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STUDIES OF AMERICAN FUNGI, MUSHROOMS, EDIBLE, POISONOUS, ETC.
by
GEORGE FRANCIS ATKINSON
Professor of Botany in Cornell University, and Botanist of the
Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station
Recipes for Cooking Mushrooms, by Mrs. Sarah Tyson Rorer
Chemistry and Toxicology of Mushrooms, by J. F. Clark
With 230 Illustrations from Photographs by the
Author, and Colored Plates by F. R. Rathbun
SECOND EDITION
[Illustration: PLATE 1.
FIG. 1.--Amanita muscaria.
FIG. 2.--A. frostiana.
Copyright 1900.]
[Illustration: Printer's logo.]
New York
Henry Holt and Company
1903
Copyright, 1900, 1901,
by
Geo. F. Atkinson.
INTRODUCTION.
Since the issue of my "Studies and Illustrations of Mushrooms," as
Bulletins 138 and 168 of the Cornell University Agricultural Experiment
Station, there have been so many inquiries for them and for literature
dealing with a larger number of species, it seemed desirable to publish
in book form a selection from the number of illustrations of these
plants which I have accumulated during the past six or seven years. The
selection has been made of those species representing the more important
genera, and also for the purpose of illustrating, as far as possible,
all the genera of agarics found in the United States. This has been
accomplished except in a few cases of the more unimportant ones. There
have been added, also, illustrative genera and species of all the other
orders of the higher fungi, in which are included many of the edible
forms.
The photographs have been made with great care after considerable
experience in determining the best means for reproducing individual,
specific, and generic characters, so important and difficult to preserve
in these plants, and so impossible in many cases to accurately portray
by former methods of illustration.
One is often asked the question: "How do you tell the mushrooms from the
toadstools?" This implies that mushrooms are edible and that toadstools
are poisonous, and this belief is very widespread in the public mind.
The fact is that many of the toadstools are edible, the common belief
that all of them are poisonous being due to unfamiliarity with the
plants or their characteristics.
Some apply the term mushroom to a single species, the one in
cultivation, and which grows also in fields (_Agaricus campestris_), and
call all others toadstools. It is becoming customary with some students
to apply the term mushroom to the entire group of higher fungi to which
the mushroom belongs (_Basidiomycetes_), and toadstool is regarded as a
synonymous term, since there is, strictly speaking, no distinction
between a mushroom and a toadstool. There are, then, edible and
poisonous mushrooms, or edible and poisonous toadstools, as one chooses
to employ the word.
A more pertinent question to ask is how to distinguish the edible from
the poisonous mushrooms. There is no single test or criterion, like the
"silver spoon" test, or the criterion of a scaly cap, or the presence of
a "poison cup" or "death cup," which will serve in all cases to
distinguish the edible from the poisonous. Two plants may possess
identical characters in this respect, i. e., each may have the "death
cup," and one is edible while the other is poisonous, as in _Amanita
cæsarea_, edible, and _A. phalloides_, poisonous. There are additional
characters, however, in these two plants which show that the two differ,
and we recognize them as two different species.
To know several different kinds of edible mushrooms, which occur in
greater or less quantity through the different seasons, would enable
those interested in these plants to provide a palatable food at the
expense only of the time required to collect them. To know several of
the poisonous ones also is important, in order certainly to avoid them.
The purpose of this book is to present the important characters which it
is necessary to observe, in an interesting and intelligible way, to
present life-size photographic reproductions accompanied with plain and
accurate descriptions. By careful observation of the plant, and
comparison with the illustrations and text, one will be able to add many
species to the list of edible ones, where now perhaps is collected "only
the one which is pink underneath." The chapters 17 to 21 should also be
carefully read.
The number of people in America who interest themselves in the
collection of mushrooms for the table is small compared to those in some
European countries. The number, however, is increasing, and if a little
more attention were given to the observation of these plants and the
discrimination of the more common kinds, many persons could add greatly
to the variety of their foods and relishes with comparatively no cost.
The quest for these plants in the fields and woods would also afford a
most delightful and needed recreation to many, and there is no subject
in nature more fascinating to engage one's interest and powers of
observation.
There are also many important problems for the student in this group of
plants. Many of our species and the names of the plants are still in
great confusion, owing to the very careless way in which these plants
have usually been preserved, and the meagerness of recorded observations
on the characters of the fresh plants, or of the different stages of
development. The study has also an important relation to agriculture and
forestry, for there are numerous species which cause decay of valuable
timber, or by causing "heart rot" entail immense losses through the
annual decretion occurring in standing timber.
If this book contributes to the general interest in these plants as
objects of nature worthy of observation, if it succeeds in aiding those
who are seeking information of the edible kinds, and stimulates some
students to undertake the advancement of our knowledge of this group, it
will serve the purpose the author had in mind in its preparation.
I wish here to express my sincere thanks to Mrs. Sarah Tyson Rorer for
her kindness in writing a chapter on recipes for cooking mushrooms,
especially for this book; to Professor I. P. Roberts, Director of the
Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station, for permission to
use certain of the illustrations (Figs. 1--7, 12--14, 31--43) from
Bulletins 138 and 168, Studies and Illustrations of Mushrooms; to Mr. F.
R. Rathbun, for the charts from which the colored plates were made; to
Mr. J. F. Clark and Mr. H. Hasselbring, for the Chapters on Chemistry
and Toxicology of Mushrooms, and Characters of Mushrooms, to which their
names are appended, and also to Dr. Chas. Peck, of Albany, N. Y., and
Dr. G. Bresadola, of Austria-Hungary, to whom some of the specimens have
been submitted.
GEO. F. ATKINSON,
Ithaca, N. Y., October, 1900.
Cornell University.
SECOND EDITION.
In this edition have been added 10 plates of mushrooms of which I did
not have photographs when the first edition was printed. It was possible
to accomplish this without changing the paging of any of the descriptive
part, so that references to all of the plants in either edition will be
the same.
There are also added a chapter on the "Uses of Mushrooms," and an
extended chapter on the "Cultivation of Mushrooms." This subject I have
been giving some attention to for several years, and in view of the call
for information since the appearance of the first edition, it seemed
well to add this chapter, illustrated by several flashlight photographs.
G. F. A.
September, 1901.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAGE
Chapter I. Form and Characters of the Mushrooms, 1