Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 11.djvu/104

94 to the present. When you have placed a specimen in the proper family, you have not in any way defined its quality, since one mushroom may be esculent, and its twin brother poisonous. Yet, the work of Berkeley is a book easily procured, and, having a number of colored plates, is readily understood by persons with botanical tastes. Such will find no study more fascinating. It is surprising how quickly the hand and eye acquire a delicacy in analysis, impossible to communicate in words. This talent is essential. No one should attempt to gather mushrooms who has not the power to fix in his mind the exact characteristics of any specimen, so as not to be in the least danger of confounding it with its nearest neighbor.

The student must sweep the brain clear of various charms and traditional lore. There is no magical way of identifying good mushrooms; no infallible test for healthful varieties. Here are some specimens of newspaper paragraphs:

"Every mushroom," says one (meaning every edible mushroom), "should peel like a potato."

Agreed, but nearly all the fungi peel readily.

"But the stem ought to come out like an umbrella-handle."

Whole classes (many of them noxious) have free gills, which is the only reason why the stem leaves the cap so easily.

Then, on the negative side, you will hear such attempts at classification as the following, taken from a widely-circulated weekly:

"As a general rule, all found in damp, dark places, or on decaying animal matter, are poisonous. Those that have a very thin cap, or the stem growing from the side instead of the middle, should be avoided. All milky mushrooms, with the single exception of the orange milk-mushroom, are extremely dangerous. So also are those which have the gills of equal length, those which run speedily into a dark, watery liquid, which taste bitter or burn the mouth, or have a fetid, sickly smell. If a mushroom turns a variety of colors when bruised, or is marked by the trail of a snail, it can under no circumstances be eaten."

Excepting, perhaps, the phrase I have italicized, the above is a tissue of misapprehension. Damp, dark places produce the very best mushrooms. The edible champignon (Marasmius oreades) has a very thin cap. The elm-tree mushroom (Agaricus ulmarius) has an eccentric stem. The brown milk-mushroom (Lactarius volemum) is unquestioned, and several others are doubtless esculent. A whole family (Russulæ) have equal gills. The maned mushroom (Coprinus comatus), most delicious, and easily recognized, turns to ink without the addition of any fluid. The honey-colored mushroom (Agaricus melleus) is very acrid raw, as are also others, equally harmless when cooked. Several esculent Agarics turn red when bruised, and many edible Boleti change color. I never saw a snail on a mushroom. Presuming that the writer means to refer to slugs, I would add that