Part 3

The objection against _milky mushrooms_ (17) would serve to exclude the poisonous species of Lactarius, but would thus include at least two of the delicious species of the group, _L. deliciosus_, with orange milk (Plate 18), and _L. piperatus_, another species with white milk not figured in this volume.

The group of Russulæ, most of which are esculent, is notable for their _gills of even length_ (18), though not all the species are thus characterized. This discrimination, however, especially applies to the Shaggy-mane (Plate 16), which is conspicuously even-gilled, and is a decided delicacy.

This species, together with its congener, the edible _Coprinus atramentarius_ (Plate 17), are notorious for their _melting into black fluid_ (19), which is thus of no significance as a test, although the mushrooms are not supposed to be eaten in this stage of deliquescence.

A fungus which _bites the tongue_ (20) when tasted would naturally be excluded from our mushroom diet, as would also, of course, those of a _bitter or nauseating taste_; but several species, notably the _Lactarius piperatus_, as its name implies, is very hot and peppery when raw--a characteristic which disappears in cooking, after which it is perfectly esculent. The same applies in a scarcely less degree to the _Agaricus melleus_, and less so to the _Hydnum repandum_ (Plate 27), and other mushrooms. But the poisonous _Russula emetica_ (Plate 13) gives this same hot, warning tang, and this rule (17) would at least thus exclude the harmful species, and is thus contributive to popular safety.

[Sidenote: =Worthless popular tests=]

_The salt test_ (21), with that of the silver charm, is also a relic of the dim past, but is absolutely useless as a touchstone. Many poisonous species, notably the Amanita, fail to answer to it. All authorities agree, however, that the addition of salt in cooking, or the preparatory soaking of specimens in brine, has a tendency to render poisonous species innocuous. Indeed, it is claimed that in Russia and elsewhere on the Continent many admittedly poisonous species, even the deadly Fly Amanita, is habitually eaten subsequent to this semi-corning process, by which the poisonous chemical principle is neutralized.

[Sidenote: =Omission of the only true test=]

Among this long list, and many other equally arbitrary and ignorant prejudicial traditions, many of which date back to the earliest times, it is indeed astonishing to note the _conspicuous absence_ of the one and only valuable sign by which the fatal species could be unmistakably determined--a symbol which was reserved for botanical science to discover: the presence of the "_cup_" in the Amanita, which is pointedly emphasized in my Frontispiece, and the importance of which as a botanical and cautionary distinction is considered at more length in the following chapter.

It is well to consider for a moment what is implied in

"A POISONOUS MUSHROOM"

A fungus may be poisonous in various ways:

1. A distinct and certain deadly poison.

2. The cause of violent digestive or other functional disturbance, but not necessarily fatal.

3. The occasion of more or less serious physical derangement through mere indigestibility.

4. Productive of similar disorders through the employment of decayed or wormy specimens of perfectly esculent species.

5. These same esculent species, even in their fresh condition, may become highly noxious by contact or confinement with specimens of the Amanita by the absorption of its volatile poison, as further described on p. 69.

[Sidenote: =Concerning idiosyncrasy=]

And lastly comes the question of idiosyncrasy, a consideration which is of course not taken into account in our recommendation of certain well-established food varieties.

[Sidenote: =Decaying mushrooms=]

[Sidenote: =Fresh specimens=]

"One man's food another man's poison." The scent of the rose is sometimes a serious affliction, and even the delicious strawberry has repeatedly proven a poison. Even the most wholesome mushroom will occasionally require to be discriminated against, as certain individuals find it necessary to exclude cabbage, milk, onions, and other common food from their diet. When we reflect, moreover, that in its essential chemical affinities the fungus simulates animal flesh, and many of the larger and more solid varieties are similarly subject to speedy decomposition, it is obviously important that _all fungi procured for the table should be collected in their prime, and prepared and served as quickly as possible_. More than one case of supposed mushroom poisoning could be directly traced to carelessness in this regard, when the species themselves, in their proper condition, had been perfectly wholesome.

