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of the actual substance of the fungus into the stomach is superseded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!