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

Need of a practical work

While the study of "fungi" has a host of devotees, the mysteries which involve the origin of life in this great order of the cryptogamia having had fascinating attractions to microscopical students and specialists, the study of economic mycology has been almost without a champion in the United States. Thus we have many learned treatises on the nature, structure, and habits of fungi—vegetative methods, chemical constituents, specific characters, classification—learned dissertations on the microscopical moulds, mildews, rusts and smuts, blights and ferments, to say nothing of the medico-scientific and awe-inspiring potentialities of the sensational microbe, bacterium, bacillus, etc., which are daily bringing humanity within their spell and revolutionizing the science of medicine. But among all the various mycological publications we look in vain for the great desideratum of the practical hand-book on the economic fungus—the mushroom as food! The mycologist who has been courageous enough to submit his chemical analysis and his botanical knowledge of fungi to the test of esculence in his own being is a rara avis among them; indeed, a well-known authority states that "one may number on the fingers of his two hands the entire list of mycophagists in the United States." The absence of such works upon the mushroom and "toadstool," greatly desired for reference at an early period of my career, and little better supplied to-day, led to a resolve of which this volume is but an imperfect fulfilment.

Limitations of this volume

The special character of my volume, then—the collateral consideration of the fungus as food—will be sufficient excuse for the omission of a merely technical discourse upon the structure, classification, and vegetation of fungi as a class—a field so fully covered by other authors more competent to discuss these lines of special science, and to a selection of whose works the reader is referred in the list herewith appended, to a number of which I am indebted for occasional quotations. A general idea of the methods of dissemination and habitats of fungi will be found in the final chapter on "spore-prints," while under the discussion of the "Amanita," Agaricus campestris, and the "Fairy Ring" the reader is referred to a condensed account of the methods of vegetation and growth of fungi sufficient for present purposes. Other references of similar character will be noted under "Fungi," in Index.

The pioneer American mycophagist

The most conspicuous disciple of mycophagy—almost the pioneer, indeed, in America—was the late Rev. M. A. Curtis, of North Carolina, whose name heads the bibliography on [page 325]. For the benefit of those of my readers who may wish to follow the subject further than my pages will lead them, I append the list of edible species of fungi contained in Curtis's Catalogue, each group alphabetically arranged, the esculent qualities of many of which he himself discovered and attested by personal experiment. The favorite habitat of each fungus is also given, and to avoid any possibility of confusion in scientific nomenclature or synonymes, the authority for the scientific name is also given in each instance:

