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Show MUSHROOMS It is safer to sample the drugs in a chemists' shop without reading the labels than to pick mushrooms in wood or field without knowledge. The popular popu-lar "tests" are fallacious; the Instructions Instruc-tions given in cook books and domestic papers .ire not to be depended upon. One ought either to avoid wild mushrooms mush-rooms altogether or ntudy the subje-ct carefully, patiently, scientifically, from the authoritative text hooks available. It is a case where a little knowledge is most dangerous, and while the number of exreris grows yearly, there are widespread wide-spread errors that lead to Just such disasters dis-asters as this. The division of fungi into "mushrooms" and poisonous "toadstools" "toad-stools" is an example of this false knowledge. In every schoolhouse in the lanl the children ought to be taught to know the fatal amanUa, with its socket, the mark of the tribe. Thai is the starting point for any one who undertakes un-dertakes to gather mushrooms, and those who do not may have a chance to rave tUe lives of others. This one iesson learned the task Is lessened a hundredfold, hundred-fold, for It Is the special snare of the white amanitas that they so closely resemble the ordinary pasture mushroom. mush-room. To learn atl the edible varieties is the task of a specialist, but there are many klids thit, or.ee harned. are absolutely ab-solutely safe. SpHngfield Republican. |