MODES OF DISTINGUISHING.
The first thing to know about funguses is, that in the immense majority of cases they are harmless; the innoxious and esculent kinds are the rule, the poisonous the exceptions to it; in a general way, it is more easy to say what we should not eat than what we may; we should never eat any that smell sickly or poisonous. Opinions respecting the agreeableness or disagreeableness of an odour, as of a taste, may differ; thus, in France and Italy (where the palate seems to us to bribe the judgment of the nose), it is usual to speak of that of the Ag. prunulus as “perfuming the air;”[86] but though the strong peculiar smell exhaled by this and some other esculent funguses is anything but a perfume, as we apprehend the term, it is very different from that intolerable fœtor, that nauseous overwhelming odour given out by the Phallus impudicus, the Clathrus cancellatus, the Amanita verna, and its varieties. There are some indeed which, yielding no smell, will poison notwithstanding; but then there are none to lure us into a false security by a deceitful fragrance. The same negative indications are furnished by the palate as by the nose; those that are bitter, or styptic, or that burn the fauces on mastication, or that parch the throat when they have been swallowed, should be put aside; those that yield spiced milk, of whatever colour, should be held, notwithstanding exceptions, in suspicion, as an unsafe dairy to deal with. The “Lucchese Goat” (Ag. piperatus) and the “Cow of the Vosges” (Ag. lactifluus aureus), though in high request in their respective localities, and really delicate themselves, are akin to others whose milks, though they may have the colour of gold, have the qualities of gamboge.
“——Nescius auræ
Fallacis,
Qui nunc te fruitur credulus aurea!”
Paulet was once so indiscreet as to eat a slice of the Griper (Ag. torminosus), which belongs to this genus, and afterwards still more indiscreet in giving it the inviting name of “Mouton zoné;” it is well, however, that the reader should be apprised, as he will frequently come across this ‘mouton’ in his walks, that it is a perfect wolf in sheep’s clothing, nor less to be avoided than one nearly allied to it, which rejoices in the name of necator, or the slayer.[87] Here, as it is a safe rule rather to condemn many that may be innocent than to admit one that is at all suspicious to our confidence, we should, till intimacy has made us familiar with the exceptions, avoid all those the flesh of which is livid, or that, chameleon-like, assume a variety of hues on being broken or bruised.[88] The external colour furnishes no certain information—with the single exception of that of the gills in one or two Agarics—by which to know the good from the bad; thus, the “Boule de Neige” and the Vernal Amanite are both white; but the dress, in one case, is of innocence, in the other of mere hypocrisy; again, the green, which we are so cautioned to avoid in this class of plants as chlorotic and unhealthy, and which is of such bad augury in Amanita viridis, is quite the contrary in the Verdette (Ag. virescens). So that to be led only by colour would certainly be to be misled—a mistake which, in the family of the Russulæ, might readily compromise life.
Some mycologists recommend, with certain exceptions, the avoidance of such Agarics as have lateral stalks, of such as are pectinate (i. e. have equal gills, like a comb), of such as have little flesh in proportion to the depth of their gills, and generally, of all those that are past their prime. Some warn us not to eat after the snail, as we are in the habit of doing in our gardens after the wasp; we may trust, it seems, to him to point out the best greengages, but not to the slug to select our mushrooms for us. Finally, it has been very currently affirmed, though I think without sufficient warrant, that all such funguses as run rapidly into deliquescence ought to be avoided as dangerous. Here, while it might be unsafe to lay down any positive rule beyond one’s own experience, this, so far as it goes, would rather lead me to a different inference; and even the reader will ask—Does not the mushroom deliquesce, and is not ketchup, that “poignant liquor made from boiled mushrooms mixed with salt,”[89] to which we are all so partial, this very deliquescence? But, besides this, the Ag. comatus, which is highly deliquescent, is largely eaten about Lucca; the Ag. atramentarius also is, on our own authority, periculo ventris nostri, as good for ketchup as for that purpose to which its juices are more commonly put, viz. for making ink. Thus, amongst deliquescent Agarics, there are some the juices of which are both safe and savoury, perhaps of more than those here recorded; but as I have not hitherto myself made trial of any others, and as there are some dangerous species mixed up with this group, the public cannot be too much cautioned against making any rash experiment, where the consequences of a mistake might be so serious.
Some trees give origin by preference to good, others to deleterious species; thus, the hazel-nut, the black and perhaps the white poplar, together with the fig-tree, grow only good sorts; whereas the olive has been famous, since the days of Nicander, for none but poisonous species.
“The rank in smell, and those of livid show,
All that at roots of oak[90] or olive grow,