SPORES. The reproductive bodies, analogous to seeds in some other plants, found under the caps of the Agaricini and Boleti, and appearing like fine dust when the cap is left for a time lying under-side downward.
There are as many different flavors and tastes among esculent fungi as are found in any other varieties of diet, and the very general ignorance of this fact is a sufficient reason for the issue of this work. Many persons claim to know a mushroom from a toadstool. This means that there is one variety out of a thousand of which they eat with safety, and it means nothing more. A person might as well select one fish from the sea, and avoid all other members of the finny tribe on the ground that there are poisonous fishes. It is strange that this general ignorance is most apparent in the case of the English-speaking people. The fungus eaters form a little clique in England, but the majority of her people know nothing of this gratuitous offering from Nature's storehouse. No country is richer in mushroom food than America. Were the poorer classes of Russia, Germany, Italy, or France to see our forests during the autumn rains, they would feast on the rich food there going to waste. For this harvest is spontaneous; it requires no seed-time, and asks for no peasant's toil. At the same time, the economic value of mushroom diet ranks second to meat alone. With bread, and mushrooms properly gathered and prepared, a person may neglect the butcher during the summer months. This is self-evident to the unscientific mind by the simple facts that mushrooms make the same use of the air we breathe as is made by animals, that cooked they resemble no form of vegetable food, and that in decay their odor in some cases cannot be distinguished from that of putrid meat. To this feast, abundantly provided by Nature for the poorest as well as the most epicurean, we invite the American people.
In gathering mushrooms for food, cut the stem off about an inch below the cap, and place them in the basket or dish, gills upward. Never twist or pull them, as the gills become thereby full of dirt, which is not easily removed. By placing them gills downward, they will shed their spores largely and thus lose flavor.
The stem in cutting will often exhibit fine holes; this indicates that maggots have entered the mushroom. If the substance of the pileus continues firm and hard, the mushroom may be cooked and eaten by those not over-nice; but if perforated and soft, the consequent decomposition might induce nausea, and even serious sickness.
Mushrooms may be noxious as food in three ways:—
(1.) They may disagree with the system, by their toughness, indigestibility, or use in a state of decay.
(2.) They may be slimy, acrid, or otherwise nauseous.
(3.) They may contain a subtle poison without taste, smell, or other indication of its presence.
Most noxious fungi appertain to the first or second class above given, and taste or common-sense would readily reject them, unless they were cooked with other food or excessively spiced. For this reason plain cooking is advised, and further, no amateur should venture to mingle with good varieties others to him unknown.
Of the third class, there is one family, many of whose members contain a violent and deadly poison. This is known as the Amanita family; and although out of fourteen varieties, four are known to be edible, yet it is here advised to avoid all fungi as food which have these its distinguishing marks:—