Edible & Poisonous Mushrooms

Edible & Poisonous Mushrooms is a field guide for the amateur mushroom collector, published in 1894. It is written by one of the great British mycologists of the nineteenth century, Mordecai Cubit Cooke. The book illustrates 48 species in 18 colored plates.

Books of this age with good prints are getting harder to find because of a new type of human low-life. These bottom-feeding scumbags buy old illustrated books, cut the books apart, and sell the individual plates, often on eBay. You will see this disgusting trade openly exhibited in the Antique Prints section of eBay and in antique shops around the world. Lots of old mycological, botanical and other natural history books have been destroyed so someone can make a few bucks selling the prints. I have seen the prints from old mushroom books, books that are very valuable to the mycologist, for sale many times. The prints are sold and, I assume, the rest of the great book is just discarded. I "rescued" this book from an eBay auction where I believe the other high bidders were trying to buy the book and cut out its plates.

Of course, do not use these plates as a guide to the edibility of any mushroom. The ediblity concepts of some of these species have changed in the past century. The prints are reproduced here for their artistic and historic interest. I have used the common names that were used on the plates, sometimes a variant of that name was used in the text. The "latin" names have been modernized, to the best of my ability, from what was used in the text.

Cover

Edible & Poisonous Mushrooms
by M. C. Cooke

Plate 1: Edible Mushrooms

1. Ruddy Warted Caps (Amanita rubescens)
2. Delicious Milk Mushrooms (Lactarius deliciosus)
3. Common Mushroom (Agaricus campestris)

Plate 2: Edible Mushrooms

1. Parasol Mushroom (Macrolepiota procera)
2. St. George's Mushroom (Calocybe gambosa)

Plate 3: Edible Mushrooms

1. Blue Caps (Clitocybe nuda)
2. Champignon (Marasmius oreades)
3. Blewits (Clitocybe saeva)

Plate 4: Edible Mushrooms

1. Dusky Caps (Clitocybe nebularis)
2. Beef Steak (Fistulina hepatica)

Plate 5: Edible Mushrooms

1. Horse Mushroom (Agaricus arvensis)
2. Hedgehog (Hydnum repandum)
3. Ivory Caps (Camarophyllus virgineus or Hygrocybe virginea)

Plate 6: Edible Mushrooms

1. Inky Mushroom (Coprinus atramentarius)
2. Shaggy Caps (Coprinus comatus)
3. Little Ivory Caps (Camarophyllus niveus or Hygrocybe nivea)

Plate 7: Edible Mushrooms

1. Puffball (Handkea utriformis)
2. Sweetbread (Clitopilus prunulus)
3. Horn of Plenty (Craterellus cornucopioides)
4. Chanterelle (Cantharellus cibarius)

Plate 8: Edible Mushrooms

1. Edible Bolete (Boletus edulis)
2. Buff Caps (Camarophyllus pratensis)

Plate 9: Edible Mushrooms

1. White Helvella (Helvella crispa)
2. Morel (Morchella esculenta)
3. Lanky Morel (Morechella semilibra)
4. Truffle (Tuber aestivum)

Plate 10: Poisonous Mushrooms

1. Fly Agaric (Amanita muscaria)
2. Conic Lawn Mushroom (Hygrocybe conica)

Plate 11: Poisonous Mushrooms

1. Buff Warty Caps (Amanita phalloides)
2. Liberty Caps (Psilocybe semilanceata)
3. Dung Slimy Caps (Stropharia semiglobata)

Plate 12: Poisonous Mushrooms

1. Wavy Pinkgills (Entoloma sinuatum)
2. Styptic Sidefoot (Panus stypticus)

Plate 13: Poisonous Mushrooms

1. Tufted Wood Mushroom (Hypholoma fasciculare)
2. Sulphury Mushroom (Tricholoma sulphureus)
3. Green Slimy Caps (Stropharia aeruginosa)

Plate 14: Poisonous Mushrooms

1. Magpie Mushroom (Coprinus picaceus)
2. Wood Woolly Foot (Gymnopus peronatus)

Plate 15: Poisonous Mushrooms

1. Bitter Russule (Russula fellea)
2. Acrid Milk Mushroom (Lactarius acris)
3. Sham Mushroom (Hebeloma fastibile)

Plate 16: Poisonous Mushrooms

1. Emetic Russule (Russula emetica)
2. Fiery Milk Mushroom (Lactarius pyrogalus)
3. Shaggy Milk Mushroom (Lactarius torminosus)

Plate 17: Poisonous Mushrooms

1. White Milk Mushroom (Lactarius vellereus)
2. Bitter Boletus (Boletus felleus)

Plate 18: Poisonous Mushrooms

1. Satanic Boletus (Boletus satanas)
2. Lurid Boletus (Boletus luridus)