[Sidenote: =No general rule for identification=]

There can be no general rule laid down for the discrimination of _an edible fungus_. Each must be _learned_ as a species, or at least familiarized as a kind, even as we learn to recognize certain flowers, trees, or birds.

Within a certain range this discrimination is practised by the merest child. How are the robin, the chippy, and the swallow recognized, or the red clover, and white clover, and yellow clover?

[Sidenote: =Simple botanical discrimination=]

Even in the instances of species which bear a very close outward similarity, how simple, after all, does the distinction become. Here, for instance, is the wild-lettuce, and its mimic, the _mulgedium_, growing side by side--to ninety-nine out of a hundred observers _absolutely alike_, and apparently the same species. But how readily are they distinguished, I will not say by the botanist merely, but by any one who will take the small pains of contrasting their specific botanical characters--perfectly infallible, no matter how various the masquerade of their foliage. The lettuce has yellow blossoms, and a seed prolonged into a _long beak_, to whose tip the feathery pappus is attached. The mulgedium has dull bluish flowers, and its pappus is attached to the seed by a hardly perceptible elongation. As with the birds and wild-flowers, so with the fungi: we must learn them as species, even as we learn to distinguish the difference between the trefoil of the clover and that of the wood-sorrel, or between the innocuous wild-carrot and the poison-hemlock, the harmless stag-horn sumach and its venomous congener, the _Rhus venenata_. There are parallel outward resemblances between esculent and poisonous fungi, but each possesses otherwise its own special features by which it may be identified--variations of gills, pores, spores, taste, odor, color, juice, consistency of pulp, method of decay, etc.

It must not be presumed that the list of edible species just cited from the catalogue of Dr. Curtis includes all the esculents among the fungi. Dr. Harkness has discovered and classified many others. Mr. Palmer and Prof. Charles Peck are never at a loss for their "mess of mushrooms" among their list of nearly a hundred species, while Mr. Charles McIlvaine, whose name, so far as its practical authority is concerned, should appear more prominently in my bibliographical list, but who has not yet incorporated his many mycological essays in book form, writes me that he has tested gastronomically a host of species, and has found over _three hundred_ to be edible, or at least harmless. It may be said that the probabilities would include a large majority of the thousand species in the same category. But this is a matter which, in the absence of absolute knowledge, is mere conjecture.

Of the forty-odd species which the writer enjoys with more or less frequency at his table, he is satisfied that he can select at least thirty which possess such distinct and strongly marked characters of form, structure, and other special qualities as to enable them, by the aid of careful portraiture and brief description, to be easily recognized, even by a tyro.

As previously emphasized, the present work does not aim to be complete, nor does it contemplate a practical utility beyond its specific recommendations, nor will the author assume any responsibility for the hazard which shall exceed its restricted list of species.

[Sidenote: =Humanity and forbidden fruit=]

On general principles, however, considering the proneness of humanity towards the acquisition of forbidden fruit, and reasoning from my own actual experience, and that of many others to whom this fascinating hobby of epicurean fungology has become a growing passion, it may almost be assumed that the fungus appetite with many of my readers will increase by what it feeds on, and the sufficiency herewith offered will scarcely suffice. Like Oliver Twist, they must needs have _more_. The glory of a new acquisition to the fungus menu, and emulation of other rival tyro mycophagists, will doubtless lead many enthusiasts to more or less hazardous experiment among the legion of the unknown species. This logical tendency, then, must be met ere my book can safely and conscientiously be launched upon its career, to which purpose I would append the following condensed

RULES FOR THE VENTURESOME

1. Avoid every mushroom having a _cup_, or _suggestion_ of such, at base (see Frontispiece, and Plates 3 and 4); the distinctly fatal poisons are thus excluded.

2. Exclude those having an unpleasant odor, a peppery, bitter, or other unpalatable flavor, or tough consistency.

3. Exclude those infested with worms, or in advanced age or decay.

4. In testing others which will pass the above probation let the specimen be _kept by itself_, not in contact with or enclosed in the same basket with other species, for reasons given on page 69.

