Edible and Poisonous Mushrooms: What to Eat and What to Avoid

will provide all the variety that an ordinary person requires. We have personally eaten more than sixty different species, yet we seldom eat more than six to ten in any given year. Experiments in eating unknown fungi, or those about which any doubt exists, should on no account be encouraged. We may not possess as many truly poisonous species as has been supposed, but that we do possess some is an undoubted fact, and it should be remembered as a warning. Thorough and persistent mushroom-eaters never experiment upon unknown species, but only upon those known by experience to be harmless, or which, by their natural affinities, afford no possible reason for doubt.

Characteristic and accurate figures are a great help in the determination of species, but figures alone are scarcely sufficient for the inexperienced and should always be supplemented by referring to the written description. Features of importance may