iJiy I'

-.■.■>

#

PERKINS LIBRARY

Duke University
I^re Books

//

Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2011 with funding from
Duke University Libraries

http://www.archive.org/details/treatiseonesculeOObadh

THE

ESCULENT FUNGUSES

OF

ENGLAND.

A TREATISE

ESCULENT FUNGUSES

ENCxLAND,

CONTAIXIXG

AN ACCOUNT OF THEIR CLASSICAL HISTORY, USES, CHARACTERS,

DEVELOPMENT, STRUCTURE. NUTRITIOUS PROPERTIES,

MODES OF COOKING AND PRKSRRVTNO, ETC.

CHARLES DAVID BADHAM, M.D.

EDITED BY FREDERICK CURREY, M.A., F.R.S., F.L.S.

TIuAAoL nfv ffrSXa fiffny/xfya iroAAa Se \vypd. — llOMER.

LONDON :
LOVELL REEVE & CO., HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN.

1SG3.

pbinted bt

john bdwakd tatlob, little qxjkkn btbktt,

Lincoln's inn fields.

PREFACE

TO THE SECOND EDITION.

My lamented friend Dr. Badham having died since the first
publication of this work, my advice was asked upon the sub-
ject of the preparation of a new edition. It was wished that
the text of the work shoidd be altered as little as possible, and
that the price of the book should be materially lessened. The
latter object could not be effected without reducing the num-
ber of the Plates; but it appeared to me that some plates re-
lating to details of structure might very well be omitted, as
well as the figures of a few Italian species which, although
interesting in themselves, arc quite unnecessar}' in a book on
British Esculent Fungi. AVith the exception of the omission
of the description of these latter species, and the addition of
the description of two other species hereafter referred to, the
alterations in the text are too trifling to require notice. With
regard to the Figures in this edition, most of them are those
of the former plates, somewhat reduced ; a few have been taken
from the plates of Mr. Berkeley's ' Outlines of British Fungo-
logy,' and a few from original and other sources.

By a re-arrangement of the whole, the reduction in the
number of the Plates has been effected, and, at the same time,
figures of all the Fungi represented in the first edition have
been given, as well as of two other species not there noticed.

VI PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

I should observe, however, that by a mistake of the artist an
extra figure of the Horse Mushroom has been inserted in
Plate IV. instead of one of the Common jNfushroom.

The two species above alluded to which Avere not figured in
the first edition, are Tuber asiivum and Helvella esculenta.
The former must have been inadvertently omitted by Dr. Bad-
ham, as it has long been known as abundant in certain parts
of England. Helvella esculenta, although alluded to by Dr.
Badham, was not at that time known to be a British species.
It has since been observed near Weybridge in Surrey, where
it occurs almost every spring. The plant figured in PI. XV.
fig. 6 of the first edition under the name of Lycoperdon plum-
beum, is not that species, but Lycoperdon pyriforme ; it will
be found at PI. VIII. fig. 5. Dr. Badham states that all puflf-
balls are esculent, but, judging from the smell of Lycoperdon
pyriforme, I should much doubt whether it would make an
agreeable dish. Lycoperdon plumb eum is ncJw better known as
Bovista plumbea, and Lycoperdon Bovista as Lycoperdon gi-
ganteum.

There is some confusion about the synonymy of the plants
described by Dr. Badham as Agaricus prunulus and Ag. ex-
quisitus. It is unnecessary to discuss the matter here, and I
have thought it not desirable under the circumstances to alter
Dr. Badham's nomenclature. They appear to be described in
Mr. Berkeley's work as Ag. gambosus, Fr., and Ag. arvensis,
Schaefi".

Dr. Badham's observations on the spores of Fungi must be
read in connection with the note added by him at the conclu-
sion of the work; and to those who are interested in that part
of the subject I should recommend the perusal of the seventh
chapter of Mr. Berkeley's ' Outlines of British Fungology/ and
Tulasne's recent work, ' Selecta Fungorum Carpologia.'

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. Vll

Mr. Cooke, in his ' Plain and Easy Account of British
Fmigi/ recently published, mentions some species as esculent
which are not noticed in this work. I have however no ex-
perience of their qualities, and must refer the reader to Mr.
Cooke's book for further information. He mentions Mr.
Berkeley as an authority for considering Agaricus rubescens
as suspicious ; but, from long experience, I can vouch for its
being not oidy wholesome, but, as Dr. Badham says, " a very
delicate fungus."

F. C.

PREFACE

TO THE FIRST EDITION.

TO THE RIGHT REVEREND
THE LORD BISHOP OF NORWICH.

My Lord,

I had two reasons for desiring that this humble perform-
ance should appear under the sanction of your Lordship's
name. Nothing could be more favourable to a Treatise on
any department of Natural History, than the approval of one
who has been so eminently successful in his cultivation of the
same field.

But it is with much greater confidence that I dedicate a
work, whose chief object it is to furnish the labouring classes
with wholesome nourishment and profitable occupation, to a
high functionary of that kingdom, which is distinguished
from all others by recognizing the claims and furthering the
interests of the poor.

I have the honour to be, my Lord,

With great respect, your Lordship's
Obliged and humble Servant,
C. D. Badham.

CONTENTS.

Page

ETYMOLOGIES 1

THE KANGE OF FUXGCS GROWTHS 7

OF THEIR GENERAL FORMS, COLOURS, AND TEXTURE .... 10

ODOURS AND TASTES 13

EXPANSIVE POWER OF GROWTH 14

REPRODUCTIVE POWER 16

MOTION 16

PHOSPHORESCENCE 18

DIMENSIONS 18

CHEMICAL COMPOSITION 20

USES 21

MEDICAL USES 25

FUNGUSBS CONSIDERED AS AN ARTICLE OF DIET 27

MODES OF DISTINGUISHING 40

CONDITIONS NECESSARY TO THEIR PBODUCTION 47

FAIRY BINGS , 52

ON THE GROWTH OF FUNGUSES 53

ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SPORES, OB QUASI-SEEDS* . . 58

OF THE ANNULUS, THE VELUM, AND THE VOLVA 66

OF THE STALK, AND OF THE PILEUS 68

OF THE GILLS, TUBES, PLAITS, AND SPINES 69

METHODICAL DISTRIBUTION OF BRITISH ESCULENT FUNGUSES . 72

DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES : —

Agaricus acris minor 120

Apariciis alntaccus 117

Agaricus atramentarius Ill

Agaricus campcstris ^^

Agaricus castaneus 143

Agaricus cotiiahis 112

* The word seed here, or wherever else introduced into the present work, is to
be understood in its popular acceptation ; correctly speaking, spores differ from
seeds in the absence of an apparent embryo ; but in a more catholic sense spores
are seeds, since both arc germinating granules, producing each after their kind.

X CONTKNTS.

Page
DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES^ — contuiuett .

Agaricns deliciosus 102

Agaricus Dryophilus 107

Agnricus emetlcun 1 18

Affuricus exquisitus 100

Agaricus fnsipes 141

Agaricns heterophyllus 113

Agaricus meUeus 139

Agaricus nebular is 108

Agaricus Orcella 129

Agaricus oreades 106

Agaricus ostreatus 121

Agaricus person atus 105

Agaricus p>iperatus 141

Agaricus procerus 88

Agaricus 2}runulus 85

Agaricus ruber 115

Agaricus rubescens 123

Agaricus sanguineus 120

Agaricus semiglobatus . . . ' ' 108

Agaricus ulmarius 140

Agaricus vaginatus 142

Agaricus violaceus 143

Agaricus virescens 116

Agaricus virgineus 145

Boletus edulis 90

Boletus lurid us 104

Boletus scaber 103

Cantharellus cibarius > HO

. Clavaria coralloides 135

Fistulina hepatica 127

Helvella crispa 130

Helvella lacunosa 131

Helvella esculenta 131

Hydnum repandum 126

Lycoperdon Bovista 138

Lycoperdon plumheum 136

Morchella esculenta . 123

Morchella semilibera 124

Peziza acetabulum 133

Polyporus frondosus 133

Tuber cestivum 145

Verpa digitaliformis 132

CONCLUSION 146

DESCRiniON OE PLATES.

Plate I.

Imu;. 1. Agaricus pnnuilus.
,. 2. Agaricus pcrsonatiis.

Plate II.
Agaricus procerus.

Plate III.

Fig. 1, 2. Boletus ediilis.
„ 3, -t. Agaricus lieterophyllus.

Plate IV.
Fig. 1. Polyporus fronclos\is.
,, 2. Agaricus nebularis,

3, 4, .5. Agaricus exquisitus.

Plate V.

Fig. 1. Helvella lacunosa.

„ 2. Clavaria amethystiua.

,, 3. Clavaria coralloides.

,, 4. Agaricus deliciosus.

„ 5. Clavaria cinerea.

,. G. Clavaria rugosa.

Xn DESCRIPTION OF PLATES.

Plate VI.

Fig. 1, 2. Boletus scaber.
„ 3, 4, 5. Boletus luridus.

Plate YII.

Fig. 1, 2, 3. Agaricus comatus.
„ 4. Agaricus oreades.
„ 5. Agaricus Dryophilus.

Plate VIII.

Fig. 1. Cantharellus cibarius.
„ 2. Tuber aestivurn.
., 3, 4. Hydnum repanduni.
„ 5. Lycopevdon pyriforme.

Plate IX.

Fig. 1, 2. Agaricus atramentarius.
„ 3. Agaricus melleus.

Plate X.
Agaricus ostreatus.

Plate XI.

Fig. 1, 2. Agaricus Orcella.
„ 3, 4, 5. Agaricus rubescens.

Plate XII.

Fig. 1, 2. Fistulina hepatica.
„ 3, 4, 5. Helvella esculenta.
,, 6. MorchcUa esculenta.

INTRODUCTORY NOTICE.

No country is perhaps richer in esculent Funguses than our
own ; we have upwards of thirty species abounding in our
woods. No markets might therefore be better supplied than
the English, and yet England is the only country in Europe
where this important and savoury food is, from ignorance or
prejudice, left to perish ungathered.

In France, Germany, and Italy, Funguses not only consti-
tute for weeks together the sole diet of thousands, but the re-
sidue, either fresh, dried, or variously preserved in oil, vinegar,
or brine, is sold by the poor, and forms a valuable source of
income to many who have no other produce to bring into the
market. Well, then, may we style them, with ]\I. Roques,
" the manna of the poor." To call attention to an article of
commerce elsewhere so lucrative, with us so wholly neglected,
is the object of the present work, to which the best possible
introduction will be a brief reference to the state of the
fungus market abroad.

The following brief summary was drawn up by Professor
Sanguinetti, the Official Inspector {" Ispetfore dei Fuughi")
at Rome ; let it speak for itself : — " For forty days during the

XIV INTRODUCTORY NOTICJ).

autumn, and for about half that period every spring, large
quantities of Funguses, picked in the immediate vicinity of
Rome, from Frascati, Rocca di Papa, Albano, beyond jNlonte
Mario towards Ostia and tlie neighbourhood of the sites of
Veii and Gabii, are brought in at the different gates. In the
year 1837, the Government instituted the so-called Congrega-
zione Speciale di Sanita, which, among other duties, was
more particularly required to take into serious consideration
the commerce of Funguses, from the unrestricted sale of which
during some years past, cases of poisoning had not unfre-
quently occurred. The following decisions were arrived at by
this body : —

" 1st. That for the future an ' Inspector of Funguses,' versed m botany,
should be appointed to attend the market in place of the peasant, whose sup-
posed practical knowledge had been hitlierto held as sufficient guarantee for the
public safety.

" 2nd. That all the Funguses brought into Kome by tlie chfferent gates
should be registered, under the surveillance of the principal officer, in whose
presence also the baskets were to be sealed up, and the whole for that day's
consumj)tion sent under escort to a central depot.

" 3rd. That a certain spot should be fixed upon for the Fungus market, and
that nobody, under penalty of fine and imprisonment, shoidd hawk tliem about
the streets.

" 4th. That at seven o'clock A.M. precisely, the Inspector should pay his
daily visit and examine the whole, the contents of the baskets being previously
emptied on the ground by the proprietors, who were tlien to receive, if the
Fimguses were approved of, a printed permission of sale from the police, and
to pay for it an impost of one baioccho (a halfpenny) on every ten pounds.

" 5th. That quantities under ten pounds should not be taxed.

" 6th. That the stale funguses of the preceding day, as well as those that
were mouldy, bruised, fiUed with maggots, or dangerous {muffi, guasti, ver-
minosi, velenosi), together with any specimen of the common mushroom (Aff.
campesfrU) detected in any of the baskets, should be sent under escort and
thrown into the Tiber.

" 7th. That the Inspector should be empowered to fine or imprison all those

INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. XV

refractory to the above regulations ; and, finally, that he should furnish a weekly
report to the Tribunal of ProTisions (// Tribnnale delle Grascie) of the pro-
ceeds of the sale.

" As all fresh Funguses for sale in quantities exceeding ten
pounds are weighed, in order to be taxed, we arc enabled to
arrive at an exact estimate of the number of pounds thus
disposed of. Tlie return of taxed jNIushrooms in the city
of Home during the last ten years, gives a yearly average of
between sixty and eighty thousand pounds weight ; and if we
double tliis amount, as we may safely do, in order to include
such smaller untaxed supplies as are disposed of as bribes,
fees, and presents, and reckon tlie whole at the rate of six
baiocchi, or threepence per pound (a fair average), this will
make the commercial value of fresh Funguses very apparent,
showing it here to be little less than £2000 a year."

But the fresh Funguses form only a small part of the
whole consumption, to which must be added the dried, the
pickled, and the preserved ; which sell at a much higher
price than the first."^ Supposing, however, that with these ad-
ditions the supply of all kinds only reached a sum the double
^f that given above, even this would furnish us with an annual
average of nearly four thousand pou?ids sterling ; and this
in a single city, and that, too, by no means the most populous
one in Italy !t What, then, must be the net receipts of all
the market-places of all the Italian States ? For as in these
the proportion of the price of esculent Funguses to butchers'
meat is as two to three, it is plain that prejudice has deprived
the poor of this country, not only of many thousand pounds
of the former but also of as much of the latter, as might have

* At from twenty to thirfy baiocchi, i.e. at about Is. 3d. a jiound.
t The population of Komo is only 15-1,000; that of Naples, 360,000; and
that of Venice, 180,000.

XVI IXTRODUCTOllY NOTICE.

been purchased by exchange, and of the countless sums which
might have been earned in gathering them.*

* The Chinese present a striking contrast with oui-selves in the care which
they bestow on their esculent vegetation. " Some days since, M. Stanislas
Julien presented to the Academy of Sciences, at Paris, a Cliincse work, whicli
merits a word or two of notice in the present circumstances of agricultural
Europe. It is a treatise, in six volumes, with plates, entitled the 'Anti-
Famine Herbal;' and contains the descriptions and representations of four
hundred and fovu-teen different plants, whose leaves, rinds, stalks, or roots are
fitted to furnish food for the people, when drought, ravages of locusts, or the
overflow of the great rivers have occasioned a failure of rice and grain. Of this
book the Chinese Government annually prints thoiisands, and distributes theivi
gratuitously in those districts which are most exposed to natural calamities.
Sucli an instance of provident sohcitude on the part of the Chinese Government
for the suffering classes may be suggestive here at home. A more general
knowledge of the properties and capabilities of esculent plants would be an
important branch of popidar education." — AiJienceum, Nov. 16, 1846.

