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I enrolled in a class in mushroom identification. The
teacher was a Ph.D. and the editor of a publication on
mycology. One day he picked up a mushroom, gave a good
deal of information about it, mainly historical, and
finally named the plant as Pluteus cervinus, edible.
I was certain that that plant was not Pluteus
cervinus. Due to the attachment of its gills to the
stem, it seemed to me to be an Entoloma, and therefore
possibly seriously poisonous. I thought: What shall
I do? Point out the teacher’s error? Or, following
school etiquette, saying nothing, let other members
of the class possibly poison themselves? I decided to
speak. I said, “I doubt whether that mushroom is
Pluteus cervinus. I think it’s an Entoloma.” The
teacher said, “Well, we’ll key it out.” This was done,
and it turned out I was right. The plant was Entoloma
grayanum, a poisonous mushroom. The teacher
came over to me and said, “If you know so much about
mushrooms, why do you take this class?” I said,
“I take this class because there’s so much about
mushrooms I don’t know.” Then I said, “By the way,
how is it that you didn’t recognize that plant?”
He said, “Well, I specialize in the jelly
fungi; I just give the fleshy fungi a whirl.”
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