[Sidenote: =Testing new species=]

Begin by a mere nibble, the size of a pea, and gentle mastication, being careful to swallow no saliva, and finally expelling all from the mouth. If no noticeable results follow, the next trial, with the interval of a day, with the same quantity may permit of a swallow of a little of the juice, the fragments of the fungus expelled as before.

No unpleasantness following for twenty-four hours, the third trial may permit of a similar entire fragment being swallowed, all of these experiments to be made on "an empty stomach." If this introduction of the actual substance of the fungus into the stomach is superseded by no disturbance in twenty-four hours, a larger piece, the size of a hazel-nut, may be attempted, and thus the amount gradually increased day by day until the demonstration of edibility, or at least harmlessness, is complete, and the species thus admitted into the "safe" list. By following this method with the utmost caution the experimenter can at best suffer but a slight temporary indisposition as the result of his hardihood, in the event of a noisome species having been encountered, and will at least thus have the satisfaction of discovery of an enemy if not a friend.

[Sidenote: =Mr. McIlvaine's general rule=]

It may be said that any mushroom, _omitting the Amanita_, which is pleasant to the taste and otherwise agreeable as to odor and texture when raw, is probably harmless, and may safely be thus _ventured on_ with a view of establishing its edibility. A prominent authority on our edible mushrooms, already mentioned, applies this rule to all the Agarics with confidence. "This rule may be established," he says: "All Agarics--_excepting the Amanitæ_--mild to the taste when raw, if they commend themselves in other ways, are edible." This claim is borne out in his experience, with the result, already told, that he now numbers over one hundred species among his habitual edible list out of the three hundred which he has actually found by personal test to be edible or harmless. "So numerous are toadstools," he continues, "and so well does a study of them define their habits and habitats, that the writer _never fails upon any day from April to December to find ample supply of healthy, nutritious, delicate toadstools for himself and family_." The italicized portion is my own, as I would thus emphasize the similar possibilities amply afforded even in the present condensed list of about thirty varieties herein described.

[Sidenote: =Hints to mushroom-gatherers=]

In gathering mushrooms one should be supplied with a sharp knife. The mushroom should be carefully cut off an inch or so below the cap, or at least sufficiently far above the ground to escape all signs of dirt on the stem. They should then be laid gills upward in their receptacle, and it is well to have a special basket, arranged with one or two removable bottoms or horizontal partitions, which are kept in place by upright props within, thus relieving the lower layers of mushrooms from the weight of those above them. Such a basket is almost indispensable.

[Sidenote: =Insects infesting mushrooms=]

Before preparing mushrooms for the table, the specimens should be carefully scrutinized for a class of fungus specialists which we have not taken into account, and which have probably anticipated us. The mushroom is proverbial for its rapid development, but nature has not allowed it thus to escape the usual penalties of lush vegetation, as witness this swarming, squirming host, minute grubs, which occasionally honey-comb or hollow its entire substance ere it has reached its prime; indeed, in many cases, even before it has fully expanded or even protruded above ground.

[Sidenote: =History of fungus insects=]

Like the carrion-flies, the bees, and wasps, which in early times were believed to be of spontaneous origin--flies being generated from putrefaction, bees from dead bulls, and the martial wasps from defunct "war-horses"--these fungus swarms which so speedily reduce a fair specimen of a mushroom to a melting loathsome mass, were also supposed to be the natural progeny of the "poisonous toadstool." But science has solved the riddle of their mysterious omnipresence among the fungi, each particular swarm of grubs being the witness of a former visit of a maternal parent insect, which has sought the budding fungus in its haunts often before it has fully revealed itself to human gaze, and implanted within its substance her hundred or more eggs. To the uneducated eye these larvæ all appear similar, but the specialist in entomology readily distinguishes between them as the young of this or that species of fly, gnat, or beetle.