ON THE

ESCULENT FUNGUSES
OF ENGLAND.

" Quos ipsa Tolon<ia rura
Sponte tiJerc sua carpsit." — Virgil,
" He culls from woods, and heights, and fields.
Those untaxed boons which nature yields."

ETYMOLOaiES.

By the word /jlvki]';, rjro^ or ov, 6, whereof the usually re-
ceived root, fLVKo^i [mucus), is probably factitious, the Greeks
used familiarly to designate certain, but indefinite species of
funguses, which they were in the habit of employing at table.
This term, in its origin at once trivial and restricted to at
most a few varieties, has become in our days classical and
generic ; Mycology, its direct derivative, including, in the
language of modern botany, several great sections of plants
(many amongst the number of microscopic minuteness), which
have apparently as little to do with the original import of
/j,vK7]<; as smut, bunt, mould, or dry-rot, have to do with our
table mushrooms. A like indefiniteness formerly charac-
terized the Latin word fungus, though it be now used in as
catholic a sense as that of fivKrj^;; this, in the classic times

B

2 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

of Rome, seems to have been confined (^yithout any precise
limitation, however) to certain sorts vrhich might be eaten,
and to others which it was not safe to eat. The

" Fungos colligit albos,"*

which occurs in Ovid's ' Fasti,' alludes to the former; the

" Svmt tibi boleti, fungos ego sumo suillos,"

of Martial, points to an inferior kind, but still esculent;
whilst the w^ord not unfrequently designated, if not actual
toadstools, at least very equivocal mushrooms; of which
character w^ere those " ancipites fungi " presented by Veiento
to his poor clients. Some melancholy etymologists, upon
whom good mushrooms are really thrown away, would beget
fungus out of funus, but Vossf judiciously rejects so harsh
and forced a derivation, mentioning together with it others
that are still more so.

The word Boletus, which now stands for a large genus of
the section Pileati, was used in ancient Rome to designate
that particular mushroom which had the honour, under Agrip-
pina's orders and Locusta's cookery, of poisoning Claudius;
in memory of which event it is now called Amanita Ccesarea,
the Caesar's mushroom. It occurs frequently both in the
poets and prose writers of those days, and was in high
esteem, as we collect from Pliny, who, though no mushroom-

* There are three kinds of esculent funguses in Italy to which the epithet
alhus might apply, viz. the Amanita alba, of Persoon, the Li/coperdon Bovista,
Linn, (or common puff-ball), and Agaricus campestris, Linn, (our common
mushroom). The first kind grows in woods, and the second in diy unculti-
vated spots, whereas Ovid mentions these in conjunction with the Mallow
{Maha), which grows in moist meadow-land ; it is probable, therefore, that he
here alludes to the Fratajolo, or meadow mushroom, or to that variety of it
called from its whiteness " boule de neige."

t Etymol. ad locum.

ETYMOLOGIES. 3

fancier himself^ calls this " Boletus optimi cibi." Nero, in
playful allusion to his uncle's death, of which it was the occa-
sion, designates it the 'food of gods,' ^pMfia Ocmv; and Mar-
tial celebrates it in many a convivial epigram ; in one, for
instance, where he asks his hard-hearted patron, "what
possible pleasure it can be for his guests to sit at his table,
and see him devour boletuses j" in another, '' gold and silver
and dresses may be trusted to a messenger, l)ut not a bole-
tus, {siibaudi) because he will cat it on the way." This is the
only ancient mushroom which we at once recognize by the
description of it ; " it originates," says Pliny, " in a volva, or
purse, in which it lies at first concealed as in an egg ;
breaking through this, it rises upwards on its stalk; the
colour of its cap is red j it takes a week to pass through the
various stages of its growth and declension." The sui/hia —
probably the same as the modern porcino (a word of analogous
import), which was, and is, eaten by men as well as pigs, and
not always by these"'^ — was, according to Pliny, the fungus
which most rea<lily lent itself to poisoning by mistake; a
remark so far consonant to modern experience, that it is
liable, without some attention, to be confounded with the
Boletus lurichis, B. cyanescens, and others, which in their gene-
ral shape and external hue resemble it, though it is not by
any means certain that any of these species, with which it
may be confounded, are themselves poisonous. f The word
tuber, though it occasionally (as in Juvenal) meant the truffle,
seems to have been used with considerable latitude. Thus

* Well-fed domestic pigs, ou the authority o a friend, refuse it ; but pos-
sibly, in the absence of full supplies of corn, they mipht be less dainty.

t Yittadini assures us that the "slips of dried boletus, sold on strings, are
as frequently from these kinds as from the Boletus edulis itself; notwith-
standing which, no accident was ever known to happen from the indiscriminate
use of cither."

B 2

4 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

the tubers said to spring up after those optatos imhres, those
" long-wished-for showers of spring/' were, probably, not
truffles, but puff-balls, which, at the season of warm rains
grow with incredible rapidity, forming an esteemed article of
luxury, not only in Italy, but also in India; whereas the
truffle never makes its appearance in the markets at such
times, nor comes up so immediately after rain. Tuber, like
our ancient '^fusseballj" seems a common appellation both
for truffles and puff-balls. What the ancients understood by
hydnum is as little precise or discriminate as the last word ;
for Theophrastus declares it to have a light bark, \ei6(j)\otov
elvai, in which case it is a puff-ball, while the plant called
vhvo<^i\ov, which is said to indicate the whereabouts of hydna
in its neighbourhood, can only refer to the truffle. The
truffle, however, which is now so much prized throughout
Europe, seems not to have been known to the ancients, at
least it is not described by them."^ That which the Greeks
called misy, and the Romans the Libyan truffle,t was white
and of very delicious flavour, whilst by hydnum (when this
word really meant truffle) they usually designated a particular
kind bearing a smooth red rind, and abounding in certain
districts of Italy ; but having no chance against the black,
nodulated tuber tuberum, the truffle par excellence, found in

* Dioscorides, who lived in the tune of Nero, says that pigs dig up " truffles"
in spring. Matthiohis, in his commentaries, speaks of an inferior, smooth-
barked, red truffle known to the ancients, to which the above remark of Dios-
corides perhaps apphes ; certainly it does not apply to the black truiilc, which
begins to come into the Eoman market in November, and is over long before
the spring.

t The Thracians are said to have intended this same misy under the new
epithet of Kipavi/iov, as though it were produced by tliunder, unless indeed, as
in Theoph. lib. i. cap. ix., we shoidd read Kpaviov, in which case they meant
the Lycoperdon giganteum, a fungus frequently as big as, and in the form of,
the human head : whence its name of cranium.

ETYMOLOGIES. 5

such abuudancc in the vicinities of Rome, Florence, Siena,
etc., and, above all, amongst the Nursian hills of Umbria,
over against Spoleto, whence it is largel}'^ exported throughout
and beyond Italy. Under the name Peziza, the ancients
aj)pcar at times to describe, unconsciously, a Scleroderma or
species of j)ufl-ball after it has evacuated its seed, when it
presents a iiattened surface, and so far looks like a Peziza,
with which, in fact, it has no connection. By Amanita,
Galen intended some kind of esculent fungus, but we know
not which ; this word has now come to have a more extensive
import, and to designate, besides one or two species that are
good, many of the most dangerous character. Whatever the
ancient Amanita may have been, it was formerly in high
repute ; Galen declares that, next to the Boletus, it is ujBXa-
^earaTOv to eat — in which good report of it he is abundantly
borne out by the concurrent testimony of Nicander. What
Dioscorides meant by djapiKov is another uncertainty, to
resolve which we have not sufficient data; one thing seems
plain, that it could not have been our officinal Agaric, for
that grows upon the Larch, whereas his Agaricon grew upon
the Cedar. Julius Scaliger amuses himself at the expense of
Athenaeus for saying that Agaricus is so called from the
country of Agaria, whence he would make out that it ori-
ginally camcj whereas there never Avas such a country, his
Agaria being, like our Poiatia, only another synonym for
Fancy's fairyland.^'

• * WliocTcr has time to waste on the unprofitable speculations of the ancients
concerning the parentage of funguses, and would like so to waste it, may con-
sult Pliny, lib. xvi. cap. 8, lib. xxii. cap. 23 ; Hist. Nat. Dioscorides, lib. iii.
cap. 78 ; Athcn.Tus, lib. ii. iu the Deipnosophisti ; and after tliem Galeu,
Clusius, Porta- (Villsc, lib. x.), Imperato (Ilist. Nat.), etc. The first really
philosopliical treatise which ascribes their origin, like that of other plauts, to
seeds, was published by Michcli, at Florence, in 1720.

b ESCULENT FUNGUSES Ol' ENGLAND.

The words champignon aud mushroom have both a French
origin^ though^ like the corresponding derivatives from the
Greek aud Latin, they too have come to signify things
different from "what they originally designated ; champignon,
for example, of which champ would seem to be the root, is
generic in France. The ' Traites sur les Champignons' of
BuUiard, Persoon, Paulet, Cordier, and Roques, are treatises
of funguses in genere ; whilst in England we restrict the word
champignon to one small Agaric, w^hich, as it grows in the
so-called " fairy-rings," is hence named Ag. oreades. Again,
there can be no doubt that our word mushroom (which, as
contradistinguished from toadstool, is so far generic) comes
from the French mouceron (originally spelt mousseron) , and
belongs of right to that most dainty of funguses, the A.
prunulus, which grows amidst tender herbage and moss
(whence its name), and which is justly considered, over almost
the whole continent of Europe, as the ne plus ultra of culinary
friandise. It abounds in various parts of England, being
everywhere trodden underfoot, or reaped down, or dug up as
a nuisance, while the rings Avhich it so sedulously forms are
as sedulously destroyed. The very odour which it exhales
under these injuries, which the French call " un parfum exquis
aromatise,"* and the Italians, " un odore gratissimo,"t is in
England occasionally cited to its disadvantage in confirmation
of its supposed noxious qualities. Thus, while we use the
Avord mushroom, which is the proper appellation of this species,
for another (very good, no doubt, but wholly unlike it in its
botanical characters, flavour, and appearance), this neglected,
and ignorantly neglected, species, finds itself deprived of its
rightful name, and proscribed as a toadstool. The origin of
this last word, toadstool, which makes them scats or thrones

* Eutiiics. t Vittadini.

ETYMOLOGIES. 7

for toads, docs not quite satisfy mc, I confess, though there
be doughty authorities for it in Johnson's Dictionary and in
Spenser's ' Faery Queen' !

*' The grisly todestool grown there mought I see,
Aaid loathed paddocks lording on the same ;"

and, though an anonymous Italian authority dechares that, in
Germany, they have actually been seen sitting on their
stools,* still, even in Germany, it must be admitted that
they do not use them as frequently as we might expect, had
they been created for this end. In that most grisly and
ghastly waxwork exhibition at Florence, representing a
charnel-house filled with the recent victims to a raging plague,
in every stage of decomposition, the toad and his stool are
not forgotten ; but the artist, who had here to deal with mat-
ter, and to consult what it would bear, has not put his toads
upon these brittle stools, lest, giving way, both should come
to the ground; he has been content to convert them into
toad-umbrellas, and to spread them as an awning over their
heads.f

THE RANGE OF FUNGUS GROWTHS.

The family of Funguses, in the comprehensive sense in which
we now employ the term, is immense. Merely catalogued and
described, there are sufficient to fill an octavo volume of nearly
400 pages of close print, of British species alone; altogether,
there cannot be less than 5000 recognized species at present
known, and each year adds new ones to the list. The reader's
surprise at this will somewhat diminish, when he considers,
that not only the toadstools which beset his walks, whether

* ' Trattati dei Funghi.' Roma, 1804.

t Have not both the words Tode and the stool called after him some ety-
mological, as they have imdoubtcdly a fanciful, connection with the word tod,
death ?

8 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

growing upon tlie ground or at the roots of trees_, belong to
this clasSj but that the immense hordes of parasites which
feed at his expense, and foul, like the Harpies, whatever they
may not actually consume, belong to it also.

For the single mushroom that we eat, how many hundreds
there be that retaliate and prey upon us in return ! To
enumerate but a few, and these of the microscopic kinds (on
the other side are some which the arms can scarcely em-
brace) : the Mucor mucedo, that spawns upon our dried pre-
serves ; the Ascophora mucedo, that makes our bread mouldy
{'' mucidffi frustra farinse""^) ; the Uredo segetum, that burns
Ceres out of her own cornfields ; the Uredo rubigo, whose rust
is still more destructive; and the Puccinia graminis, whose
voracity sets corn-laws and farmers at defiance, are all fun-
guses ! So is the grey Monilia, that rots, and then fattens
upon, our fruits; and the Mucor herbariorum, that destroys
the careful gleanings of the painstaking botanist. When our
beer becomes mothery, the mother of that mischief is a
fungus. If pickles acquire a bad taste, if ketchup turns ropy
and putrifies, funguses have a finger in it all ! Their reign
stops not here ; they prey upon each other ; they even select
their victims ! There is the Myrothecium viride, which will
only grow upon dry Agarics, preferring chiefly, for this pur-
pose, the Agaricus adustus ; the Mucor-\ chrysospermus, which

* Juvenal.

+ Few minute objects are more beautiful tban certain of these muceclinous
fungi fungorum. A common one besets the back of some of the MussuIcb in
decay, spreading over it, especially if the weather be moist, like thm flocks of
light wool, presenting on the second day a bluish tint on the surface. Under
a powerful magnifier, myriads of little glasslike stalks are brought uito view,
which bifurcate again and agam, eacli ultimate twig ending in a semilucent
head, or button, at first blue, and afterwards black ; which, when it comes to
burst, scatters tlie spores, wliicli are then (under the microscope) seen adhcrmg
to the sides of the dehcate filamentary stalks like so many minute limpets.

