FINE FUNGI WORDS

"Silver and gold and a fine cloak--these are easy to send with a messenger. To trust him with mushrooms--that is difficult!"

--Martial

"Therefore I give my advice unto those who love such strange and new-fangled meates, to beware of licking honey among the thornes, lest the sweetnesse of the one do not countervaile the sharpness and pricking of the other...To conclude, few of them are good to be eaten, and most of them do suffocate and strangle the eater."

--John Gerard, English author of a

16th-century herbal

"How beautiful,
beautiful indeed,
The poisonous mushrooms!

--Issa

"Mushroom gathering;
From greediness
We lost our way.

--Jiraku

"The evening rain,
And the mushrooms
It promised."

--Kisei

"The simplest and most lumpish fungus has a peculiar interest to us, compared with a mere mass of earth, because it is so obviously organic and related to ourselves, however remote. It is the expression of an idea; growth according to a law; matter not dormant, not raw, but inspired, appropriated by spirit. If I take up a handful of earth, however separately interesting the particles may be, their relation to one another appears to be that of juxtaposition generally. I might have thrown them together thus. But the humblest fungus betrays a life akin to our own. It is a successful poem in its kind."

--Henry David Thoreau

"Poisonous mushrooms groweth where old iron lieth or rotten clouts or neere to serpents dens, or roots of trees that bring forth venimous fruit."

--Dioscorides

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The translations of haiku are by R.H. Blyth and are reprinted from Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, 3rd series (1973) 2: 93-106.

CAUTION: This book (and this online feature) is not intended as a recipe book or an identification guide. There are risks involved in consuming wild mushrooms. To minimize them you must obtain positive identification of each specimen. Even with proper identification, the possibility exists that the consumer may be allergic to a mushroom, or that the mushroom may in some way be anomalous. The author has been conscientious in his efforts to alert the reader to potential hazards of consuming wild mushrooms, but the reader must accept full responsibility for deciding to consume any particular specimen. Descriptions of medicinal uses of mushrooms given in this book (and on this online feature) are for educational purposes only. The author is not recommending the use of mushrooms for self-medication. Always consults a physician about such use.