LIST OF EDIBLE AMERICAN MUSHROOMS

FROM THE CATALOGUE OF DR. M. A. CURTIS

Agaricus albellus.	De Candolle.	Damp woods.
A. (amanita) Cæsarea.	Scopoli.	In oak forests.
A. (amanita) rubescens.	Persoon.	Damp woods.
A. (amanita) strobiliformis.	Vittadini.	Common in woods.
A. amygdalinus.	M. A. Curtis.	Rich grounds, woods, and lanes.
A. arvensis.	Schaeffer.	Fields and pastures.
A. bombicinus.	Schaeffer.	Earth and carious wood.
A. campestris.	Linnæus.	Fields and pastures.
A. castus.	M. A. Curtis.	Grassy old fields.
A. cespitosus.	M. A. Curtis.	Base of stumps.
A. columbella.	Fries.	Woods.
A. consociatus.		Pine woods.
A. cretaceus.	Fries.	Earth and wood.
A. esculentus.	Jacquin.	Dense woods.
A. excoriatus.	Fries.	Grassy lands.
A. frumentaceous.	Bulliard.	Pine woods.
A. giganteus.	Sowerby.	Borders of pine woods.
A. glandulosus.	Bulliard.	Dead trunks.
A. hypopithyus.	M. A. Curtis.	Pine logs.
A. mastoideus.	Fries.	Woods.
A. melleus.	Valmy.	About stumps and logs.
A. mutabilis.	Schaeffer.	Trunks.
A. nebularis.	Batsch.	Damp woods.
A. odorus.	Bulliard.	Woods.
A. ostreatus.	Jacquin.	Dead trunks.
A. personatus.	M. A. Curtis.	Near rotten logs.
A. pometi.	Fries.	Carious wood.
A. procerus.	Scopoli.	Woods and fields.
A. prunulus.	Scopoli.	Damp woods.
A. rachodes.	Vittadini.	Base of stumps and trees.
A. radicatus.	Bulliard.	Woods.
A. (russula).	Schaeffer.	Among leaves in woods.
A. salignus.	Persoon.	On trunks and stumps.
A. speciosus.	Fries.	Grassy land.
A. squamosus.	Muller.	Oak stumps.
A. sylvaticus.	Schaeffer.	Woods.
A. tessellatus.	Bulliard.	Pine trunks.
A. ulmarius.	Sowerby.	Dead trunks.
Boletus bovinus.	Linnæus.	Pine woods.
B. castaneus.	Bulliard.	Woods.
B. collinitus.	Fries.	Pine woods.
B. edulis.	Bulliard.	Woods.
B. elegans.	Fries.	Earth in woods.
B. flavidus.	Fries.	Damp woods.
B. granulatus.	Linnæus.	Woods and fields.
B. luteus.	Linnæus.	Pine woods.
B. scaber.	Bulliard.	Sandy woods.
B. subtomentosus.	Linnæus.	Earth in woods.
B. versipellis.	Fries.	Woods.
Bovista nigrescens.	Persoon.	Grassy fields.
B. plumbea.	Persoon.	Grassy fields.
Cantharellus cibarius.	Fries.	Woods.
Clavaria aurea.	Schaeffer.	Earth in woods.
C. botritis.	Persoon.	Earth in woods.
C. cristata.	Holmskiold.	Damp woods.
C. fastigiata.	Linnæus.	Grassy places.
C. flava.	Fries.	Earth in woods.
C. formosa.	Persoon.	Earth in woods.
Clavaria fuliginea.	Persoon.	Shady woods.
C. macropus.	Persoon.	Earth.
C. muscoides.	Linnæus.	Grassy places.
C. pyxidata.	Persoon.	Rotten woods.
C. rugosa.	Bulliard.	Damp woods.
C. subtilis.	Persoon.	Shaded banks.
C. tetragona.	Schwartz.	Damp woods.
Coprinus atramentarius.	Bulliard.	Manured ground.
C. comatus.	Fries.	In stable-yards.
Cortinarius castaneus.	Fries.	Earth in woods.
C. cinnamomeus.	Fries.	Earth and wood.
C. violaceus.	Fries.	Woods.
Fistulina hepatica.	Fries.	Base of trunks and stumps.
Helvella crispa.	Fries.	Pine in woods.
H. infula.	Schaeffer.	Earth and pine logs.
H. lacunosa.	Afzelius.	Near rotten logs.
H. sulcata.	Afzelius.	Shady woods.
Hydnum caput-medusæ.	Bulliard.	Trunks and logs.
H. coralloides.	Scopoli.	Side of trunks.
H. imbricatum.	Linnæus.	Earth in woods.
H. laevigatum.	Schwartz.	Pine woods.
H. repandum.	Linnæus.	Woods.
H. rufescens.	Schaeffer.	Woods.
H. subsquamosum.	Batsch.	Damp woods.
Hygrophorus eburneus.	Fries.	Woods.
H. pratensis.	Fries.	Hill-sides.
Lactarius augustissimus.	Lasch.	Thin woods.
L. deliciosus.	Fries.	Pine woods.
L. insulsus.	Fries.	Woods.
L. piperatus.	Fries.	Dry woods.
L. subdulcis.	Fries.	Damp grounds.
L. volemus.	Fries.	Woods.
Lycoperdon bovista.	Linnæus.	Grassy lands.
Pachyma cocos.	Fries.	Underground.
Paxillus involutus.	Fries.	Sandy woods.
Polyporus Berkeleii.	Fries.	Woods.
P. confluens.	Fries.	Pine woods.
P. cristatus.	Fries.	Pine woods.
P. frondorus.	Fries.	Earth and base of stumps.
P. giganteus.	Fries.	Base of stumps.
P. leucomelas.	Fries.	Woods.
P. ovinus.	Schaeffer.	Earth in woods.
P. poripes.	Fries.	Wooded ravines.
P. sulphureus.	Fries.	Trunks and logs.
Marasmius oreades.	Fries.	Hill-sides.
M. scorodoneus.	Fries.	Decaying vegetation.
Morchella Caroliniana.	Bosc.	Earth in woods.
M. esculenta.	Persoon.	Earth in woods.
Russula alutacea.	Fries.	Woods.
R. lepida.	Fries.	Pine woods.
R. virescens.	Fries.	Woods.
Sparassis crispa.	Fries.	Earth.
S. laminosa.	Fries.	Oak logs.
Tremella mesenterica.	Retz.	On bark.