THEIK EXTENT. 9

attacks the flesh of a particular Boletus ; the Sclerotium cor-
nutum, which visits some other moist mushrooms in decay.
There are some Xylomas that will spot the leaves of the
Maple, and some those of the Willow, exclusively. The naked
seeds of some are found burrowing between the opposite sur-
face of leaves; some love the neighbourhood of burnt stubble
and charred wood; some visit the sculptor in his studio,
growing up amidst the heaps of moistened marble dust that
have caked and consolidated nndcr his saw. The Racodium
of the low cellar^ festoons its ceiling, shags its walls, and
wraps its thick coat round onr wine-casks,t keeping our oldest
wine in closest bond ; while the Geastrwn, aspiring occasion-
ally to leave this earth, has been found suspended, like ]\fa-
homet's coffin, between it and the stars, on the very highest
pinnacle of St. Paul's. J The close cavities of nuts occasion-
ally afford concealment to some species; othei's, like leeches,
stick to the bulbs of plants, and suck them dry ; these (the
architect's and ship-l)uildcr's banc) pick timber to pieces, as
men pick oakum ; nor do they confine their selective ravages
to plants alone, they attach themselves to animal structures,

* Vide the London Docks, passim; where he pays liis unwelcome visits, and
is in even worse odour than the exciseman.

t " Sir Joseph Banks having a cask of wine, rather too sweet for immediate
use, he directed that it shouUl bo jilaccd in a collar, that the saccharine it con-
tained might be more decomposed by age ; at the end of three years he directed
liis butler to ascertain the state of the wine, wlien, on attempting to open the
cellar-door, he could not effect it, in consequence of some powerful obstacle ;
the door was consequently cut down, when the cellar was found to be com-
pletely filled with a fungous production, so fii-m, that it was necessary to use an
axe for its removal. This appeared to have grown from, or to have been
nourished by, the decomposing particles of the wine, the cask being empty, and
carried up to the ceihug, where it was supported by the fungus." — C/iambers's
Journal.

X Withermg found one of these plants on the top of St. Paid's Cathedral ;
the first he had seoi !

10 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

and destroy animal life ; the Omjgena equina has a particular
fancy for the hoofs of horses and for the horns of cattle,
sticking to these alone ; the belly of a tropical fly"^ is liable, iu
autumn, to break out into vegetable tufts of fungous growth,
and the caterpillar to carry about on his body a Cordycejjs
larger than himself. The disease called Muscadine, which
destroys so many silkworms, is also a fungus {Botrytis Bas-
siana), which in a very short time completely fills the worm
with filaments very unlike those it is in the habit of secreting. f
The vegetating wasp,J too, of which everybody has heard, is
only another mysterious blending of vegetable with insect life.
Lastly, and to take breath, funguses visit the wards of our
hospitals, and grow out of the products of surgical disease. §
Where, then, are they not to be found ? do they not abound,
like Pharaoh^s plagues, everywhere ? is not their name legion,
and their province ubiquity ?||

OF THEIR GENEEAL FOEMS, COLOUES, TEXTUEE, TASTES,
SMELLS, ETC.

What geometry shall define their ever-varying shapes ?
who but a Venetian painter do justice to their colours ?^ or

* Sporendonema Muscce.

t " When healthy caterpillars are placed within reach of a silkworm that has
been destroyed by the Botrytis, they, too, contract the disease, and at last
perish." — Chamhers's Journal, October, 1845.

;j; A species of Poli/strix is affected, whilst alive, with a parasitic kind of fungus,
called Spharia, which grows out of it, and feeds upon it.

§ Several of the French surgeons have given recitals of cases where, on re-
moval of the bandages from sore surfaces, they have found a collection of fun-
guses growing upon them, generally about the size of the finger (Lemery) ; one
of them adds, that having reapplied the wrappings, a second batch came out
in the course of twenty-four hours, and this for several days consecutively.

II For an accurate description of these funguses, the reader is referred to the
excellent work of Mr. Berkeley.

\ These, beaulil'ul, but flcctuig as beauty's blush, generally perish withui a

FORM, COLOUR, ETC. 11

what modifications of 'soft' and 'hard' convey an adequate
knowledge of all their various erases and consistencies? As
to shapes, some are simple threads, like the Byssus, and
never get beyond this; some shoot out into branches, like
seaweed j some puflf themselves out into puff-balls ; some
thrust their heads into mitres;*^ these assume the shape of
a cup,t and those of a wine-funnel; J some, like A. mam-
mosus, have a teat; others, like the A. clypeolarius, are um-
bonated at their centre; these are stilted upon a high leg,§
and those have not a leg to stand on ; some are shell-shaped,
many bcll-sliaped, and some liang upon their stalks like a
lawyer's wig;|| some assume the form of the horse's hoof,
others of a goat's beard : in Clathrus cancellatus you look into
the fungus through a thick red trellis which surrounds it.
Some exhibit a nest in which they rear their young,^ and, not
to speak of those vague shapes,

" If shapes they can be called, that shape have noue
Determinate,"

of sucli tree parasites as are fain to mould themselves at the
will of their entertainer (the fate of parasites, whether under
oak or mahogany), mention may be made of two, of which
the forms are at once singular and constant ; one exactly like
an ear, and given for some good reason to Judas {Auricula

few hours ; but I have seen some which, after a potting of 2000 years, retained
their original hues unblemished, for they liad been potted with the town of
Pompeii, and arc preserved with the other frescoes upon its waUs.

* Tlic Mitrati are not a very uimierous class, of which the Morel may be
taken as the tyjie.

t The Ciqndati, so called in consequence.

J A . pipera tiis. § A . procerus.

II Agaricus comatus, in allusion no doubt to which Plautus says of the Lord
Chancellor of his day, " Fungino genere est, capiti se totum tegit," — that his
wig was so long as to liide his whole person.

^ The Nidularias do so.

12 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

Jiida), clings to several trees, and trembles when you touch
it ; the other, which lolls out from the bark of chestnut-trees
{Lingua di Castagnd) , is so like a tongue in shape and general
appearance,"^ that in the days of enchanted trees you would
not have cut it off to pickle or to eat on any account, lest the
knight to M'hom it belonged should afterwards come to claim
it of you. The above are amongst the most remarkable of
the many Protean forms assumed by funguses; as to their
colours, we find in one genus only species which correspond
to every hue ! The Agaricus Casareus, the A. muscarius, the
A. sanguineus, assume the imperial purple, the A. violaceus
a beautiful violet, the A. sulphureus a bright yellow, the A.
adustus a dingy black, the A. exquisitus, and many others,
a milk-white ; whilst the A. virescens takes that which, in
this class of plants, is the rarest of all to meet with, a pale-
green colour. The upper surface of some is zoned with con-
centric circles of diffeVent hues ; sometimes it is spotted, at
other times of a uniform tint. The bonnets of some shine
as if they were sprinkled with mica ;t these have a rich vel-
vety, those a smooth kid-like covering stretched over them.
Some pilei are imbricated with brown scales, some flocked
with white shreds of membrane, and some are stained with
various- coloured milks secreted from within. The consistence
of funguses is very different according to their sort, and the
epithets of woody, corky, leathery, spongy, fleshy, gelatinous,
pulpy, or mucous, will all find fitting application to some of
them. Occasionally a fungus is secreted soft, but hardens by
degrees into a compact and woody texture.

* The surface is rough with elerated papillae, tlie structure fibrous, the flesh
softly elastic, the colour bright red, looking hke the tongue in the worst forms
of gastro-enterite, with which its cold clammy surface when touched oilers no
correspondence.

+ A. micaceus.

ODOURS AND TASTES. 13

ODOUES AND TASTES.

Both one and the other are far more numerous in this class
of phiuts than in any other with which we are acquainted. As
to odours, though these be generally most powerful in the
fresh condition of the fungus, they are sometimes increased
by drying it, during which process too some species, inodorous
before, acquire an odour, and not always a pleasant one. Some
yield an insupportable stench ; the Phallus impiidicus and
Clathrus cancellatus are of this kind. A botanist had by mis-
take taken one of the former into his bedroom ; he Avas soon
awakened by an intolerable foctor, and was glad to open his
Avindow and get rid of it, as he hoped, and the Phallus toge-
ther. Here he was disappointed ; " sublatH causa, non toUitur
cfTcctus," the foetor remaining nearly the same for some hours
afterwards. A lady, a friend of mine, who was drawing one
in a room, was obliged to take it into the open air to com-
plete her sketch. As to the Clathrus, I have found ten minutes
in a room with it nine too many : it becomes insupportably
offensive in a short time, and its infective stench has given
rise to a superstition entertained of it throughout the Landes,
viz. that it is capable of producing cancer — in consequence of
which superstition the inhabitants, who call it Cancrou, or
Cancer, cover it carefully over, lest by accident some one
should chance to touch it, and become infected with that
horrible disease in consequence.* Batsch has described an
Agaric t of so powerful and peculiar a smell, that before he
could finish his picture (for he was drawing it) a violent head-
ache made him desist, " vehemcnti afficiebar capitis dolore."
Of the others, some are graveolent in a savoury or in an un-
savoury sense. This smells strong of onions,J that of cinna-

* Tliorc. t Agaricus narcoticics, Batscb, Fascic. vol. ii. pi. 81.

J A. alliacevu.

14 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

mon,* from which it takes its name ; the A. ostreatus [auct.
nost.) most powerfully of Tarragon ; A. odoratus, Q.nd the Can-
thareUus, like apricots and ratafia (Purton) ; Boletus salicbms,
" like the bloom of May" (Abbott) ; the A. sanguineus, when
dry, savours of a stale poultice ; A. piper atus, of the Triglia,
or red mullet ; the Hydna generally give out a smell of tallow ;
moulds have their own smells, which are mouldy and musty ;
some exhale the smell of putrid meat, many the odour of
fresh meal ; the spawn of A. 2»'unulus and of the puff-balls
{Lycoperdons) exhale an odour similar to the perfect plants ;
but the Pietrafunghaia, filled with the spores of its own Poly-
porus, is without smell. When fresh, there is scarcely any
perceptible odour in Boletus edulis or B. luridus, nor yet in
the A. Ccesareus when recently gathered. A word about
their tastes will suffice : with so many smells, they must needs
have flavours to correspond, and so they have ; sapid, sweet,
sour, peppery, rich, rank, acrid, nauseous, bitter, styptic, might
be all found in an English ''gradus" (though at present, I
am sorry to say, without any lines from poets in whose
writings they occur), after the word 'Fungus.' In a few,
generally of an unsafe character, there is little or no taste in
the mouth while they are being masticated, but shortly after
deglutition, the fauces become dry, and a sense of more or less
constriction is apt to supervene, which frequently continues
for some time afterwards.

EXPANSIVE POWEE OF GEOWTH.

Soft and yielding as vegetable structures appear to the

touch, the expansive force of their growth is almost beyond

calculation. The effects of this power, of which the experience

of every one will furnish him with some instances, are perhaps

* A. cinnamomcus.

EXPANSIVE POWER OF GROWTH. 15

nowhere more strikingly exemplified than amidst the ruins of
its own creation. Coeval with many old brick fabrics of earlier
times, perhaps embedded in the very mortar which holds them
together, it may Im'k there for centuries in quiescence, till
once arousing its energies, it continues to exert them in cease-
less activity ever after. It has at Rome planted its pink
Valerians on her highest towers, and its" wild fig-tree in the
breaches of her walls ; nor are the granite obelisks of her
piazzas, nor the classic groups in marble on her Quirinal
mount, entirch' exempt from its encroachments. A con-
spirac}' of plants, one hundred strong, have loug ago planned
the destruction of the Coliseum ; their undermining process
advances each year, and neither iron nor new brickwork can
arrest it long. That old Roman cement, which the barba-
rians gave up as impracticable, and the pickaxe of thcBarberini
had but begun to disintegrate, will, ere the lapse of another
century, be efTectually pulled to pieces by the rending arm of
vegetation. Here, as erst in Juvenal's time, the mala ficus
finds no walls too strong to rive asunder, no tower beyond the
reach of its scaling, no monument too sacred for it to touch.
In the class of plants immediately under consideration, while
the expansive effort of growth is equal to what it is in other
cases, its effects are far more startling from their suddenness.
M. BuUiard (to cite one or two instances out of a great
many) relates, that on placing a Phallus impudicus within a
glass vessel, the plant expanded so rapidly as to shiver its
sides with an explosive detonation as loud as that of a pistol.
Dr. Carpenter, in his ' Elements of Physiology,' mentions
that "in the neighbourhood of Basingstoke a paving-stone,
measuring twenty-one inches square, and weigliing eighty-
three pounds, was completely raised an inch and a half out of
its bed by a mass of toadstools, of from six to seven inches in

16 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

diameter, and that nearly the whole pavement of the town
suffered displacement from the same cause." A friend has
seen a crop of puff-balls raise large flagstones considerably
above the plane of their original level ; and I have myself
recently witnessed an extensive displacement of the pegs of a
wooden pavement which had been driven nine inches into the
groundj but were heaved up irregularly, in several places, by
small bouquets of Agarics, growing from below.

EEPEODUCTIVE POWER,
Funguses have a remarkable power of re-forming such parts
of their substance as have been accidentally or otherwise re-
moved. Vittadini found that when the tubes of a Boletus
were cut out from a growing plant, they were after a time re-
produced. Where deep holes have been eaten into these plants
by snails, such holes, on the Boletus attaining to its full
growth, are partially refilled. If the tender Polyporus be cut
across, the wound immediately sets about healing by the first
intention, leaving not even a cicatrice to mark the original
seat of the injury. The Lycoperdons {Bovista), which are often
accidentally wounded by the scythe, have the same faculty of
repairing the injury, remodelling afresh the parts that may
have been excised from them.^

MOTION.
In a recent work on ' Insect Life,^ I have discoursed some-
what at large on the insufficiency of any kind of movements
as proofs of sensation, quoting, amidst other evidences to this
effect, certain remarkable movements in plants. Some of the
present family exhibit the phenomena of insensitive motion
in a remarkable manner, and might have been added to the

♦ Fries.

MOTIOX. 17

list already cited in that publication. Mr. Robson has given
us a very interesting account of the movements he observed
in the scarlet Clathrus, Avhich is here transcribed in his own
words. It is interesting to notice how an unbiassed observer
uses the very terms to designate the movements of a plant
which would have been minutely descriptive of those of
an insect : — " At first I was much surprised to sec a pai't of
the fibres, that had got through a rui)ture in the top of the
Clathrus, moving like the legs of a fly when laid on his back.
I then touched it with the jioint of a pin, and was still
more surprised when I saw it present the appearance of a
little bundle of worms entangled together, the fibres being
all alive. I next took the little bundle of fibres quite out,
and the animal motion was then so strong as to turn the head
halfway round, first one way and then another, and two or
three times it got out of the focus. Almost every fibre had a
diflerent motion ; some of them twnicd round one another, and
then untwined again, whilst others were bending, extending,
coiling, waving, etc. The fibres had many little balls ad-
hering to their sides, which I take to be the seeds, and I ob-
served many of them to be disengaged at every motion of the
fibres; the seeds appeared like gunpowder finely granulated."
Instances from other authors abound. " An Helvella injiata,
on being touched by me once, threw up its seeds in the form of
a smoke, which arose with an elastic bound, glittering in the
sunshine like particles of silver."^'' "The Vibrissca truncorum,
taken from water and exposed to the rays of the sun, though
at first smooth, is soon covered with white geniculated fila-
ments, which start from the hymenium, and have an oscillating
motion. "t The PiloboluK, of which so accurate an account
has been given us by the great Florentine mycologist,^ casts,

* Bolton. + Persoon. % Micheli.