As an illustration of the assiduity with which the history of these tiny scavenger insects has been followed by science, I may mention that in the gnat group alone over seven hundred species have been discovered and scientifically described, many of them requiring a powerful magnifier to reveal their identities.

Specimens of infected or decaying mushrooms preserved within a tightly closed box--and, we would suggest, duly quarantined--will at length reveal the imago forms of the voracious larvæ: generally a swarm of tiny gnats or flies, with an occasional sprinkling of small glossy black beetles, or perhaps a beautiful indigo-blue insect half an inch in length, of most nervous habit, and possessed of a long and very active tail. This insect is an example of the curious group of rove-beetles--_staphylinus_--a family of insect scavengers, many of whose species depend upon the fungi for subsistence.

Even the large woody growth known as "punk" or "touch-wood," so frequently seen upon decaying trunks, is not spared. A huge specimen in my keeping was literally reduced to dust by a single species of beetle.

[Sidenote: =A wise precaution=]

Considering the prevalence of these fungus hosts, it is well in all mushrooms to take the precaution of making a vertical section through stem and cap, excluding such specimens as are conspicuously monopolized, and not being _too_ critical of the rest, for the over-fastidious gourmet will often thus have little to show for his morning walk. I have gathered a hundred specimens of fungi in one stroll, perhaps not a quarter of which, upon careful scrutiny, though fair of exterior, would be fit for the table. The fungus-hunter _par excellence_ has usually been there before us and left his mark (see page 135)--a mere fine brown streak or tunnel, perhaps, winding through the pulp or stem, where his minute fungoid identity is even yet secreted. But we bigger fungus-eaters gradually learn to accept him--if not too outrageously promiscuous--as a natural part and parcel of our _Hachis aux Champignons_, or our simple mushrooms on toast, even as we wink at the similar lively accessories which sophisticate our delectable raisins, prunes, and figs, to say nothing of prime old Rochefort!

MUSHROOM POISONING

In conclusion, lest these pages, in spite of the impress of caution with which they are weighted, should lead to discomfiture, distress, or more serious results among their more careless readers, it is well to devote a few lines to directions for medical treatment where such should seem to be required. To this end I quote a passage from an article in the _Therapeutic Gazette_ of May, 1893, from the pen of Mr. McIlvaine, whose many years' experience with gastronomic fungi entitles his words to careful consideration:

[Sidenote: =Diagnosis and treatment=]

"The physician called upon to treat a case of toadstool poisoning need not wait to query after the variety eaten; he need not wish to see a sample. His first endeavor should be to ascertain the exact time elapsing between the eating of the toadstools and the first feeling of discomfort. If this is within four or five hours one of the minor poisons is at work, and rapid relief must be given by the administration of an emetic, followed by one or two moderate doses of sweet-oil and whiskey, in equal parts. Vinegar is effective as a substitute for sweet-oil. If from eight to twelve hours have elapsed, the physician may rest assured that amanitine is present, and should administer one-sixtieth of a grain of atropine at once."

This atropine is intended to be injected hypodermically, and the treatment repeated every half-hour until one-twentieth of a grain has been given, or the patient's life saved.

Further consideration of the Amanita and its deadly poison and antidote, with details as to treatment in a notable case, will be reserved for the following chapter.

The colored plates in the volume were prepared from pencil drawings tinted in water-color, many of them direct from nature, several dating back fifteen years, and many of them over twenty years, for their original sketch. The colors as presented indicate those of typical individuals of the various species, and each, in addition to the extended description in the text of the volume, is faced by a condensed description for ready reference, the usual troublesome necessity of turning the pages being thus avoided.

