor 

 against an occasional Amanita and some 

 others; but it does prevent the beginner 

 from entering the very "lair" of the man- 

 killers. 



Do not accept mushrooms from a self- 

 styled expert, even if you have to dis- 

 oblige a dear friend. Learn the subject 

 yourself. 



That an animal (insect, squirrel, turtle, 

 etc.) has eaten of a mushroom is no cri- 

 terion of the edibility of that mushroom 

 for man. Insect larva? thrive and grow 

 fat on the violently poisonous Amanita 

 phalloides (Plates X and XVI). 



Soaking or boiling in water does not 

 render a poisonous species edible.* The 

 poisons of Amanita phalloides are de- 

 stroyed only by continued boiling in pow- 

 erful acids. (Dr. W. W. Ford.) 



*J. Henri Fabre, in his "The Life of the Flv." 

 relates that the peasants of Serignan, in the 

 south of France, render such notoriouslv 

 poisonous species as Amanita panthcrina and 

 Amanita citrina (Plate V) edible by parboiling 

 in water. Other reliable evidence speaks 

 against this practice, however. 



