of dried mushrooms
they found the following proportions of nitrogenous substances:

-----------------------+--------
Varieties. | Grains.
|
Chanterelles | 3.22
Certain Russulas | 4.25
Lactarius deliciosus | 4.68
Boletus edulis | 4.25
Meadow mushroom | 7.26
-----------------------+--------

But all chemists are not agreed as to these proportions. For instance,
Lefort has found 3.51 grains of nitrogenous matter in the cap of
_Agaricus campestris_, 2.1 grains in the gills and only 0.34 of a grain
in the stem. Payen has found 4.68 grains in _Agaricus campestris_, 4.4
grains in the common Morel (_Morchella esculenta_), 9.96 grains in the
white truffle, and 8.76 grains in the black.

A much larger proportion of the various kinds of mushrooms are edible
than is generally supposed, but a prejudice has grown up concerning them
in this country which it will take some time to eradicate.
Notwithstanding the occurrence of occasional fatal accidents through the
inadvertent eating of poisonous species, fungi are largely consumed both
by savage and civilized man in all parts of the world, and while they
contribute so considerable a portion of the food product of the world we
may be sure their value will not be permanently overlooked in the United
States, especially when we consider our large accessions of population
from countries in which the mushroom is a familiar and much prized
edible. In Italy the value of the mushroom as an article of diet has
long been understood and appreciated. Pliny, Galen, and Dioscorides
mention various esculent species, notably varieties of the truffle, the
boletus and the puff-ball, and Vittadini writes enthusiastically of the
gastronomic qualities of a large number of species. Of late years large
quantities have been sold in the Italian markets. Quantities of
mushrooms are also consumed in Germany, Hungary, Russia, France, and
Austria.

Darwin speaks of Terra del Fuego as the only country where cryptogamic
plants form a staple article of food. A bright-yellow fungus allied to
_Bulgarin_ forms, with shellfish, the staple food of the Fuegians. In
England the common meadow mushroom _Agaricus campestris_ is quite well
known and used to a considerable extent among the people, but there is
not that general knowledge of and use of other species which obtains in