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MUSHROOMS OF AMERICA, EDIBLE AND POISONOUS.
EDITED BY JULIUS A. PALMER, JR, PUBLISHED BY L. PRANG & CO., BOSTON,
(C O PV R IO H T , 1 8 8 8 , B Y L. P R A N O 4 CO.)
GENERAL DIRECTIONS.
These charts are prepared for popular use, rather than for students of botanical
science; all technical terms are, therefore, as far as possible, avoided.
The names "mushroom” and "toadstool” are indefinite, are both applied with equal
reason to any fleshy fungus, and are here used as synonymes, like the corresponding
terms "plant” and "vegetable,” or "shrub” and "bush,” in common conversation.
No general test can be given by which a poisonous mushroom may be distinguished
from an edible mushroom. But each species of fungus has certain marks of identity,
either in appearance, quality, or condition of growth, which are its own, and never
radically varied; none can contain a venomous element at one time, and yet be harmless
under other conditions. Like other food, animal or vegetable, however, mushrooms
“iay, by decay or conditions of growth, be unfit for table use; yet in this state no
fatality would attend such use.
Therefore the identification of species is a safe guide, and is the only means of
knowing what mushrooms should be eaten, and what varieties of fungus should be rejected.
Having once learned to distinguish any species of mushrooms as esculent, perfect security
may be felt in the use of that species wherever and whenever found; but any specimen
varying from the type in the slightest degi'ee should be rejected by an amateur.
There are about one thousand varieties of mushrooms (exclusive of small or microscopic
fungi) native to the United States; many will therefore be found which are not
represented on either of these plates. Those here depicted are of three classes, namely,
the Lycoperdacese, or Puff-ball fungi; the Agaricini, or Gill-bearing fungi; and the Boleti,
which-last is one division of the Polyporei, or Pore-bearing fungi.