C

18 ESCULENT rtJNGUSES OF EXGLAND.

as its name imports, its seeds into the air ; these also escape
with a strong projectile force from the upper surface of
Pezizas, tbe anfractuosities of the Morel, and from the gills
of Agarics."^

PHOSPHORESCENCE.
Several kinds of funguses, and the spawn of the truffle, emit
a phosphorescent light ; of the first, the Agaricus oharius, not
uncommon in Italy, is sometimes seen at night, feebly shi-
ning amidst the darkness of the olive grove. The coal-mines
near Dresden have long been celebrated for the production
of funguses which emit a light similar to a pale moonlight.
Mr. Drummond describes an Australian fungus with similar
properties; and another very interesting one, an Agaric, is
noticed by Mr. Gardner, in his ' Travels in Brazil.'f

DIMENSIONS.
Most funguses do not present great anomalies in their size,

* These last, placed in a wineglass, over a sheet of white paper, frequently
disperse the seminal dust over a ring of twice the natiu-al dimensions of the
Agaric.

f " One dark night, about the beginning of December, while passing along
the streets of the Villa de Natividade, I observed some boys amusing them-
selves with some luminous object, which I at first supposed to be a kind of
large fire-fly ; but, on making inquiry, I found it to be a beautiful phospho-
rescent fungus, belonging to the genus Agaricus, and was told that it grew
abundantly in the neighbourhood, on the decaying leaves of a dwarf jDalm.
Next day I obtained a great many specimens, and found them to vaiy from
one to two and a half inches across. The whole plant gives out at night a
bright phosphorescent light, of a pale greenish hue, similar to that emitted by
the larger fire-flies, or by those curious, soft-bodied, marine animals, tlie Fyro-
somce ; from this cu'cumstance, and fi'oni growing on a palm, it is called by the
inhabitants ' Flor do Coco ;' the light given out by a few of these fungi in a
dark room, was sufficient to read by. It proved to be quite a new sjjecies, and,
since my return from Brazil, has been described by the Rev. M. J. Berkeley
under the name of Agaricus Gardneri, from preserved specimens which I
brought home." — Travels in the Interior of Brazil, 1846.

DIMENSIONS. 19

but retain nearly the same dimensions througliont the whole
course of their being; some few species, however, seem to
have a faculty of almost indefinite expansion. The usual size
of a puff-ball, as we all know, is not much larger than an egg,
but some puff-balls attain to the dimensions of the human
head,* or exceed it. INIr. Berkeley quotes the case of a Poly-
porus squamosus, which in three weeks grew to seven feet
five inches in periphery, and weighed thirty-four pounds ;
also of a Polyporus fraxineus, which in a few years measured
forty-two inches across. Clusiusf tells us of a fungus in
Pannonia, of such immense size, that after satisfying the
cravings of a large mycophilous household, enough of it
remained to fill a chariot ; this must have been the Polyporus
frondosns, to which Polyporus John Bapt. Porta;]: also alludes
as that called ffaUinace^ by the Neapolitans, which is so big,
he says, that you can scarcely make your hands meet round
it, "brachiis diductis vix homo complecti possit;" he had
known it attain twelve pounds weight in a few days.|| Bolton,

* Hence it was called Kpaviov {vide Thcopb. Lib. vol. i. cap. 9) by tlie
ancients. Ccsalpinus describes it under tbe name of Peziza, and reports that
it is common in tbe woods of Pisa, wbcncc men gatber to cat tbeni. We read
also, in an ancient ItaUan writer (Cicinelli), that tbe environs of Padua produce
enormous pufl'-balls, of wbicb one (unless this author was given to p'iffing)
measured not less than two feet across, in one direction, being upwards
of a foot and a half in its least diameter. It was big enough, he says, to
have written on its rind the celebrated inscription attributed by Dion Cassius
to the Dacians, which they presented to the Emperor, " in quo scriptum erat
Latinis Uteris Burros sociosque omnes cum hortari ut domum rcverterctur
pacenique colcret." Other autliors also (Alph. dc Tuberibus, — not trullles, but
puff-balls, — cap. xvii. ; Imperato, Hist. Nat. IIol. vol. xxvii. cap. 5) sjicak of
pulT-balls of sixty and one hundred pounds weight.

t Hist. Plant, vol. ii. p. 275.

X Villfe, Lib. vol. x. cap. 80.

§ By this word, however, the vulgar generally understood the Caniharellm
eibarius.

II This species, which is somewhat rare in England, occurred in abundance

C 2

20 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

in 1787, found an Agaricus muscarms, which, "after the
removal of a considerable portion of its stalk, Aveighcd nearly
two pounds ; " Withering, an A. Georgii, " which weighed
fourteen pounds," and Mr. Stackhouse another of the same
species in Cornwall, " which was eighteen inches across, and
had a stem as thick as a man's wrist ; " and I lately picked
in the park at Buckhurst, a Boletus edulis which measured
twenty-eight inches round its pileus, and eight round the
stem, and a few days later a B. pachypus, the girth of which
was thirty-two inches.

CHEMICAL COMPOSITION.

Of all vegetable productions these are the most highly
azotized, that is, animalized in their composition — a fact not
only evinced by the strong cadaverous smell which some of
them give out in decay, and by the savoury animalized meat
which others afford at table, but on the evidence of chemistry
also. Thus Dr. Marcet has proved that, like animals, they
absorb a large quantity of oxygen, and disengage in return,
from their surface, a large quantity of carbonic acid;
all however do not exhale carbonic acid, but, in lieu of it,
some give out hydrogen, and others azotic gas. They yield,
moreover, to chemical analysis the several components of
which animal structures are made up; many of them, in addi-
tion to sugar, gum, resin, a peculiar acid called fungic acid,
and a variety of salts, furnish considerable quantities of
albumen, adipocire, and osmazome, which last is that principle

this year (1817) in the neighbourhood of Tunbridge Wells. I found four speci-
mens of it on the oak-roots in the Grove, one of which rose nearly a foot from
the ground, measured considerably more than two and a half feet across, and
weighed from eighteen to twenty pounds ; the other specimens were of much
smaller dimensions.

USES. 21

that gives its peculiar flavour to meat gravy. The Polyporus
sulphureus is frequently covered with little crystals of the
binoxalate of potash;^ the Agaricus 2)iperati(s yields the
acetate of potash,t and it is probable that other funguses
of which we have as yet no recorded analysis will, on the
institution of such, be found to contain some new and unex-
pected ingredient peculiar to themselves. AVhcn these several
substances have l)ccn duly extracted from funguses, there is
left behind for a common base the solid structure of the
plant itself; this, which is called fungine, is white, flabby,
insipid in its taste, but highly nutritious in its properties. If
nitric acid be poured upon it, an immediate disengagement
of azotic gas takes place, and several new substances arc the
result : a bitter principle, a reddish resinoid matter, hydro-
cyanic and oxalic acids, and two remarkable fatty substances,
whereof one resembles tallow, the other wax. If dilute sul-
phuric acid be poured upon this fungine, no change ensues ;
but if muriatic acid be substituted, the result is a jelly.

USES.
The uses to which funguses have been put are various, and,
had the properties of these plants been as extensively investi-
gated as those which l)clong to the phanerogamic classes,
they would probably by this time have proved still more
numerous : some, as the Polyporus sidphureus, furnish a use-
ful colour for dyeing ;| the Agaricus atramentarius makes
ink ; divers Lycopcrdons, of which other mention will be
made presently when we come to speak of such species as are
escideut, have also been employed for stupefying bees, for
stanching blood, and for making tinder; their employment
in the first of these capacities, seems to have escaped the

* Robert Scott, Act. Liuu. Soc. vol. viii. p. 202. f Dufresnoj. % Roques.

22 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OY ENGLAND.

observation of the accurate author of ' Les Jardins/ who has

mentioned the others : —

" Ce puissant Agaric, qui du sang epanche
Arretc les ruisseaux, et clout le sein fidele
Du caillou petUJant recucille retinccUe."

The ' caillou/ alas^ like the poet who struck this spark out
of it^ is now obsolete; but amadou is still in vogue, being
employed for many household purposes ; in addition to which,
a medical practitioner of Coveut Garden has of late been in
the habit of using extensive sheets of it to cover over and
.protect the backs of those bedridden invalids whose cruel
sufferings make such large demands upon our sympathy, — for
the alleviation of which so little is to be done ! — as it is more
elastic than chamois leather, it is less liable to crumple up
when lain upon, and on this account has been preferred to it
by several of our metropolitan surgeons of eminence ; some
employ it also as a gentle compress over varicose veins, where
it supports the distended vessels without pressing too tightly
upon the limb. Gleditsch relates, that the poorer inhabitants
of Franconia stitch it together, and make dresses of it; and
also that the Laplanders burn it in the neighbourhood of their
dwellings, to secure their reindeer from the attacks of gad-
flies, which are repelled by the smoke ; thus " good at need,"
it really deserves the epithet of ' puissant,^ given to it by
Delille.^

* Amadou is largely used in Italy, where it is called esca ; the Latins
likewise knew it by this name, though their more common appellation for it
was fomes; the Byzantine Greeks hellenicized esca into v(TKa, which was
their word for it ; the ancient Greeks called it (wnvpov. Sahnasius teUs us how
it used to be made in his time, which indeed was the same as now : the
fungus was first boiled, then beaten to pieces in a mortar, next hammered out
to deprive it of its woody fibres, and lastly, being steeped m a strong solution
of nitre, was left to dry in the sun. It appears, on the testimony of the anony-
mous author of the article "Fungo" in the 'Dizionario Classico di Medicina,'

USES. 23

The Pohjporus squainosus makes a razor-strop far superior
to any of those at present patented, and sold, ^ith high-souud-
iug epithets, far beyond their deserts. To prepare the Poly-
jiorus for tliis purpose, it must be cut from the ash-tree in
autumn, -when its juices have been dried and its substance
has become consolidated; it is then to be flattened out for
twenty-four hours in a press, after which it should be care-
fully rubbed « ith pumice, sliced longitudinally, and every slip
that is free from the erosions of insects be then glued upon a
wooden stretcher. Cesalpinus knew all this ! and the barbers
in his time knew it too ;* and it is not a little remarkable
that so useful an invention should, in au age of puffing, adver-
tisement, and improvement, like our own, have been entirely
lost sight of. Impcrato employed and recommends it as an
excellent detergent, with which to brush and comb out the
scurf from the hair.

The Agaricus mnscarius is largely employed in Kam-
tchatka, in decoction with the Epilobitim angustifoHwu, as an
intoxicating liquor. f The Laplanders smear it on the walls
and bedposts of their dwellings, to destroy bugs (Linn.); and

that it is also eaten when young ; hut I cannot speak of it from jiersonal ex-
perience : — " In prima et;\ mangiasi colto di fresco affcttato e condito d'ogni
mode; specialmentc nolle provincie di Bclluno ed Udine, o salasi per la
quadragesima."

* " Di questo fungo serTavanosene i harhieri in camhio dolle strugghie dette
piu volgarcniente code/fe, attc a far riprendere il perduto filo a loro rasoi."

t "This is the 'Moucho more' of the Russians, Kamtcliadalcs, and Koriats,
■who use it for intoxication ; (hey sometimes eat it dry, hut more commonly
immersed in a hqvior made from the Epilohiiim, and when they drmk this
liquor, they arc seized with convidsions in aU their limbs, followed with that
kind of raving which accompanies a burning fever. They personify this mush-
room, and, if they arc urged by its effects to suicide, or any other dreadfid
cmne, they pretend to obey its commands ; to fit themselves for premeditated
assassination they recur to the use of the Moucho more." — Rees's Cyclopadia,
urf. '^Affaric."

24 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

Clusius relates, that it is sold extensively in the market at
Frankfort, to poison flies ; for this purpose, it is either cut into
small pieces and thrown about the premises, or else boiled
in milk and placed upon the window-sills ; in either case it
is vastly inferior in efficacy to that celebrated "mort aux
mouches," the impure oxide of cobalt, that is, to the arsenic
which this contains. The above are a fsAv of the uses, exclu-
sive of the esculent or medical ones, to which funguses have
been puf ; it is fair, however, to notice that they maintain a
debtor, as well as a creditor, account with mankind, in which
the balance seems to be occasionally quite against us ; those
that are most injurious are generally', as has been already
stated, of the microscopic kinds ; whereof some attack young
plants still underground, emulgiug them completely of their
juices, in consequence of which they perish ; others, like
the corn-blights, permit the plant to attain maturity before
they begin their work of destruction, and destroy it just as it
is beginning to fructify.* The fearful epidemics to which
grain so infected has given rise are well known, though it is
still a matter of question whether the ergoted corn owes its
unwholesome qualities to the injury which it had sustained
from the blight, or to the blight itself. Though the mischief
produced by parasitic funguses be unquestionably great, this
occasional and very partial evil is more than compensated by
the much greater amount of good accomplished solely by
their agency, in the assistance they afford to the decomposition
of animal and vegetable tissues, which has procured for them
the name, not unaptly applied, of " nature's scavengers."

* In such cases the minute fungus is probably absorbed in ovo and dis-
seminated with the sap through the plant ; as this ascends from the root, it
remains undeveloped however till the com is in ear, at wliich time it finds
in the nascent grain tlie necessary conditions for its own development.

MEDICAL USES. ,lO

This decomposition they effect by assimilating, through the
medium of their radicles, the juices of the decaying structure
in which they are developed, loosening thereby its cohesion,
and causing it to break up into a rapid dissolution of its
parts. ^

MEDICAL USES.

Of the funguses formerly em})loycd in medicine few are
now in vogue; the ergot of rye still keeps its ground, and in
eases of protracted labour, when judiciously employed, is
valuable in assisting nature when unequal to the necessary
efforts of parturition. Another fungus, formerly much in
fashion, tiiough now put on the shelf, seems really to deserve
further trial ; I mean the Polyjyorus suaveolens (Linn.), which
in that most intractable disease, tubercular consumption,
surely claims to be tried when there are such respectable
authorities to vouch for its surprising effects, in cases where
everything else had been notoriously unsuccessful. f Sartorius
M'as the first to prescribe it as a remedy in phthisis, and its
employment with this view, since his day, has at various
times been prreconizcd on the Continent ; the dose generally
recommended being a scruple of the powder two or three
times a day. Of the cases published by Professors Schmidcl
and Wendst {which have an air of good faith in their recital,
well entitling them to consideration), I abridge one as an
example, though the others are not less interesting; and

* Tlie mischief thus producccl by drv-rot may be arrested by steeping; the
affected timber in a solution of corrosive sublimate, whicli, forming a chemical
union with tlie juices of tl>e woody fibre, piwents tlieir being abstracted by
the dry-rot, that would else have maintained itself and spread at their expense.

+ A reputation that revives may not be so good as one that survives, but the
very fact of such revival shows that the good opinion formerly entertained was
not altogether groundless.

