Mushrooms and Toadstools (Third Edition) — Poisonous Forest Mushroom to Yellow Milk-Mushroom

(_Agaricus_ [_Entoloma_] _sinuatus.

_) 212. Without doubt, this is a very poisonous plant, for I once cooked a very small piece of a specimen for luncheon, and was very nearly poisoned to death thereby.

I did not eat a twentieth part of the specimen gathered—I am sure not so much as a quarter of an ounce—and the taste was by no means disagreeable.

But mark the result.

(It must be borne in mind, too, that though I fell so dangerously ill, I never till the last moment _suspected the fungus_.

Such a confirmed toadstool-eater was I, that I laid my symptoms to anything but the true cause.

) About a quarter of an hour after luncheon _I left home_, and was immediately overtaken by a strange nervous, gloomy, low-spirited feeling quite new to me.

Soon a severe headache added its charms to my feelings, and then swimming of the brain commenced, with violent pains in the stomach.

I had now great difficulty to keep upon my legs at all; my senses all appeared leaving me, and every object appeared to be moving with _death-like stillness_ from side to side, up and down, or round and round.

More dead than alive, I soon returned home, and was horrified to find _two others_ (whom I had invited to partake of my repast) in exactly the same condition as myself.

At this moment, and not before, I thought of _Agaricus sinuatus_.

These two others had suffered precisely as I had done, and we all three were apparently dying fast.

They, however, were attacked by violent vomiting, which I imagine helped to hasten their recovery; for after a few days of sickness and nausea (with medical assistance) they got well; but it was not so with me; for although I had at first the inclination, I had not the strength left to vomit.

During the latter part of the first day I was, however, so continually and fearfully purged, and suffered so much from headache and swimming of the brain, that I really thought every moment would be my last.

I was very ill for the next four or five days; suffered from loathing and lassitude; fell into deep sleep, long and troubled; at times found all my joints quite stiff; at others, found everything swimming before me; and it was not till a fortnight had elapsed that every bodily derangement had left me.

Fig. 14 is a portrait of the plant in question, taken before the culinary operations were commenced.

No one, after seeing this picture, can fail to recognize the thing itself if found.

It is large, has dull flesh-coloured gills, the top is a little downy, it smells like meal, and grows in woods.

It can always be found sparingly in autumn in the woods north of London.

=Fiery Milk-Mushroom.

= Fig. 15. (_Lactarius piperatus.

_) 500. I imagine there are very few species in this country more dangerous than this one.

So essentially and powerfully acrid is the milk, that if it be allowed to trickle over tender hands it will sting like the contact of nettles; and if a drop is placed on the lips or tongue, the sensation is like the scalding of boiling water, or the burning of a red-hot iron.

It is common in all woods; is particularly firm and solid, but rather brittle.

In colour it is sometimes as white as snow, at others it inclines a little to cream; the milk is white and unchangeable, and usually abundant.

=Fetid Mushroom.

= Fig. 16. (_Russula fœtens.

_) 530. Less rigid than other _Russulæ_, brittle, and sticky in all its parts, always slug-eaten, and possessed of a wet insufferable odour that can be likened to nothing in nature, this species cannot in reason be anything but deleterious and pernicious to human life.

Slugs certainly highly relish it; for although it is one of our commonest species, yet it is invariably much eaten by slugs: frequently the gills are covered with these creatures, or are even completely eaten away.

=Blood-stained Mushroom.

= Fig. 17. (_Russula sanguinea.

_) 518. This acrid species of Russula, sometimes found in woods, is by no means uncommon; its well-marked blood-red top and _firm substance_ at once distinguish it from other species.

The gills are white, and run a little down the stem.

=Livid Milk-Mushroom.

= Fig. 18. (_Lactarius pyrogalus.

_) 498. The highly acrid white milk abundantly exuded from this plant, its depressed and zoned top, its peculiar livid coloration and yellowish gills, distinguish it from the other milk-mushrooms.

It grows in woods and meadows.

=False Chantarelle.

= Fig. 19. (_Cantharellus aurantiacus.

_) 540. Is known by its smaller size, its gills being far thinner and more crowded than in the true chantarelle; the stem frequently deep umber at the base, and the gills or veins darker than the top.

It is a species to be rejected for culinary purposes.

=Yellow Milk-Mushroom.

= Fig. 20. (_Lactarius theiogalus.

_) 503. This is a beautiful plant, with an odour that is far from disagreeable.

It is _sometimes_ without the zones on the top which are shown in our figure, but it is immediately known by the change of colour which takes place in the milk on breaking the fungus; this is at first pure white, but in less than a minute the milk turns to a brilliant yellow.

It is not uncommon, and may generally be found at Hampstead in the woods; and it is supposed to be poisonous.

=Emetic Mushroom.

= Fig. 21.