The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1920-10-15
HOW TO TELL THE MUSHROOM

HOW TO TELL THE MUSHROOM
BY Prof. Walter A. McCubbin, Deputy
Director, Bureau of Plant Industry,
Pennsylvania Department of Agri-
culture.
The rains and cool weather of the
last few weeks have started the toad
stools and mushrooms growing in
great profusion in Pennsylvania, ac-
cording to the Bureau of Plant Indus
try, Pennsylvania Department of Agri.
culture, and the mushroom collector
will soon have plenty of materials for
his basket. Many people are afraid
to use mushrooms on account of the
danger Of poisoning and each year
there are a few cases recorded where
mushroom eaters have fallen victims
OF some poison-form, accidentally or
mistakenly collected for the edible
species.
Several old-fashioned rules have
been in use which are intended to en-.
able one to tell the edible from teh
poisonous. Among these rules the
wo referring to the peeling qualities
OF the cap, and the discoloration of A
silver spoon, have been most quoted.
Both are utterly unreliable since they
will apply equally well to several
pecies of both edible and poisonous
kinds In short there is no simple
rule by which to distinguish the poi
sonous from the harmless toadstools
and mushrooms, ana in order to eat
these fungi with safety one has to
make careful study of them from the
many books and pictures on the SUBJ
ject, or else test each species very
cautiously.
There are three lines along which
the would-be mushroom or toadstool
collector might proceed. Q) He may
tudy and identify each species care
ully from the text books and conflne
his cooking to those he can identify
with certainty. (2) Or he may learn
to recognize at sight the comparative
1y few poisonous forms and will then
feel safe to experiment among the
numerous remaining species, of which
there are some six to eight hundred
described. (3) Or finally he may learn
to know the common mushroom and
conflne himself to that alone.
This last is by far the safest plan
and since few of the toadstools have
such fine flavor as the ordinary mush-
room, their loss from his bill of fare
is not so great as their number would
indicate. Many of them are quite in
sipid, some are distinctly unpleasant
though harmless, and many others
are tough and woody. Among the best
of the fungi outside of the ordinary
mushroom are the Shaggy Name, the
Oyster Fungus, the Honey Agaric, the
smooth Lepiota, the Puffball and the
Spring Morel. -
For those who are timid about using
the common mushroom, the following
threefold rule will enable them to de-
termine it with perfect safety: D
It must have pink or flesh-colored gills.
This point should be determined in a
fairly young stage as the gills may
turn to a dark flesh color in age. CD
1t must have ring on the stem, which
is the remains of "veil' or sheet
of fibrous tissue expanding in the early
stages from the edge of the cap stem,
and remaining on the stem as the cap
expands. 60 1t should be collected
from open land such as pastures, and
never from virgin soil or from the
woods. 1t is in the woods that our
most poisonous species grow, and
they are rarely if ever found in cult
waited land.
In short one might put it thus:
"The common edible mushroom is
pink-gilled fungus with ring on the
stem growing in open pastures" and
It is only necessary to commit this
threefold rule to memory and use it
in collecting in order to avoid all pos
sible danger of poisoning.