26 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

while it is certainly to be regretted that the absence of stetho-
scopic indications should prevent our having any positive evi-
dence as to the precise condition of the diseased lung, or of
the nature of the secretion expectorated, still, even supposing
them to be simple cases of chronic bronchitis, with marasmus
the efficacy of the remedy is scarcely less striking or instruc-
tive. " A young man, tetat. twenty-one, was seized at the
beginning of autumn with inflammatory cough and haemo-
ptysis, which were partially subdued by V. S. and the ordinary
antiphlogistic treatment ; but the cough, coming on again
with renewed severity during the winter, was accompanied
with the expuition of glairy mucus, which was sometimes
specked with blood. Towards the spring the young man had
become much thinner, and was continuing to waste away; the
expectoration also had changed its colour, and had become
fetid and green; his nights were feverish and disturbed; he
had no desire for food, and ate but little; his ankles had
begun to swell; he had copious night-sweats and diarrhoea.
A teaspoonful of an electuary of the P. suaveolens in honey
was given him three times a day, and nothing else ; and, ex-
traordinai-y as it may appear, under this treatment the sweats
speedily began to diminish Avith the cough, and after a three
months' continuance of the medicine the patient entirely re-
covered/'*

The Polyporus laricis, the so-called Agaric of pharmacy,
is a powerful but most uncertain medicine, and has been also
recommended in consumption. I once administered a few
grains of it in this disease, when violent pains and hyperca-

* Enslin was in the habit of uniting this Polyporus with Peruvian Bark,
and obtamcd from it the happiest results : " Omnium milii arridet connubium
ejus cimi cortice Peruviano" — to which "connubium," no doubt, some of its
good effects are to be attributed.

AN ARTICLE OF DIET, 27

tharsis supervened, which lasted for several hours. MM. B.
Lagrange and Braconnot found it to contain a large quantity
of an acrid resin, to which it no doubt owes its hypercathar-
tic properties. To judge from this single case, which, how-
ever, tallies with the experience of others, I should say that
this fungus was, in medicine, to be looked upon as a very
suspicious ally.* The A. muscarius has also been used in
medicine. Whistling, so long ago as 1778, wrote on its
healing virtues, in Latin, recommending its powder as a valu-
able application with which to sprinkle sanious sores and
excoriated nipples. Plenck gave drachm doses of it internally
in epilepsy, and, together with Bcrnhard and Whistling, attests
its success. It appears that the Phallus mucus in China, and
the Lycoperdon carcinomale near the Cape of Good Hope, are
used also by the inhabitants of those countries as external
applications for cancerous sores. The Phallus, rubbed upon
the skin, is said to deaden its sensibility, like the narke, or
electric skate.

FUNGUSES CONSIDEEED AS AN ARTICLE OF DIET.
If all the good things ever said about the stomach since the
days of Menenius Agrippa, or before his time, could be
collected, they would doubtless form an interesting volume ;
Arctaeus has somewhere quaintly, but not unaptly, called it
the " house of Plato ; " in another place he speaks of it as the
" seat " (as if Kar^ ^^o^h^) " of pleasure and of pain ; " and
so it is indeed, and it has moreover a notorious tendency,
when provoked, to cool our charity and to heat our blood ; its

* Hallcr relates, that the inhabitants of Piedmont are in the habit of
swallowing a small piece of this Agaric, when they have drunk with their
water some of those small leeches in which it abounds. Bomare mentions of
this same Agaric, that the iuhivbitiuits of Balcu use it in powder to heal blaius
in their cattle.

28 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

sympathies by nervous attachments^ both of " continuity ^'
and of " contiguity/'^ with the other organs of the body, are
extensive and complicated ; no Avonder then that it should
have enlisted ours in its behalf, and that few of us would
offend it wittingly, though by indiscretions we do offend it
continually.

In the ''sensual philosophy/' of the French school par-
ticularly, the stomach has received marked attention, ranking
in that country as the most noble of the viscera.-\ Even in
those republican times when no other rights were held sacred
throughout France, the privileges of the stomach were re-
spected; when men found that they might get on quite as
well, or better, with a bad heart, but that they could not get
on so well without a good digestion, it is not so much to be
wondered at if they made idols of their bellies, established a
School of Cooks to rival the School of Athens, and became
famous for " those charming little suppers in which they used
to set the decencies of life at defiance." J But if in France
far too much attention has been paid to the culinary art, too
little attention has surely been paid to it at home ; for the
art of cookery, properly understood, is not only the art of
pleasing the palate, but the stomach also.§ In France, the
dinner is the thought of the morning, and sometimes the
business of the day, but in France everybody dines ; in Eng-
land, where the word ' dinner ' never occurs till it is announced,

* Hunter.

t It is tlie Frenchman's heart ! " J'ai mal au coeur " means, as every one
knows, in tlie French tongue, not ' I am sick at heart,' as it professes to say,
but ' I am sick at stomach ' !

;|; Walpole.

§ The phrase " I hkc it, but it docs not Hke me," which one sometimes
hears at table, having a reference to some particular idiosyncrasy of the
party who makes the remark, docs not invahdatc the truth of tliis general pro-
position.

AN ARTICLE OF DIET. 29

a few wealthy men dine well, the middling ranks badly, and
the poor not at all. Not that even the poorer orders generally
want the necessary materials for such repast ; they frequently
consume more butcher's meat than is consumed by their Con-
tinental neighbours ; it is simply that they want skill in pre-
paring it. If it be scanty, they cannot tell how to make the
most of it; if it be homely, they cannot tell how to improve
its flavour by uniting and blending with it a certain class of
inexpensive luxuries, which, though they grow everywhere
throughout the country, arc everywhere neglected. Touching
the wholesomcncss or unwholesomencss of these, I have now
a few words to address to the common-sense reader; that is,
to him who prefers feasting upon funguses to fasting out of
mere i)rejudicc. Formerly men used to refer such questions
as this to their physician ; they would

" Try what Mead or Clieselden advised."*

intending, perh.aps, to take some little poetical license with it
afterwards. Aberncthy, on the anecdote of the oysters and
oyster-shells being duly substantiated, would have been ostra-
cized from polite society in those days of decorous etiquette,
when, as medical men affected to be more dientereumatic with
the insides of their patients than any of us now pretend to be,
they must needs have been far more affable when consulted on
such cases than we of the present day might be; though they
did not therefore always answer the same question in the same
way ; one, for instance, " Le medecin Tant Pis,'^ would fre-
quently proscribe the very things that his rival, " Le medecin
Tant Mieux," had just been recommending. AVhen men

* Pope. Mead, if anybody, ought to have been good authority on the
subject of tb.is particular diet. He had written, ex professo, upon poisons ; and
the Florentine mycologist Micheli had dedicated several newly-discovered
funguses to him. He was therefore both a Toxicologist and a Mycologist.

30 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

came to find they must either give wp some favoimte article
of food or else give up the anathema pronounced against it,
they generally preferred the latter course, and were sure, to
use a medical phrase, to " do well " if they did so ; whilst a
few wretched hypochondriacs, adopting the other alternative,
and living strictly en regime, became only the more hypo-
chondriacal for their pains.

None but a determined theorist* would nowadays think
of prescribing diet for the stomach of a single patient, far less
for all those of a polygastric public ; neither does an en-
lightened, self-educated public, that can read Liebig and
thoroughly appreciate its own case, hold out much encourage-
ment for such advice. The day is past without return for
long-winded prose epic on indigestion; a livelier mode of
dealing with the subject oi non-naturals, in the shape of novels
and romances, has won the public ear. Broussais' five-act
tragedy of * Gastro-Enteritis ' t has received its last plaudits ;
already has Crabbe's euthanasia to this class of authors
attained its full accomplishment : —

" Ye tedious triflers, Truth's destructive foes,
• Ye sons of Fiction clad in stupid prose,

O'erweening teachers, who, yourselves in doubt,
Light up false fires and send us far about,

* " No thought too bold, no airy dream too light.
That will not prompt your Theorist to write ;
No fact so stubborn, and no proof so strong,
Will e'er convince him he could argue wrong." — Crahbe.
+ Broussais divides inflammatory dyspepsia into Jive parts or acts. That
Leach of leeches, whose word once passed for more than it was worth, came at
last to see himself and his sangsues utterlj^ abandoned, and to have the mortifica-
tion of lecturmg in his old age to empty benches. " Quantum mutatus ab illo "
of less than twenty years before, and who had been the cause of as much inno-
cent bloodshedding as Napoleon liimself, and used to kill his patients that his
leeches might be fed !

AN ARTICLE OF DIET. 31

Long may the spider round your pages spin,

Subtle and slow, her emblematic gin.

Buried in dust and lost ui silcnee dwell,

Most potent, dull, and reverend friends, farewell ! "

No article of diet was ever half so roughly handled as the fun-
gus. What diatribes against it might be cited from the works
of Athenaeus, Dioscorides, Galen, Pliny, the Arabian phy-
sicians, and all their commentators ! What terrible recitals,
too, of poisoning from some few species have been indus-
triously circulated, and the unfavourable inference drawn from
these, been applied to the whole tribe — a mistake which some
•writers, even in modern times, have perpetuated. Thus,
Kirker votes the whole '/ a family of malignants; "* thus too
Allen and Batarra pen unsolicited apageSjf and warn us, in
an especial manner, to beware of them ; while Scopoli includes
in his very definition of a fuugus, that it is of a class of plants
which are always to be suspected, and which are for the most
part poisonous. Tertullian, with more of epigram than of
truth, makes out, that for every different hue they disj)lay
there is a pain to correspond to it, and just so many modes of
death as there are distinct species; | to all which, and a great
deal more similar rhapsody and invective, tens of thousands
of our Continental neighbours in the daily habit of eating
nothing else' but funguses might reply, in the words of
Plautus —

" Adcone me fuiss^o funffum ut qui illis erederem ?"

Those who abuse funguses generally do so from prejudice
rather than from personal experience, objecting to their flesh
as being heavy of digestion, and to their juices as being more

* " Fungus qualiseuuque sit semper maligmis." — Kirker, Lib. de Pest.
+ " Apage ergo perniciosa istha?c guise blandimenta."
X " Quot colores tot dolores, quot species tot pernicies."

32 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

or less prejudicial to health. Some say they are too rich,
others of too heating a character. These objections are for the
most part without foundation, as those who eat them can
abundantly testify. To quote the authority of one or two
medical friends on the Continent, formed on large personal
experience, in favour of the excellence of this diet. Professors
Puccinelli of Lucca, Briganti of Naples, Sanguinetti of Rome,
Ottaviani of Urbino, Yiviani of Genoa, are all consumers of
funguses. Vittadini, whose excellent work on the esculent
kinds of Italy is without a rival, himself eats, and gives us
ample receipts for dressing them. In France, a similar ser-
vice has been rendered to the public by Paulet, Persoon,
Cordier, and Roques, * who have severally published excellent
treatises on the various kinds fit for food, as they occur in
the different provinces; whilst the influence of the last winter
has been the means of introducing several new species into
the Parisian markets, thus causing them to be very generally
known. Not to multiply individual testimony needlessly, let
that of Schwsegrichen suffice, who tells us, that on seeing the
peasants about Nuremberg eating raw mushrooms^f he too,
for several weeks, restricted himself entirely to this diet,
" eating with them nothing but bread, and drinking nothing
but water, when, instead of finding his health impaired, he
rather experienced an increase of strength.'^ Vegetior evasit !
as the inscription at Rome relates to have been the case with

* M. Roques gives at the end of his treatise on funguses a long Hst of his
mycophilous fi'iends, including in the number many of the most eminent
medical men of the French capital — if medical men are more carcfid of what
they eat than their neighbours, which, however, is exceedingly doubtful.

+ "To eat raw mushrooms" was a proverbial expression among the Greeks,
as is shown by the passage which Athena'us quotes out of a play of Antiphancs,
called the ' Proverbs' : — "£701 "yap &j/ riiv x/jxiTipuiv (pdyoi/xi t», /ttuKrjros u/xovs
ai)TiK &v (payuu SoKdw.

AN article: of diet. 33

St. John when he emcrgccl, after one hour's cooking, from a
caldron of boiling oil. In a word, that which has been the
daily bread of nations — the poor man's manna — for many
centuries, cannot be an miwholcsome, much less a dangerous
food.* Funguses, no doubt, are a rich and dainty fare ; and
so whatever objections apply to made-dishes in genere may
apply also to these, which, while they contain all the sapid
and nutritious constituents of animal food, have however an
advantage over it — viz, that while they are as rich in gravy
as any butcher's meat, their texture is more tender, and their
specific gravity less. Touching the general question as to
the wholcsomeness of made-dishes, it might perhaps be stated
as a rule, to which there are many exceptions, that the more
we vary and combine food, the better chance there is of our
digesting it. t "You must assist nature," Hippocrates says,

* Those who themselves know better, smile to read such psissages as the
following, which is to be found in old Gerard's ' Ilei'bal' : — " Galen alarms that
they (/. e. funguses) are all very cold and moist, and therefore do approach imto
a Tenomous and mothering facidtie, and engender a claunny and pituitous nutri-
ment ; if eaten, therefoi*e, I give my advice uuto those that love such strange
and new-fangled meates, to beware of liclting honey among thorns, lest the sweet-
nessc of the one do not countervaiUe the sharpnesse and pricking of the other. "

t A life of labour, no doubt, will make tlic sorriest fare sit more lightly on
the healthy stomach, than the most dainty viands which have been received
into an organ that is weakened and goaded by a life of dissipation and excess ;
but this docs not prove sorry fare to be more wholesome than that of a richer
kmd. No ! Dysjiepsia is a cbsease of tlie rich ; not because they live upon the
fat of the land, but plainly because they indulge in too large a quantity at a
meal. Let the peasant and the lord change places for a week ; place the
healthy rustic at the rich man's table, and Dives agaui at the other board, what
would be the results to both ? Would not the poor man, think you, find indi-
gestion in ragoAt, fricassees, truffles, with light wine ad libitum to drink witli
them ? and would not the rieli man find tliat the fat pork and hard beer were
worse poison than any of the made-dishes, against which he has been so lavish
in his blame ? In general, no doubt, to be " the happiest of mortals — to
digest well " (Voltaire), men should look more to the qnanium and less to the
quale of what they eat ; but they should pay some attention to tliis too.

D

34 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

" by art. You must vary your viands and your drinks.
INIusic would tire if it were always to tlie same tunc, so also
does a monotonous regimen tire.^ Cooks therefore make
mixed dishes, and he who should always make the same dish
would deservedly pass for not being a cook at all."t And
though Sydenham, in apparent discordance with this, recom-
mends one dish for dinner, it is quite for another reason.
Plain food may indeed suit some stomachs, but good cooking
suits all stomachs ; and when Seneca Avrites, that " there arc
as many diseases as cooks,^^ Roques takes him up properly by
replying, " Yes ; as bad cooks." The rule for every dinner,
plain or compound, is to dress it well — " that which is best
administered is best ; ^' and good cooking, thus understood as
the art of improving and of making the most of a thing, is a
matter of equal importance to both rich and poor. It is a
safe rule, I believe, and one recommended on good authority
too, if men wanted authority on such matter, to eat what they
like, but not as much of it as they likc.f Nine-tenths of

* *Hj' Se iravra oixoia. iroiTjatj ovk fX*' T€p;|/ir. n.A. A. 10.

t That I did not always hold such an opinion as the above, to which I have

smce given in my adhesion, the following ode to Eupepsia, written in the days

of theoretical inexperience, will sufficiently testify. I am now convinced tliat

Hippocrates was right ! —

Happy the man whose prudent care lie dinos unscathed, who dines alone !

