Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 December 1891 — To Tell Good Mushrooms. [ARTICLE]

To Tell Good Mushrooms.

The mushroom that is coming intoour. markets every day now by thousands of bushels is known to scientific men as Agaricus campestris, but of this there are many varieties. It will grow only on the open pastures, meadows and downs which are exposed to tho winds; the unwholesome members of tho tribe like the shade und ‘ are clammy to tho touch. Even persons whose fields abound with this_plant cannot always distinguish tho wholesome from the unwholesome fungus, but whoever bears tho following facts in mind will have no difficulty: (1.) The table mushroom, or Agaricus campestris, is usually white on the outer surface, and has a skin which readily peels off. This is not true of the unwholesome mushroom. (2.) Tho gills or under radiants are of a beautiful salmon pink in the Agaricus campestris, but the gills, as well as the whole plant, turn to a mahogany brown after it has been exposed to sun and air in the open for two or three days. (3.) But this is the most definite test. (J’he inner ends of the gills are not joined to the stern in tho wholesome mushroom, but they are joined in all that are not edible. No one cun bo deceived by a poisonous plant if be keeps this fact in mind. Moreover, the flesh of the canipestris is solid and the perfume sweet and nutty. There is another edible member of this family, known us tho horse-mush-room, which grows four or five times larger thuu the one described; but it is course, stringy, and almost devoid of flavor. Xho plant, however, above all others to be avoided is the Agaricus fastibilis; it looks almost exactly like the edible fungus, but the gills are joined to the stalk, though many of them are of a salmon or coral pink on the unde - side. —[Harper's Weekly.