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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
very 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 that 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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