220 



THE PRACTICAL GARDENER. 



Unwholesome fungi will also often spring up, even on arti- 

 ficial beds in gardens : thus, when the spawn begins to run, a 

 spurious brood often precedes a crop of genuine mushrooms. 

 Great caution is, therefore, to be observed in the gathering oi 

 them ; and even the edible garden mushroom, Agaricus cam' 

 pestris, when grown in certain places possesses deleterious 

 qualities. 



Mushrooms growing in woods, or by the sides of hedges, 

 are seldom safe. Those growing in open old pastures should 

 be preferred, and from such situations the mushrooms are sup- 

 posed to be much more delicate in flavor, and more tender in 

 flesh than those which are even gi'own on artificial beds. 

 Young or button mushrooms grown on beds are, however, 

 firmer and better for pickling, than those of the same size, 

 growing naturally. In using cultivated mushrooms, there is 

 evidently less risk in having the deleterious kinds intermixed, 

 as the persons employed in cultivating them arc more correct 

 in their judgement between the wholesome and the deleterious 

 sorts. 



Accidents so frequently occur from eating spurious sorts of 

 mushrooms, that the following extract from the Botanist's 

 Companion may be useful and not devoid of interest. 



" All fungi should be used with great caution, for even the 

 champignon and edible garden mushrooms possess deleterious 

 qualities when grown in certain places. All the edible species 

 should be thoroughly masticated before taken into the stomach, 

 as this greatly lessens the effects of poisons. When accidents 

 of this sort happen, vomiting should be immediately excited, 

 and then the vegetable acids should be given, either vinegar, 

 lemon-juice, or that of apples ; after which, give ether and 

 antispasmodic remedies, to stop the excessive bilious vomiting. 

 Infusions of gall-nut, oak-bark, and Peruvian bark, are re- 

 commended as capable of neutralizing the poisonous principle 

 of mushrooms. It is, however, the safest way not to eat any 

 of the good but less common sorts, until they have been soaked 

 in vinegar. Spirits of wine and vinegar extract some part of 

 their poison ; and tannin matter decomposes the greatest part 

 of it." 