Plain boiled and roast discreetly bound ; Or shuns abroad those corner dishes ;

Content to feed on homely fare, No Roman garlics make him groan,

On British ground ! Kor matclotte fishes.

Sound sleep renounces sugared peas ! — Then let not Vcrey's treacherous skill.

No nightmares haunt the modest ration Nor Vt'four's, try thy peptic forces ;

Of tender steak, that yields with ease One comes to swallow many a pUl

To mastication ! Where many a course is !

From stews and steams that roimd them play, AVith mushroomed dishes cease to strive;

How many a tempting dish would floor us. Nor for that trujfled crime inquire,

Had nature made no toll to pay WTiich nails the hapless goose aUve,

At the pylorus ! At Strasburg's fire.

X Heberden wisely left it to his patients, except in acute cases of disease or
when they Avere gluttons, "to cat what pleased them, finding that many
apparently imfit substances" (which funguses are not) " agreed with the

AN ARTICLE OF DIET. 35

dyspeptics become so from overfeeding. " Nauseosa satietas
non ex crassis et pravis solum, sed ctiam boui succi alimentis
provcnit." Even Paracelsus, though an undoubted quack,
might give some people a hiut : " Dosis sola facit ut venenum
sit vel non j cibus enim vel potus qualibet quantitatc majore
?cquo assumtus venenum fit." Dyspeptics are willing to enlist
your sympathies in their behalf by telling of the delicacy of
their mucous membrane, just as young countesses descant
with more success on the extreme susceptibility of their
nerves; nor is it always kindly received, if a well-wisher
should remind them that their sufferings may not after all
have been the fault either of their stomach or of the dish
which they blame, but of their own indiscreet use of both.
Whilst it is an acknowledged fact on all hands that infants are
overfed, and that all children overfeed, men are by no means
so prone or willing to admit that gluttony is perhaps the
very last of childish things that they are in the habit of
putting away from them. Thus, then, though funguses are
not to be considered unwholesome, they are, like other good
things, to be eaten with discretion and not a discretion.
" If you live an indolent life, are a sybarite in your heart,
or should some violent passions (choler, jealousy, or revenge)
be dealing with you, take care in such a case how you eat
ragouts of truffles or of mushrooms ; but if, on the contrary,
your health be good, your life temperately prudent, your

stomach merely because they were suitable to its feelings." Wliy quote
Abernethy? — but that good sense, backed by personal experience in such matters,
are always worth quoting — who says, " Nothing hurts me that I eat with appetite
and delight ; " or Withers, unless for a Uke reason, who is " of opinion that the
instinct of the palate, not misguided by preconceived opinion, may be satisfied,
not only with impunity, but even with advantage." It is the rule by which
the brute creation is taught to shim its poison and to choose its food : to a
considerable extent, it should be ours also.

D 2

36 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

temper even, and your mind serene, then (provided you like
them) you may eat of tliese luxuries without the slightest
apprehension of their disagreeing with you.'' M. Roques
adds, and with truth, " it is the wine, surcharged with alcohol,
of which men drink largely, in order, as they say, to relish and
digest their mushrooms and made-dishes, that disagrees with
the stomach, and that will, ere long, produce those visceral
obstructions, and those nephritic ailments, at once so grievous
to bear and so difficult to get rid of." ^ If the reader shall
retain one word of the following homely lines, and that word
the last, so as to remember it in place, he will owe us no fee,
and it will save him many a bitter draught : —

Lies the last meal all imdigested still ?

Does chyle impm-e your poisoned lacteals fill ?

Does Grastrodynia's tiny gunlet bore,

Whore the crude load obstructs the rigid door ?

Or does the fiery heartburn flay your throat ?

Do darkUng specks before your eyeballs float ?

Do fancied sounds invade your startled car ?

Does the stojit heart oft wake to pulseless fear ?

Your days aU listless, and yoiu' nights all dream,

Of Pustule, Ecchymose, and Emphyseme ;

Till nithless surgeon shall your paunch explore,

And mark each spot with mischief mottled o'er ;

Does all you suffer quite surpass belief?

Has oft-tried soda ceased to give relief?

Has bismuth failed, nor tonics eased yom* pain ?

Have Chambers, Watson, both been teased in vain ?

In case so cross — what cure ? — but one : Refrain !

But the objection against funguses is generally of another
kind : many persons who like good living too well to be afraid
of the new introduction of a luxury which is to bring new
dyspepsias for them in consequence, fear lest, whilst indulging
in this "celestial manna," this /Spw/xa 6eo)v, they should
* Koques, ' Traite sur les Champignons. '

AN ARTICLE OF DIET, 37

meet with the fate of tlie Emperor Claudius^ and prefer re-
maining vivi to the chance of becoming divl before their time.
Now there is really no just ground for this fear; the esculent
fungus never becomes poisonous, nor, conversely, the poisonous
variety fit to cat. In Claudius's particular case we must
remember that Locusta medicated, and Agrippina cooked, that
celebrated dish, in which the mushrooms, after all, were but
the vehicle for the poison. As to the general fact, though
cultivation undoubtedly produces considerable changes in the
qualities of this, as in those of other classes of plants, they
are never of such a kind as to convert that which is esculent
in one locality into a dangerous food in another. " Coelum noii
animum mutat;" ov yap rhv rpoirov aWd toy tottov fxoyov
/i.eT7;'XXa^a.* That the mushroom is not quite so wholesome
when cultivated as it is in the meadow,t in a state of nature,
cannot be doubted ; J and that many persons have suffered,
both in France and England, more or less gastric disturbance
after eating those taken from hotbeds or from dark foul
iniaerated places, is certain ; that mushrooms also in decay,
when chemistry has laid hold of their tissues and changed
their juices, have produced disagreeable sensations in the
stomach and bowels, is not to be questioned ; finally, that the
idiosyncrasy of some persons is opposed to this diet, as that
of others is to shell-fish, to melons, cucumbers, and the like,
must also be ceded : but none of these admissions surely
meddle with the question, nor go any way towards proving
the assumed fact, viz. that a mushroom ever changes its nature

* -Sschines.

t " Pratcnsibiis optima fungis Natura est." — Horace.

\ Locality has a great effect upon almost all that we eat : our very mutton
varies in different counties ; compare the town-bred gutter-fed jioultry of London
with that of twenty miles around ; fish vary, the tench out of diiferent ponds
are different ; fruits vary with the soil ; are potatoes everywhere the same ?

38 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

and becomes poisonous like the toadstool.^ It has been
nnwarily asserted, that becaiisc the people of the north are in
the habit of employing in their kitchen the Agaricus musca-
rius, which is known to be poisonous in the south, this points
to some remarkable difference in the plant depending on dif-
ference of locality. It is to be recollected, howe\^er, that this
very same fungus, if taken in sufficient quantity, without the
precaution usually adopted of soaking it in vinegar before
cooking, has produced fatal accidents, of which we read the re-
citals in various mycological works ; and only not more fre-
quently because the plant, being generally well steeped in brine
or acetic acid, is in most cases robbed of deleterious principles,
the only residue left being pure fungine, which is equally
innoxious and the same in all funguses whatever. It is
moreover worthy of remark, that though the common mush-
room [Ag. campestris) varies considerably both as to flavour
and wholesomeness (circumstances attributable in part to the
varieties of soil in which it flourishes f) , other funguses, on
the contrary, being mostly restricted for their alimentation
and reproduction to some one particular habitat, do not
present such differences. The Boletus edulis, the Fistulina
hepatica, the Agaricus oreades, the Ag. procerus, the Ag.
prunulus, the Ag.fusipes, the Cantharellus cibarius, etc., are,
in flavour and other sensible qualities, just the same in Eng-
land as they are in France, Switzerland, or Italy. Thus the

* Persons liave fancied themselves poisoned when they were not ; indigestion
produced by mushi-ooms is looted upon with fear and suspicion, and if a medical
man be called in, the stomach-piunp used, and relief obtained, nothing will
persuade either patient or practitioner that this has not been a case of poison-
ing. " You have saved my life," says the one. " I think you will not be
persuaded to eat any more mushrooms for some time," says the other : and so
they part, each imder the impression that he knows more about mushrooms
than anybody else can tell him.

t It grows not only throughout Europe, but iu India also.

AN ARTICLE OF DIET. 39

objection to eat funguses on the ground of their presenting
diftcrcnccs depending on those of the locality uhcre they
grow, applies principally, if it applies at all, to the English
mushroom, of which no housekeeper is afraid, and by no
means to those species the introduction of which into our
markets and kitchens forms the main object of this treatise.

Besides the foregoing objections to funguses on the general
ground of their supposed indigestibility, or else the more par-
ticular one of their not being at all times and in all places
the same, a further and weightier one, as it is commonly
urged, is the alleged impossibility of our being al)le to dis-
criminate, with certaintj^ the good from the bad ; an objection
Avhich derives much of its supposed weight from the apparently
clashing testimonies of authors respecting the same species,
■who not unfrequently describe, under a common name, a fun-
gus which some of them assert to be esculent, some doubtful,
and others altogether poisonous in its qnalities. Such dis-
crepancies, however, have already in many cases been satis-
factorily adjusted, whilst a more minute attention and cor-
responding improvement in the pictorial representation of
species is daily diminishing the errors of the older myco-
logists.

Admitting then, what there is no gainsaying, the existence
of many dangerous individuals in this family,"^ ought we not,
in a matter of such importance, rather to apply ourselves to
the task of diseiiminating them accuratelyf than permit idle

* We should apply the same niles of discrimination here as elsewhere.
Ilavc we not picked potatoes for our table out of the deadly family of Solatia !
selected with care the fjarden from the fooVs parsley ? And do we not pickle
gherkins, notwithstanding their aflinity to the Elaierlum momordicmn, which
would poison us if we were to cat it ?

t " N'cst-il pas bien plus simple ct bien plus sur cu meme temps, jruisqu'on
le pent, dc prevenir les maux, que de speculer sur lea moyens si souvent incer-
tains de les guerir?" — BuU. PI. Venen. p. 11.

40 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

rumours of its impracticability, or even its real difficult}^, to
dcbort us from the uudertakiug ? Assuredly nature, who has
given to brutes an instinct, by which to select their aliment,
has not left man without a discriminative power to do the same
with equal certainty ; nor does he use his privileges to their
full, or employ his senses as he might, when he suffers himself
to be sui'passed by brute animals in their diagnosis of food.

MODES OF DISTINGinSHmG.

The first thing to know about funguses is, that in the
immense majority of cases they are harmless ; the innoxious
and esculent kinds are the rule, the poisonous the exceptions
to it ; in a general way, it is more easy to say what we should
not eat than what we may ; we should never eat any that
smell sickly or poisonous. Opinions respecting the agreeable-
ness or disagreeableness of an odour, as of a taste, may differ;
thus, in France and Italy (where the palate seems to us to
bribe the judgment of the nose), it is usual to speak of that of
the Ag. prumdus as "perfuming the air;'^"^ but though the
strong peculiar smell exhaled by this and some other esculent
funguses is anything but a perfume, as we apprehend the
term, it is very different from that intolerable fcetor, that
nauseous overwhelming odour given out by the Phallus impu-
dicus, the Clathrus cancellatus, the Amanita verna, and its
varieties. There are some indeed which, yielding no smell,
will poison notwithstanding; but then there are none to lure
us into a false security by a deceitful fragrance. The same ne-
gative indications are furnished by the palate as by the nose ;
those that are bitter, or styptic, or that burn the fauces on
mastication, or that parch the throat when they have been

* Vide YiUacliui aud Ruques.

MODES OF DlSTINGUIsniXG. 41

swallowcdj should be put aside ; those that yield spiced milk,

of whatever colour, should be held, notwithstanding exceptions,

in suspicion, as an unsafe dairy to deal with. The " Lucchcsc

Goat" [Ag. piperatus) and the "Cow of the Vosges" {Ag.

lactijluus aureus), though in high request in their respective

localities, and really delicate themselves, are akin to others

whose milks, though they may have the colour of gold, have

the qualities of gaml)oge.

" Ncscius aurac

Fallacis,

Qui mine tc friiitnr ercdulus anrea ! "

Paulet was once so indiscreet as to eat a slice of the Griper
{Ag. tormliiosus), which belongs to this genus, and afterwards
still more indiscreet in giving it the inviting name of" Mouton
zone ; " it is well, however, that the reader should be apprised,
as he will frequently come across this ' mouton ' in his walks,
that it is a perfect wolf in sheep's clothing, nor less to be
avoided than one nearly allied to it, Avhich rejoices in the
name of nccator, or the slayer.* Here, as it is a safe rule
rather to condemn many that may be innocent than to admit
one that is at all suspicious to our confidence, we should, till
intimacy has made us familiar with the exceptions, avoid all
those the flesh of which is livid, or that, chameleon-like,
assume a variety of hues on being broken or bruised. t The

* Eoqucs fell ill vritli two soldiers at St. Cyr, who had gathered and were in
tlic act of carrying off twice tlic quantity of tins fungus necessary to kill the
regiment, when he interfered, and no doubt saved many Uves in doing so. The
soldiers, it appears, had mistaken the Ag. tiecator for the Hydnum repandum,
to which it bears some slight resemblance in colour, and in nothing else.

t The converse of this remark by no means holds true ; the Amanita va-na,
the Am. phalloides, tiie Ag. semiglohaftis, dryophUu.i, and muscarhts, tliougli
amongst the most deadly of this class of plants, do not change colour on being
cut; the flesh of the first two is, moreover, of a tempting whiteness, like that
of the common puir-ball, than which there is not a safer or a better fungus.
" Omuiiio ne crede eolori" is our ouiy safe motto here.

42 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

external colour furnishes no certain information — with the
single exception of that of the gills in one or two Agarics — by
which to know the good from the bad ; thus, the " Boule de
Neige " and the Vernal Amanite are both white; but the dress,
in one case, is of innocence, in the other of mere hypocrisy ;
again, the green, which we are so cautioned to avoid in this
class of plants as chlorotic and unhealthy, and which is of
such bad augury in Amanita viridis, is quite the contrary in
the Verdette {Ag. virescens) . So that to be led only by colour
would certainly be to be misled — a mistake which, in the family
of the Russules, might readily compromise life.

