Our Edible Toadstools and Mushrooms and How to Distinguish Them / A Selection of Thirty Native Food Varieties Easily Recognizable by their Marked Individualities, with Simple Rules for the Identification of Poisonous Species

by W. Hamilton Gibson

Agaricus Ostreatus.

This species and the one following belong to the subdivision of the typical genus Agaricus, called Leucospori—white spored. The division has many sub-genera. The particular sub-genus in which these are included is the Pleurotus, or side-foot mushrooms, as they are sometimes called.

Another earlier species with which A. ostreatus might be confounded (A. euosmus) has spores of a rosy pinkish or lilac hue, a sufficient identification, and is accounted injurious.

THIRTY POUNDS OF VEGETABLE MEAT

The clustering growth of the "Oyster Mushroom" frequently attains huge proportions, as will be seen from the above reproduction of a photograph sent to me by a correspondent. The dimensions of the mass are easily judged by the height of the gun leaning against the tree, and introduced for comparison.

Broiled oyster recipe

This "Oyster Mushroom" should be gathered in its young state, and may be served in various ways. Broiling over the coals, gills upward, seasoning with butter, pepper, and salt during the cooking, is a favorite method with most of the Agarics, but a well-known fungus epicure claims that this mushroom "may be cooked in any way that an oyster is, and will be found fine eating."

The average specimen will probably prove more ashen in hue than those represented in my plate.