MUSHROOMS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 June 1940, Page 2

MUSHROOMS

MANY EDIBLE FUNGI. In England there are nearly 4000 varieties of fungi, which include the I toadstools and the mushrooms and things with names like polypore, giant tuft and stump flap. There are many eatable fungi, too numerous to describe, but much appreciated by those able to distinguish them from the poisonous kinds. The morel, grisette, blusher, blewit and bolet are in this class. There are others which cannot be eaten, though they bear such attractive and romantic names as fairy club, pasture bell and rose cup. Not all these toadstools have the familiar gills of most species. Some are like a sponge underneath, while others are solid with no outward signs of the seed spores. The tremendous fruitfulness of fungi is astonishing. A single mushroom will produce two thousand million spores in a season! The true mushroom is only found in open fields —never in woods. It has a solid white stem with a small “frill" near the top. The gills are pale pink when fresh, but turn black in old specimens. The top skin will peel easily, and there is a pleasant smell. Avoid brightly coloured kinds, hollow stems and strange odours, and you will be safe.