E-text prepared by Peter Vachuska, Chuck Greif, Leonard Johnson,
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• PLATE 1.
• Fig. 1.—Amanita muscaria.
• Fig. 2.—A. frostiana.
• Copyright 1900.

[Pg i]

STUDIES OF AMERICAN FUNGI

MUSHROOMS

EDIBLE, POISONOUS, ETC.

BY

GEORGE FRANCIS ATKINSON

Professor of Botany in Cornell University, and Botanist of the

Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station

Recipes for Cooking Mushrooms, by Mrs. Sarah Tyson Rorer

Chemistry and Toxicology of Mushrooms, by J. F. Clark

WITH 230 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS BY THE

AUTHOR, AND COLORED PLATES BY F. R. RATHBUN

SECOND EDITION

NEW YORK

HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY

1903

[Pg ii]

Copyright, 1900, 1901,
BY
GEO. F. ATKINSON.

INTRODUCTION.[Pg iii]

Since the issue of my "Studies and Illustrations of Mushrooms," asBulletins 138 and 168 of the Cornell University Agricultural ExperimentStation, there have been so many inquiries for them and for literaturedealing with a larger number of species, it seemed desirable to publishin book form a selection from the number of illustrations of theseplants which I have accumulated during the past six or seven years. Theselection has been made of those species representing the more importantgenera, and also for the purpose of illustrating, as far as possible,all the genera of agarics found in the United States. This has beenaccomplished except in a few cases of the more unimportant ones. Therehave been added, also, illustrative genera and species of all the otherorders of the higher fungi, in which are included many of the edibleforms.

The photographs have been made with great care after considerableexperience in determining the best means for reproducing individual,specific, and generic characters, so important and difficult to preservein these plants, and so impossible in many cases to accurately portrayby former methods of illustration.

One is often asked the question: "How do you tell the mushrooms from thetoadstools?" This implies that mushrooms are edible and that toadstoolsare poisonous, and this belief is very widespread in the public mind.The fact is that many of the toadstools are edible, the common beliefthat all of them are poisonous being due to unfamiliarity with theplants or their characteristics.

Some apply the term mushroom to a single species, the one incultivation, and which grows also in fields (Agaricus campestri