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Last October when it was terribly dry I went to visit the Browns in
Rochester. I didn’t take along any mushroom books, even though I
knew that Nobby and I would spend most of our time walking through
the woods. No matter where he lives he gets ahold of those United
States Coast and Geographic Survey quadrangle maps. He studies
them carefully and with their aid explores the countryside
conscientiously. He is not a botanist. He is more of a hiker. He
likes a good view and solving the puzzle of how to get out of the
woods once he is in them. He took me to a swampy area ordinarily no
doubt impassable but because of the drought quite easy to explore.
There to my surprise we discovered a white Tricholoma growing in
rings larger than any I had ever seen before. This particular
species was new to me. It appeared in every respect desirable and
it was not acrid to the taste. We gathered quite a lot and I decided
to telephone W. Stephen Thomas, tell him about the mushroom, and
learn from him what species it was. ¶ He answered the telephone but
didn’t recognize the fungus from the information I gave him. He
said that there was a scheduled walk the very next day and that
someone in the Rochester Club might know my plant. No one did, but
one person had Groves along, which I consulted and was pleased to
learn described my Tricholoma. It was irinum, edible and
delicious. I served it to a number of students from the University
who came to the Browns’ the following day for dinner. ¶ A week
later I was home again and got to cataloging my mushroom books. I
came across a reprint of an article by Alexander Smith entitled
Tricholoma irinum. Smith tells in detail how for years he has found
and eaten the mushroom without any ill effects, how he never had
any compunction about giving it to others to eat until two people
were seriously poisoned by it. He studied their case quite
carefully since he is himself so often sickened by fungi but not by
this one. He came to the conclusion that the mushroom, nothing else
that had been eaten or drunk, was indeed responsible. |