In each plate dimension marks are shown which indicate the expansion of the pileus or cap of the fungus in an ideal specimen.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: =Acknowledgments=]

In the preparation of this work, acknowledgments are specially due to Messrs. Julius A. Palmer and Charles McIlvaine for the privilege of liberal quotations from their published works, especially with reference to the poisonous fungi. The volume is also further indebted for occasional extracts from the standard works of Prof. Chas. Peck, Mrs. T. J. Hussey, Rev. Dr. C. D. Badham, Rev. Dr. M. C. Cooke, Rev. J. M. Berkeley, Worthington Smith, and Rev. M. A. Curtis, all of whose volumes and various other contributions on the special subject of mycophagy are included in my bibliography on a later page.

W. HAMILTON GIBSON

_October 1, 1894_ WASHINGTON, CONN.

_The Deadly Amanita_

The frequency of this terrible foe in all our woods, and the ever-recurring fatalities which are continually traced to its seductive treachery (some twenty-five deaths having been recorded in the public journals during the summer of 1893 alone), render it important that its teeth should be drawn, and its portrait placarded and popularly familiarized as an archenemy of mankind.

[Sidenote: =A whited sepulchre=]

As we have seen, from every superficial standpoint, this species is self-commendatory. It is, without doubt, in comeliness, symmetry, and structure, the ideal of all our mushrooms, as it is, indeed, the botanical type of the tribe Agaricus, as well as its most notorious genus. Since the time of that carousing young lunatic Nero, who, doubtless, was wont to make merry with its "convenient poison," upon one occasion, it is recorded by Pliny, to the presumably amusing extinction of the entire guests of a banquet, together with the prefect of the guard and a small host of tribunes and centurions, the Amanita has claimed an army of victims.

[Sidenote: =Easily identified botanically=]

While giving no superficial token of its dangerous character to the casual observer, the Amanita, as a genus and a species, is nevertheless easily identified, if the mushroom collector will for the moment consider it from the _botanical_ rather than the sensuous or gustatorial standpoint.

The deadly Amanita need no longer impose upon the fastidious feaster in the guise of the dainty "legume" of his menu, or as a contaminating, fatal ingredient in the otherwise wholesome _ragoût_.

[Sidenote: =Amanita vernus=]

In Plate 3 I have presented the reprobate _Amanita vernus_ in its protean progressive proportions from infancy to maturity. This is especially desirable, in that the fungus is equally dangerous as an infant, and also because the development of its growth specially emphasizes _botanically_ the one important structural character by which the species or genus may be easily distinguished. Let us, then, consider the specimen as a type of the tribe Agaricus (gilled mushroom, see p. 79), genus Amanita.

[Sidenote: =Vegetation of an Agaric=]

[Sidenote: =The danger signal=]

Year after year we are sure of finding this species, or others of the genus, especially in the spring and summer, its favorite haunt being the woods. Its spores, like other mushrooms, are shed upon the ground from the white gills beneath, as described in our chapter on "Spore-prints," or wafted to the ends of the earth on the breeze, and eventually, upon having found a suitable habitat, vegetate in the form of webby, white, mould-like growth--mycelium--which threads through the dead leaves, the earth, or decaying wood. This running growth is botanically considered as the _true_ fungus, the final mushroom being the _fruit_, whose function is the dissemination of the spores. After a rain, or when the conditions are otherwise suitable, a certain point among this webby tangle beneath the ground becomes suddenly quickened into astonishing cell-making energy, and a small rounded nodule begins to form, which continues to develop with great rapidity (Plate 2). In a few hours more it has pushed its head above ground, and now appears like an egg, as at A, Plate 3. The successive stages in its development are clearly indicated in the drawings. Each represents an interval of an hour or two, or more, the most suggestive and important feature being the _outer envelope_, or _volva_, which encloses the actual mushroom--at first completely, then in a ruptured condition, until in the mature growth the only vestige of it which appears above ground are the few shreds generally, though not always, to be seen on the top of the cap. The _most important_ character of this deadly Amanita is, therefore, apparently with almost artful malice prepense, often _concealed_ from our view in the mature specimen, the only remnant of the original outer sack being the _cup_ or _socket_ about the base of the stem, which is generally hidden under ground, and usually there remains after we pluck the specimen.

[Sidenote: =The poison-cup=]