208 NEW TOBK STATE MUSEUM 



is, therefore, no escape from the necessity of acquiring a knowl- 

 edge of each species we would utilize, sufficiently clear and exact 

 to enable us to distinguish it from all others. Whatever value 

 investigators and experimenters, who are willing to take some 

 risks for the good of others, may find in such rules or general 

 principles, it is evident that they are not sufficiently definite, 

 exact and reliable for general use. To any one willing to avail 

 himself of the experience of others and to apply himself suffi- 

 ciently to learn to recognize the^species they have found to be 

 edible, nature opens a field productive of much palatable and 

 nutritious food, which is too often left to decay where it grew. 



But some care is necessary in the selection of specimens of 

 species known to be edible. The plants selected should be in 

 good condition. Well grown, sound, fresh specimens only should 

 be chosen. Old, partly-decayed, water-soaked, worm-eaten or 

 withered plants should be discarded. Even young and sound 

 ones should not be kept too long before they are cooked. They 

 are in some cases very perishable and deteriorate rapidly. If 

 more have been collected at one time than are needed for a single 

 meal it will generally be better to cook them all at once and keep 

 them in a refrigerator in the cooked rather than in the raw state. 

 As a rule it is better to cook them the same day they are col- 

 lected. In the case of the inky fungi this will be absolutely 

 necessary, for they will not keep in good condition from one day 

 till the next. Some of the species literally grow up in a night and 

 perish in a day. These also should be cooked with great prompt- 

 ness, for they are only desirable while young and before the gills 

 have begun to change to a black inky liquid. Puff balls should 

 only be used while the inner flesh is pure and white. When the 

 yellowish stains of maturity begin to appear they are no longer 

 fit for food. No one would think of eating them after the flesh 

 has changed to the cottony dusty mass of maturity. 



Many insects are fond of mushrooms. Both they and their 

 larvae feed on them and the latter often live in them. A mush- 

 room may appear fair externally, but if it is cut or broken its 

 flesh may be seen to be full of holes or galleries excavated by 

 larvae, and perhaps a colony of the larvae themselves may be 

 found within. It is needless to say that such specimens are 



