Mushrooms — Edible  and  Non-Edible  Varieties. — At  the  November
pharmaceutical  meeting  of  the  Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy,  Charles
Mcllvaine  read  a  highly  interesting  paper  on  edible  and  non-edible  mush-
rooms and  fungi,  his  object  being  to  awaken  an  interest  in  the  immense
field  that  presents  itself  in  a  field  of  study  that,  presenting  itself  every-
where, is  practically  unoccupied.  He  observes  that  while  the  many  and
expensive  books  upon  fungi  are  excellent  in  their  classification  and  de-
scription of  toadstools,  their  authors,  following  one  another  in  assertion
and  lack  of  original  investigation,  falsify  their  edible  and  non-edible  quali-
ties. He  describes  a  number  of  these  plants,  and  states  that  by  study  of
their  botanical  characters,  and  by  experiments  with  reference  to  their
edible  qualities,  he  had  been  enabled  to  increase  the  list  of  edible  fungi  to
437  varieties.  The  only  toadstools  fatal  to  man  were  eight  species  of
amanitay  the  remaining  member  of  this  genus,  thus  distinguished,  being
regarded  as  among  the  finest  edible  varieties.  He  places  the  toadstools
among  the  most  valuable  of  food  supplies,  and  has  seen  large  and  paying
crops  of  mushrooms  grown  on  a  meadow  where  pieces  of  spawn  had  been
inserted  in  the  sod.  This  inserting  should  be  done  after  the  spring  rains
are  over,  and  the  dry  season  well  set  in,  as  too  much  moisture  will  invari-
ably kill  the  spawn. — Amer.  Journ.  Pharm.,  Dec,  1896,  648-663.
480  REPORT  ON   THE  PROGRESS  OF  PHARMACY.
UCHENES.
Lichens — Chemical  Constituents. — O.  Hesse  in  continuation  of  a  former
report  on  substances  obtained  from  lichens,  reports  upon  a  number  of  lichen
acids  which  he  has  found  in  different  lichens.
