Of Mushrooms
& the Manner
of Knowing Them

Being a modest illustrated register of six fungi worth the acquaintance — their forms engraved from specimens, their tempers noted plainly, and the means of telling one from its dangerous cousin set down for the walking naturalist.

Open the specimen drawers Join the Society

Amanita muscaria — the fly agaric, figured here. Poisonous

no two alike

The Society's Daily Ritual

Today's Spore Print

Lay a cap gill-side down upon paper overnight and by morning it will have shed a ghost of itself — a fall of spores in the exact pattern of its gills. We cast a fresh one for every visitor. The one settling beside these words has never existed before and will not survive your leaving.

Deposited today · — spores · no. —

The Cabinet · Six Drawers

The Specimen Drawers

Each drawer slides to reveal its plate and the field-hand's annotations. Handle the fatal ones only with the eye.

The sliding drawers ask for JavaScript; the register itself does not. The six plates, in brief:

Amanita muscaria — the fly agaric. Scarlet cap flecked with veil-warts, skirted ring, cupped base. Poisonous. Late summer to first frost, under birch and pine.
Boletus edulis — the penny bun. Brown bun cap over a sponge of pores, netted stem, bread-sweet smell. Choice edible. Late summer through autumn.
Cantharellus cibarius — the chanterelle. Egg-yolk gold funnel, blunt forked ridges, apricot scent. Choice edible. Midsummer to late autumn.
Morchella esculenta — the common morel. Hollow honeycomb head on a hollow stem. Edible only cooked. Spring, briefly.
Coprinus comatus — the shaggy inkcap. White shaggy column dissolving to black ink. Edible in first youth. Late summer to autumn.
Russula emetica — the sickener. Glossy scarlet dome, chalk-brittle white stem. Poisonous. Summer to autumn, in damp conifer woods.

A Branching Key

Name the Thing in Hand

Answer as the specimen answers. Each choice narrows the field until one name remains.

The Fruiting Calendar

The Season Wheel

Fungi keep no diaries but they keep the year faithfully. The chanterelle answers to warm damp; the morel is a rumour of spring; the ceps march in with the first cold rains. Rest a finger on a month to see what the woods will offer.

Hover a month.

Enter Your Name
in the Ledger

Members receive the quarterly plate by post, the foray calendar, and the standing invitation to walk out with people who look at the ground more than the view. Two shillings and sixpence per annum, or the modern equivalent.