Some mycologists recommend, with certain exceptions, the
avoidance of such Agarics as have lateral stalks, of such as are
pectinate {i. e. have equal gills, like a comb), of such as have
little flesh in proportion to the depth of their gills, and
generally, of all those that are past their prime. Some warn
us not to eat after the snail, as we are in the habit of doing
in our gardens after the wasp; we may trust, it seems, to him
to point out the best greengages, but not to the slug to select
our mushrooms for us. Finally, it has been very currently
affirmed, though I think without sufficient warrant, that all
such funguses as run rapidly into deliquescence ought to be
avoided as dangerous. Here, while it might be unsafe to lay
down any positive rule beyond one's own experience, this, so
far as it goes, would rather lead me to a diflPerent inference ;
and even the reader will ask — Does not the mushroom deli-
quesce, and is not ketchup, that '' poignant liquor made from
boiled mushrooms mixed with salt,""* to which we are all so
partial, this very deliquescence? But, besides this, the Ag.
comatus, which is highly deliquescent, is largely eaten about
Lucca ; the Ag. atramentarius also is, on our own authority,

* Johnson's Dictionary.

MODES OF DISTINGUISHING. 43

periculo veniris nosiri, as good for ketchup as for that purpose
to which its juices are more coiuraouly put, viz. for making
ink. Thus, amongst deiiqucsccnt Agarics, there are some the
juices of which are both safe and savoury, perhaps of more
thau those here recorded ; but as I have not hitherto myself
made trial of an}^ others, and as there are some dangerous
species mixed up with this group, the public cannot be too
much cautioned against making any rash experiment, where
the consequences of a mistake nn'ght l)e so serious.

Some trees give origin by preference to good, others to
deleterious species; thus, the hazel-nut, the black and per-
haps the white poplar, together with the fig-tree, grow only
good sorts ; whereas the olive has been famous, since the days
of Nicander, for none but poisonous species.

" The rank in smell, and those of livid show,
All that at roots of oak * or olive grow,
Toueh not ! But those upon tlie fig-tree's rind
Securely pluck — a safe and savourv kind !"

The elm, the alder, the larch, the beech, and some other trees,
seem capable of supporting both good and bad species at their
roots; hence it is not safe to trust implicitly to the tree to deter-
mine the wholesomeness or unwholesomeness of the fungus that
grows out of it, or in its neighbourhood. The presence of a free
acid is by no means conclusive either way, there being many
species of both good and bad, which will indifferently turn
litmus-paper red. The old and very general practice adopted
l)y cooks of dressing funguses with a silver spoon (which is
supposed to become tarnished, then, only when their juices are
of a deleterious quality) , is an error which cannot be too generally
known and exposed, as many lives, especially on the Continent,

* He was wrong here : the oak produces both the FistuUna Iwpalica and
the Agaricus fmipes, two excellent funguses, particularly the last, which,
properly dressed or pickled, have not many rivals.

44 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

have been, and still are, sacrificed to it annually. In some
cases the kitehen-fire will extract the deleterious property from
the funguses, which it would have been unsafe to eat raw, and
frequently the acrid lactescent kinds change their nature entirely
and become mild by cooking; in other cases, the virus is
drawn out by saturating the fungus, sometimes before dressing
it, cither in \dnegar or brine,* the liquid then containing the
poison which was originally in the plant ; but in other species,
as in Ag. emeticus, it would seem from the experiments of M.
Krapf, of Vienna, upon living animals, that it is to be extracted
neither by ebullition nor desiccation.f

The effects produced by the poison of mushrooms are ex-
ceedingly various, that is to say, the virus itself differs in
different species, both as to kind and, where that is the same,
as to the degree of its concentration ; it is generally, however,
of the class called acro-narcotic, producing inflammatory affec-
tions of the intestines, and exerting a deleterious influence
over the whole nervous system. In eases where only a very
small quantity has been taken experimentally, a constriction
of the fauces has followed, and continued for a period varying
from some minutes to several hours, occasioning, or not,
nausea, heat, and, in some instances, even pain of the stomach;
" sometimes the affection is entirely confined to the head, and
a stupor or light delirium succeeds the eating of some species,
and continues for two or three days." { Not unfrequently, as
in those cases cited by Larber, the symptoms have been alto-
gether those of cholera, without any cerebral disturbance what-

* As was known to the Greeks, ' Prepare your funguses with vinegar, salt,
or honey, for thus you will rob them of their poison, ' ovtw yap avTuv rh
TTViywSfs o^aipetTat.

t Vittadini, however, ate largely of this fungus, which he describes as very
disagreeable, though it did not prove poisonous to liim.

t Pucciuelli.

MODES OF DISTINGUISHING. 45

ever ; but in other instances that have come to my knowledge,
during a several years' residence on the Continent, these have
been of a mixed character,* in which both the head and
viscera have participated ; and the autopsies after death have,
in accordance with the symptoms, shown the stomach and
intestines more or less disorganized with tlie products of in-
flammation, together with a congested state of the brain or of
its investments, or a local or general softening of its sub-
stance.f The poison, as has been said, exists in very different

* In a whole family, cut off in the year 18 13, at Lucca, by dining on some
poisonous Boletuses, drawn and first desci'ibed by Professor rucciuelli imder
the ominous name of Boletus terrihUis, besides most extensive ulceration of the
mucous coat of the intestines throughout a very considerable portion of their
extent, together with injection of the vessels of the brain, the lungs were found
congested, and the cavities of the heart distended, with coagula of blood.

t For a most intcrestijig record of all the more recent poisonings fi-om
funguses in Italy, the reader may consult Professor delle Cliiaje's work on
Toxicology. The following, the only one I shall give, is to be found in Vitta-
dini's excellent work on funguses : —

" Giovanna Ballerini, montanara, d' anni 26, moglie di Luigi Dodici, nativa
di Brugnello, Stato Sardo, e domiciliata in Lardirago, distretto di Belgiojoso,
proviucia di Pavia, mangio la sera del 19 maggio, 1831, in compagnia di due
suoi nipoti, Giuseppe Ballerini d' anni 6, e Maria, d' anni 12, buona copia
d' agarici di primavera, cotti neUa minestra. Erano dessi stati colti nel vicui
bosco della Rossa, e da quella sventurata probabilmente scambiati coi Pru-
gnuoli (^Ag. tnouceron, Bidl.), funghi generalmente conosciuti da quegli alpigiani
sotto il nome di Spinaroli, o Maggcnglii. All' indomani aUontanossi Giovanna
da casa, come era suo costume, oude provredere ai proprj bisogni, ma trascorse
alcune ore venne assalita da forte oppressione all' epigjistrio, da nausee, da
conati di vomito, ecc., e costretta infine verso il meriggio HaUa gravczza del
patirc a toniarsene a casa, ove trov6 daUo stesso male torment ati anche i
nipoti. I priueipali fenomeni morbosi che presentavuno quegU uifcliei all'
arrivo di Giovanna erano : nausee continue, dolori acutissimi alio stomaco ed
alle intestina, deliquj frequenti, convulsioni, ecc. Poco dopo Maria ed in
seguito Giovanna vennero prese da vomito ostiuato di materie bigio-ncrastj-e,
a eui s'accoppiava bentosto, per colmo di sventura, un' abbondante soccorrenza
della stessa materia, c pitl iuuanzi di pretto saugue. Impotente a recere,
Giuseppe si struggeva in vani conati di vomito. Chiamato verso sera in loro
Boccorso il sig. dott. Luigi Casorati, medico condotto del luogo, mio collega ed

46 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

degrees of intensity in different species. In some^ as the
Amanita verna, a few grains of tlic frcsb fungus suffice to kill a
dog ;* while the Agaricus muscarius, though equally fatal in
sufficient quantities, is not nearly so strong. Some time in ge-
neral elapses from the swallowing the poison to that in which
its deleterious workings first begin to he felt. I have heard of
cases (similar to those cited in the last note) of persons who
had supped overnight on the meal that was to prove their last,
who have slept, risen next morning, gone to work, and con-
tinued w'orking for hours, before they have been made aware
of their condition. \Yhen, however, the symptoms have once

amico, s' adoperc) ma invano per sostare il vomito ed il colera, che spccialmente
in Maiia ed in Giovanna andarano sempre piii imperrersando. Le bevande
mucilaginose, il latte, gli oppiati, le fomentazioni ammoUienti suU' addome a
nulla giorarono. Si tent5 la sanguigna, ma anche questa senza effetto. Alle
ore 7 del mattino del giorao 21, 38 ore circa dall' ingestione del fimgo, Giu-
seppe, chi si era ostinatamente rifiutato ad ogni medicina, non era piu ; ne
miglior sorte incoutraTano Maria e Giovanna, chi, tradotte all' ospedale di
Pavia, non ostante i soccorsi die rennero loro prodigati, perirano ncUa stessa
giomata fra le piu terribUi angosce, e senza pcrdere gran fatto 1' use dci sensi,
la prima verso il meriggio, 1' altra verso le ore sette pomeridiane. All' autopsia
del cadavere di Giuseppe Ballerini, eseguitasi in Lardirago, sotto i miei occLi,
dallo stesso Dottor Casorati che gentUmente me ne fece invito, ed alia qiiale
assisteva pure il sig. dott. G. GaUiotti, si trov6 lo stomaco zeppo di un liquido
verdastro, entro cui nuotavano ancora, unitamente a buona porzione di riso e
di erbe, varj pezzetti del fungo non ancora decomposti, e clie potei agevobnente
riconoscere a qual parte della pianta appartenessero ; la mucosa di quel viscerc
sensibilmente injettata, e coperta, spccialmente Imigo la piccola curvatura ed in
vicinanza del piloro, di grandi macchie di color roseo-livido intcnso. Le
intestina tenui pur esse ove piii ovc meno injettatc, e del color dcllo scarlatto, le
crasse morbosamente ristrette, ma meno delle tenui ingorgate ; si le une elie le
altre vuote d'alimenti, e non contenenti che poca quantity di muco bigio-nerastro
e qualche lombrico. Le meningi erano anch' esse sommamente injettate,
spccialmente la pia ; la sostanza del cervello meno consistente del natm-ale,
punteggiata di rosso, e la base deUo stesso nuotante in una quantita considera-
bUe di siero sanguinolento." — Vitt. p. 340.

* Wlien dried, gr. xx.-xxv, vriU scarcely produce the effects of gr. v. of the
fungus when first gathered. — Viff.

CONDITIONS OF GROWTH. 47

set in, they become rapidly more and more alarming, M-hile
the chances of arresting or mitigating their excruciating seve-
rity lessen every minute. As the evils to be apprehended
from the agency of these plants can only be prevented by their
instant evacuation, to assist the disposition to vomit, or, if
called in early enough, to anticipate it by the milder emetics
in sufficient doses (surely not by strong ones, as some have
recommended ! ) , and, when the stomach has been thoroughly
evacuated, to relieve the violence of the pain by bland muci-
laginous drinks, with opiates, are the indications plainly
pointed out, and the means by which inflammation and subse-
quent sphacelus of the gut, as well as the deleterious effects
produced on the nervous )?ystem l3y the absorption of the
poison into it, have been occasionally averted; but should
symptoms of great depression be already present (as too fre-
quently happens before the medical man arrives), he will
endeavour, in that ease, to rally the vital powers (scanty
though the chances of success will then be) by small and re-
peated doses of sulphuric ether and ammonia combined, or
should head symptoms require his interference, he must in that
case bleed.

CONDITIONS NECESSARY TO THEIR GROWTH.
Of these, in fact, we know but little, and in the great majo-
rit}^ of instances absolutely nothing ; in a few cases moisture*
and heat seem alone sufficient, even in our own hands, to

* The total quantity of moistui'e absorbed by funguses, during dcTclopment
and growth, is groat ; thus, if a number of small Agaries, stiU in their A\Tappers,
be placed in wineglasses half filled with water, this will be rapidly absorbed,
even before they break through their membrane. Moreover, if Agaries or
Boletuses, already developed, be placed in glasses contaming so many ounees of
water, tlie amoimt of which has been previously ascertained, and equal to that
in another glass, by which to make allowance for what has been lost by evapo-
ration, the result will generally be that a quantity of water, equal to from one-

48 ESCULENT rUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

cause some of them to grow ; iu others, electricity appears
indispensable. A wet autumn is generally found to be ex-
ceedingly prolific iu these plants, with the following notable
difference as to kind : all those that are parasitical on trees
show themselves, during a wet season, in amount directly
varying with that of the previous rain, irrespective of any
other influences conspiring to give this effect; whilst those,
on the other hand, which issue from the earth, when the
surface of this has been long chilled or when the electrical
state of the air has not been materially modified for some
time, will be found to come up sparingly or not at all, what-
ever rain may have fallen. An exception to this rule occurs
in the common mushroom, which, by the combination of
certain degrees of heat and moisture, may be reared through-
out the year without the co-operation of electricity. A
variety of plans have been recommended for this purpose,
many of which are both troublesome and expensive; the
following, taken by M. Roques from a scientific work on
gardening, and said to be infallible, has, if so, the great
advantage of extreme simplicity to recommend it : — " Having
observed that all those dunghills which abounded chiefly iu
sheep- or cow-droppings, began shortly to turn mouldy on
their surface and to bear mushrooms, I collected a quantity
of this manure, which, so soon as it began to turn white, I
strewed lightly over some melon-beds and some spring crops
of vegetables, and obtained in either case, and as often as I
repeated the experiment, a ready supply of excellent mush-
fourth to one-third of the full weiglit of each fungus, will have been absorbed
and exhaled again in two days. The redundant moisture of these plants is
rendered conspicuous if we place a Boletus on a watch-glass, the siu'face of
which is speedily beaded with drops of water, as if it had been in the rain ;
while the quantity of fluid is sometimes so gi-eat as to defeat the object we had
in placing it there, viz. that of collecting the spores.

CONDITIONS OF GROWTH. . 49

rooms, which came up from a month to six weeks after the
flung had hecn so dis[)osed of; hut as an equable temperature
is in all cases desirable to render the result certain, where
this cannot be secured under the protection of glass, the next
best plan is to scatter a portion of the above dungs mixed
with a little earth in a cave or cellar, to which some tan is
an excellent addition ; for tan, though it kills other vegetable
growths, has quite an opposite effect on funguses."

