[Sidenote: =Worthless popular tests=]
_Pleasant taste and odor_ (1) is a conspicuous feature in the regular
"mushroom" (_Agaricus campestris_), and most other edible fungi, but as
a criterion for safety it is a mockery. The deadly _Agaricus amanita_,
already mentioned, has an inviting odor and to most people a pleasant
taste when raw, and being cooked and eaten gives no token of its fatal
resources until from six to twelve hours after, when its unfortunate
victim is past hope. (See p. 68.)
The _ready peeling_ of the skin (2) is one of the most widely prevalent
proofs of probation, and is often considered a _sufficient_ test; yet
the Amanita will be found to peel with a degree of accommodation which
would thus at once settle its claims as a "mushroom." Indeed, a large
number of species, including several poisonous kinds, will peel as
perfectly as the Campestris.
_The pink gills turning brown_(3) is a marked characteristic of the
"mushroom" (_A. campestris_, Plate 5), and, being a rare tint among
the fungus tribe, is really one of the most valuable of the tests,
especially as it is limited by rules affecting other pink-gilled
species.
_The stem being easily pulled out of the cap_ (4) applies to several
edible species, but equally to the poisonous.
[Sidenote: =Worthless popular tests=]
The notion that _edible mushrooms have solid stems_ (5) would be a
very unsafe talisman for us to take to the woods in our search for
fungus-food. Many poisonous species are thus solid--the emetic Russula,
for example--while the alleged importance of the =morning specimens=
(6) is without the slightest foundation.
The passage quoted here (7), or a statement to the same effect, was
quite widely circulated in the newspapers a dozen or more years ago, in
an article which bore all the indications of authoritative utterance,
the assumption being that the poisonous mushroom would invariably give
some forbidding token to the senses by which it might be discriminated.
Woe to the fungus epicure who should sample his mushrooms and
toadstools on such a criterion as this, as the _most fatal of all
mushrooms_, the _Amanita vernus_, would fulfil all these requisites.
_The discoloration of silver_ (8) is a test as old as Pliny at least,
a world-wide popular touchstone for the detection of deleterious
fungi, but useful only in the fact that it will often exclude a poison
not contemplated in the discrimination. On this point, especially as
it affords opportunity to emphasize a common disappointment of the
mushroom-eater, I quote from a recent work by Julius A. Palmer (see
Bibliography, No. 3): "Mushrooms decay very rapidly. In a short time a
fair, solid fungus becomes a mass of maggots which eat its tissue until
its substance is honey-combed; these cells, on a warm day, are charged
with the vapors of decomposition. Now you put such mushrooms as these
(and I have seen just such on the markets of Boston and London) over
the fire. In boiling, sulphuretted hydrogen or other noxious gases are
liberated; you stir with a bright spoon and it is discolored; proud of
your test, you throw away your stew. Now this is right, but if from
this you conclude that all fungus which discolors silver is poisonous
and that which leaves it bright is esculent, you are in dangerous
error. It is the same with fish at sea. Tradition says that you must
fry a piece of silver with them and throw them away if it discolors.
Certainly the experiment does no harm, and shows a decomposition in
both cases which might have been detected without the charm." Opposed
to this so-called talisman, how grim is the fact that the deadliest of
all mushrooms, the Amanita, in its fresh condition, has no effect upon
silver.
[Sidenote: =Worthless popular tests=]
_The change of color in fracture_ (9) has long been a ban to the
fungus as food. But this would exclude several very delicious species,
which turn bluish, greenish, and red when broken--viz., _Boletus
subtomentosus_ (Plate 22), _Boletus strobilaceus_ (Plate 23), and
Lactarius (Plate 18).
_The "toadstools" with "sticky tops"_ thus discriminated against
(10) include a number of esculent species, Boleti and Russulæ, and
others, as do also the varieties with side-stems (11)--viz., _Agaricus
ulmarius_ (Plate 15), _Fistulina hepatica_ (Plate 25), _Agaricus
ostreatus_ (Plate 14), etc.
[Sidenote: =Worthless popular tests=]
_The clustered fungi_ (12) have long been included in the black-list
without reason, as witness the following esteemed esculent species: The
Shaggy-mane (Plate 16), _Coprinus atramentarius_ (Plate 17), Oyster
mushroom (Plate 14), Elm mushroom (Plate 15), Puff-balls (Plate 34),
and Champignon (Plate 8).
To exclude _all fungi which grow in dark, damp places_ (13) is a
singular inconsistency, as in some localities this would eliminate the
very one species of "mushroom" admittedly eatable by popular favor. In
many countries these are regularly cultivated for market in dark, damp,
subterranean caverns or in cellars. Indeed, the "dark, damp place"
would appear to be the ideal habitat of this the "only mushroom!"
Equally absurd is the discrimination against those _growing on wood_
(14), which again deprives us of the delicious Hydnum (Plate 27), the
Beefsteak (Plate 25), Oyster mushroom (Plate 14), Elm mushroom (Plate
15), and many others, including Puff-balls (Plate 34). If we exclude
those growing _upon or near manure_ (15), we shall be obliged to omit
the Coprinus group (Plates 16 and 17), and often the "_reel_ mushroom"
as well.
Among the _bright-colored species_ (16), it is true, are many dangerous
individuals, as, for instance, the deadly Fly Amanita of Plate 4, and
the emetic Russula (Plate 13), but on this fiat we should have to
reject the other brilliant esculent Russulæ (Plates 11 and 12), the
brilliant yellow Chantarelle (Plate 19), the Lactarius (Plate 18), and
various other equally palatable and wholesome species.
[Sidenote: =Worthless popular tests=]
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.