PART VIII.
FUNGI AS FOODS.
Mushrooms.—Certain fungi growing wild or in cultivated soils and
having an expanded top on a hooded stem are known as mushrooms. The
common form of mushroom (Agaricus campestris L.) grows wild over a large
portion of the United States. It is especially abundant in the autumn, growing
sometimes during the night after a warm rain, over large areas. When
properly cooked it forms a delicious food and condimental substance, highly
prized by connoisseurs and others. Belonging to the family of mushrooms,
however, are many poisonous varieties which, when eaten inadvertently,
often cause serious illness and sometimes death. For this reason mushrooms
sold in the open market should be carefully inspected by experts authorized
to see that the poisonous varieties are excluded. It not only requires a good
botanist, but also one skilled in the practical differentiation of the different
varieties by physical appearance rather than by botanical analysis, to properly
separate the poisonous from the edible varieties.
Historical.—Mushrooms have been, since historical times, extensively used as human food. In a book written five centuries before the Christian era, Athenée, in his "Banquet of Learned Men," speaks of the poisoning of a mother and her three children by mushrooms. Hippocrates speaks of a girl who had been poisoned by mushrooms and who was cured by the administration of hot honey and by a hot bath. Theophrastes and Nicandre also speak of mushrooms and the poisoning that occurs therefrom. Both Cicero and Horace make reference to mushrooms. Horace advises that Epicureans should confine themselves to the mushrooms that grow upon meadows and refuse to eat all others on account of the danger from poisoning. Ovid also makes frequent allusions to mushrooms and speaks of the influence of warm rains upon their growth. Tacitus refers to the use of mushrooms for food, and Suétonius, in his "History of the Twelve Cæsars," relates that the Emperor Claudius was poisoned by a dish of mushrooms. It is, therefore, evident that from the earliest times mushrooms were extensively used and the poisonous properties of some of the varieties understood.
Production of Mushrooms.—As has already been mentioned, mushrooms grow wild over a large area of the United States. They are also cultivated very extensively, though not so extensively here as in European countries.