Next to the common mushroom, in regard to the success
attending its cultivation, comes that of the PictrafiDKjhaia,
a plant unknown to Clusius, but described by Mathiolus and
Imperato, under the name of the 'stony fungus.' Ccsal-
pinus has added to their accounts, directions ibr procuring it
the whole year through, which, he says, is to be done either
by irrigating the soil over the site of the stone, or by trans-
ferring the Pietra funghaia with a portion of the original
mould, and watering it in our own garden. Porta adds, that
the funguses take seven days to come to perfection, and may
be gathered from the naked block (where this has been pro-
perly moistened) six times a year ; but in preference to merely
watering the blocks, he recommends that a light covering of
garden mould should be first thrown over them. The Pietra
funghaia, though its range of territory be extremely small,
lies embedded in a variety of soils, in consequence of which
its Polvporus, like our own mushroom, is very various in
flavour, depending on the kind of humns in which its matrix
happens to be placed. Those that grow on the high grounds
above Sorrento, and on the sides of Vesuvius, are in less
esteem than such as are brought into the Naples market from
the mountains of Apulia.*

* The reader desirous of a detailed account of this interesting fungus,
should consult a small quarto brochure published some years ago, by Pro-

£

50 ESCULEXT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

A third fungns, which we have the means of producing ad
libitum, is that Avhich sprouts from the pollard head of the
black poplar;"^ these heads it is usual to remove at the latter
end of autumn, as soon as the vintage is over, and their
marriage with the vine is annulled ; hundreds of such heads
are then cut and transported to different parts; they are
abundantly watered during the first month, and in a short
time produce that truly delicious fungus, Agaricus caudicinus,
the Pioppini, which, during the autumn of the year, make
the greatest show in many of the Italian market-places.
These pollard blocks continue to bear, for from twelve to
fourteen years ; I saw a row of them in the botanic garden
at Naples, which, after this period, were still productive,
though less frequently, and of fewer Agarics at a crop. The
practice of rearing funguses from the poplar is not modern ;
Dioscorides knew, for he tells us that if we " bark the white
or black poplar, cutting the bark into pieces and covering it
with horse-dung, an excellent kind of fungus will spring up,
and continue to bear throughout the year :" by way of com-
ment to which passage Mathiolus adds, that a little leaven f
will produce an abundant crop in four days. Another fungus,
which I have myself reared [Polyporus aveUanus), is to ba
procured by singeing over a handful of straw a block of the
cob-nut tree, which is then to be watered and put by. In
about a month the funguses make their appearance, which
are quite white, of from two to three inches in diameter, and

fessor Gasparini, of Najjles, who was preparing a second edition in the autumn
of 18 14, with numerous additions, which has, no doubt, been reprinted.

* Or rather, as Professor Tenore has told me, from the JPopuliis nigra, Tar.
NeapoUtana.

t Miiller declares that fermentation is itself a fungus, which continues to
feed and mviltiply so long as it finds the elements of nutrition in the Hquid in
which it originates. This, then, is employing one fungus life to evoke another.

CONDITIONS or r.llOWTII. 51

excellent to eat ; uliilc tlicir profusion is sometimes so great,
as entirely to hide tlic wood from Avhich they spring.* Dr.
Tliorc says, that in the Landes, the Boletus edulis and Ag.
procerus are constantly raised by tlie inhabitants of that
district, from a watery infusion of the said plants ; that some-
thing more than this, however, is necessary, seems certain,
since during the two or three years during which I frequented
the baths of Lucca, and was in the habit of using infusions of
these and a variety of other funguses, often throwing them
over the very spots where each kind grew, my experiments
never succeeded. Nor was Pr. Puecinelli, of Lucca, who
repeated similar experiments in the botanic garden there,
much more successrul. l?riganti, of Naples, told me mucli
the same story ; and Sauguinetti at Rome was equally un-
successful with Ottaviani at Urbino. On making inquiry of
friends in England who have attempted to propagate different
kinds of funguses, either by infusion or otherwise, their at-
tempts generally failed. ]\Iy friend ^Irs. Hussey, in par-
ticular, acquaints me that she has been in the habit of sub-
jecting many plants to a like experiment, and with simihar
want of result. Lastly, as concerning truffles, Mr. Born-
holtz has given directions how to rear them, Avhich, as they
are exceedingly expensive and troidilesome, must needs be
infallible to secure proselytes, even among the most sworn
amateurs of these delicacies. " Prepare your ground," says
he, "with oak leaves in decay; you must also mix some iron
with it and take care to make it of a proper consistence, either

* All blocks of this nut-wood do not bear. Professor Sauguinetti informs nie
that the peasants in the Abruzzi, who bring in these logs, know perfectly
which will succeed and which will not; "a knowledge," he adds, " to which
closest attention during all the years that I have been employed by the Papal
Government as superintendent of the fungus market, has not yet enabled me
to attain."

K 2

52 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

by adding sand, should it be too compact, or clay, should it be
of too light a nature ; having then with great care transplanted
your traffics, (which must be properly packed with a quantity
of the original mould about them,) they are to be placed
tenderly in the new settlement, covered over lightly with mould,
and this again is to be covered with boughs of oak and Car-
pinus Beiulus to protect the deposit from molestation ; neither
must you consider your work completed till a sacred grove of
these particular trees has been planted round it, which must be
done with such precaution, that while they keep the precious
ground in a perpetual twilight, they must not obstruct it too
much, but leave a certain free passage to the air.'^ After
which injunctions, if they be carefully attended to, Mr. B.
assures us that we can reckon, without fear of disappointment,
on a dish of truffles, whenever we may want them for our-
selves or our friends.

FAIRY EINaS.

We know as little of the origin of fairy-rings, as of any
other phenomenon connected with the growth of funguses.
These fairy-rings are of all sizes, from one and a half to
thirty feet in diameter ; the grass composing them is observed
in spring, to be of a thicker growth than the surrounding
herbage, and, in consequence of the manure afforded by the
crop of last year, is of a darker colour. Within these rings
are frequently seen certain varieties of this class of plants,
very generally Agarics, though puff-balls frequently, and
occasionally the Boletus subtomentosus, affect a similar mode
of growth. Of the Agarics which appear in these circles,
some of the principal are Aym'icus oreades, Ag. prunulus, Ag.
Orcella, Ag. Georgii, Ay. personutus, and Ag. campestris.
As all these feed at the expense of the grass, (by exhausting

FAIRY RINGS. 63

the ground that would otherwise have furnished it with tlic
necessary supplies,) the richest vegetation in the field is
generally the first to hecome seared. These rings (giving
birth to some one species which, dying, is not nnfrequently
succeeded by another a little later, and this perhaps by a
third, in the same order of occurrence) continue to enlarge
i their boundaries for a loug but indefinite period.

It seems not easy to determine precisely, to the operation
of what cause or causes the increase in the size of these circles
from year to year should be attributed. Is it the projectile
force with which the spores are disseminated all round, that
has carried them so uniformly beyond the margin of the last
ring as to form a concentric circle for the next of larger
diameter beyond ? Or is the cause to be sought underground,
in the general spread of the spawn of last year in all directions
outwards, but only fertile in a concentric ring beyond the
site of the last crop, which had already exhausted the ground,
and so rendered it incapable of supporting anj' new vegetable
life? Or do both these causes conspire in this resnlt? The
quantity of spawn and of the spores necessarily contained in
it, and the depth to which they penetrate under the surface of
the soil, renders the possibility of their spreading in the latter
way easily conceivable.*

ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF FUNGUSES.

" Ins Iiinre der Natur driiigt keiii erschaffner Geist,
Zu gliicklich wem sie nur die iiussrc Scbale losst." — Ualler.

It would be an insult to the reader's understanding, and a
most idle waste of his time, to attempt to confute such self-

* On digging np the earth in the neighbourhood of a ring in wliieli A.
prunulus viSiS tiX i\\c time growing, I found the mould to the depth of a foot

5i ESCULKNT b'UXGUSES OF ENGLAND.

destro3'ing dogmas as those of " spontaneous " or of " equi-
vocal" generation, whicli last is only a clumsy equivoque ex-
pressive of the same thing: we might just as well talk of the
pendulum of a clock generating the time and space in which
it librated, as of dead matter spontaneously quickening and
actuating those new movements of which some of its particles
have become the seat; for how, in the name of common sense,
can that which we assume to l)c dead, i.e. emphatically and
totally without life, convey such purely vital phenomena as
those of intus-susception and growth, w^hich by the very
supposition are no longer within itself? Life, on such an
hypothesis as this, ceases to be the opposite and antagonist
principle to death, of which it then becomes but a different
mode and a ncAV phasis. It is not the incomprehensibility of
such a notion (be it well understood) against which the objec-
tion lies, for as life begins and ends in mystery, that would
be no objection ; it lies in the rashness of attempting to solve
an admitted mystery, by placing a palpable absurdity in its
room ; vainly and irreverently arrogating to itself the honours
of a discovery which we are to believe if we can ! At this
rate, addled eggs, abandoned by the vital principle, might
take to hatching themselves ! A more legitimate and very in-
teresting subject for inquiry is, whether those funguses whicli
are parasitical [i. e. derive their support from the structures
whence they emanate) are so many separate constituents of a
superior life under analysis, or each of itself a new indi\ idual ?
In support of the first view, it is iirged that since reproduction
in such lower existences is nothing but a modification of uutri-

and moi-e, lioary, with an araclmoid spawn strongly charged with the odour
of this mushroom. Persoon found that to destroy a fairy-ring of the same
Agaric, it was necessary to dig to a considerable depth, when the next crop
that came up was disseminated sporadically over the ground.

DEVELOPMENT. 55

tion, a new process might well originate from its perversion,
and thus give rise to new products; and just as the change in
the ordinary nutrition of our bodily organs is prone to give birth
to various local disorganizations or morbid growths, such, it is
argued, might be the origin of fungoid growth on trees. But
then comes the ditficulty : such a view docs not, and ])laiidy can-
not, explain the development of the not parasitical kinds, of
which the origin should be the same ; no, nor even of all that live
by suction at the expense of other plants, since there are as
many kinds which quicken in dead and decaying structures,
as there are that issue out of decrepit and living ones; here,
then, it is plain that perverted nutrition can have nothing to
do with their production, for in this case nutrition has, by the
supposition, ceased ; and to talk of disease after death would
be a strange figure of speech indeed ! An elm or oak is fre-
quently dead five, seldom less than three, years before these
parasitical growths make their appearance, from which it
Mould appear to follow that seeds are not developed by, but
that they must be extraneous to, and independent of, any
pathological relation of the plant from which they grow. If
then fungus life be not to be sought for, and cannot with
propriety bo said to originate in any morbid conditions of the
tissues from which they spring, whence do thej^ derive life —
in other words, whence in every instance comes that par-
ticular seed Avhich, when quickened, is to produce after its
kind? Lies this dormant for a season in those dead and
decaying tissues, which a little later the plant originating
from it is destined to embellish; or is the living germ first
brought to them by the winds, and merely deposited on their
siu'face, as in a fitting nidus on which their future develop-
ment is to be effected? Some writers take one view, some
another. Many believe the seeds of funguses to come directly

56 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

from the earth,"^ and to be drawn up with the sap, Avhich, as
it penetrates throughout the tissues of the plant, must carry
the seeds also along with it. That such is actually sometimes
the case is certain, since we can not only plant parasitical
bliglits of a particular kind so as to infect particular plants,
but may. also by digging a trench between those that have
already become diseased, and those that ai'c still healthy, stay
the progress of the blight — thus clearly establishing not only
the fact of seeds, but also the highly interesting additional
one, of their ascent into the structures of plants by intus-
susception ; and to arrive at a general view from these par-
ticular cases, this would seem to be the usual mode of their
propagation. Neither does it make against this view nor is it
more in favour of the other, which supposes the germs to be
derived primarily from the air, and to be thence precipitated
on the structures where they grow, that funguses are found
on organizations in decay, on withered boughs, and on seared
leaves, out of which all sap must of course have been long
ago exsiccated ; for what then ? though the sap does, the seeds
do not, evaporate with it. These, once absorbed and diffused
during the lifetime of the plant throughout its whole economy,
remain there in a state of potential activity, ready to burst
forth and germinate whenever the necessary conditions for
these wonderful changes shall be presented to them, just as
though the seeds of corn now flourishing in different parts of
England, had first existed for some thousand years as mummy
wheat, potentially and unquickeued. Nothing perishes in
nature: " destructio unius matrix alterius;" life may change
titles, but never becomes extinct ; so soon as the more perfect
plant dies, a host of other vegetable existences, hitherto en-

* Tliis was the opinion of the Greeks, who called funguses yrtyeyels, or
earthborn.

DEVELOPMENT. 57

thralled by laws of an organization superior to their own,
now that the connection has been dissevered, put forth their
separate energies, and severally assert their independence. The
poplar may have perished, root, stem, and branch, but its
extinction is only the signal for other existences, which had
been heretofore bound up and hid within its own, to assert
themselves; and accordingly a Polyporus sprouts oiit here;
here a Thelephora embellishes the dead bark ; and here an
Agaric springs out of the decaying fibres of its head : these in
turn also decay, but as they moulder away they languish into
a new kind of fungous life, of an inferior type to the last, as if
their own vitality were inferior in kind to that of the decayed
poplar, whence they lately issued.* Thus, since the seeds of
funguses actually exist in great quantity in other plants, and
since they occur in the closed interior of fruits and in corollas
which are still in their envelopes (in either case out of the
reach of the external air); since finally, the Pietra funghaia,
which produces a Polyporus unknown to England, may be,
notwithstanding, made to germinate in England by furnishing
the stone with adequate supplies of water and of heat, that
seems the more tenable hypothesis of the two, which, in every
case, supposes the nidus of the fungus to furnish the seed, and
the atmosphere, the conditions necessary for its quickening.
How the seed is first made to quicken is another and most
interesting question, still evolved in mystery. As there is no
ocular evidence to be obtained of the usual organs of sex,

* Just as in the inorganic world, chemical analysis is frequently the precur-
sor of new forms of matter resulting from the new affinities which take place,
80 when a vegetable dies, and the synthesis of its structural arrangement is
broken up, nature frequently avails herself of this season of decomposition, to
bring new hidividuals out of the decaying structures of the old, which, in con-
sequence of a beautiful pre-arrangemcnt, find there all the requisite supplies for
their growth and future maintcnauoe.

58 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

some mj'cologists have separated funguses from the family of
the clandestinely married Cryptogamia, to place them with the
Agamia, which repudiate the marriage tie f^ but as every ar-
gument from ignorance is unsafe, (and such would appear to be
particularly the case here, when we consider how many things
undoubtedly exist^ which the imperfection of lenses and the
circumscribed power of the eye prevent our seeing,) we should
rather make use of Avhat is displayed to ns in the economy of
other plants, in the way of analogy as applied to these, than
deny what is likely, merely because it is not an object of sense.
It would appear then, from what has been stated, that certain
funguses are produced like other plants, from seeds; and
more likely at least, in the parasitic kinds, that such seeds are
derived by the plant which supports them from the ground,
than deposited from the atmosphere. Before we proceed to
the description of species, a few more words remain to be said
about these spores, and a brief notice to be taken of those
parts that are essential to all, and more especially of such as
are characteristic of those higher forms of funguses which are
the more immediate subject of the present work.

SPOEES OR SEEDS.

All funguses have not seeds, — at least, seeds apparent to us ;t
but if we reflect that these, even where visible, can do no more
than present to our senses the visible tabernacle of that life

* Some mycologists however, as Persoon and Roques, conceive that the com-
mon dust of puff-balls is analogous to the poUeu of the higher plants, while the
real seed is to be sought and found in a finer dust, which is entangled in the
reticular meshes at the base of these plants. Others suppose the fluid which
bathes the interiors of those httle organs, in which the seeds are packed, to be
in other funguses the source of their fecundation. But these at present are
mere conjectures.

t Several bjssoid growths are in this predicament.

SrOKES OK SLEUS. 59

wliicli is still invisible, and which, not being material, must
ever elude our search,'^ then it will not appear so difficult to
conceive that the apparently seedless threads of some par-
ticular moulds should include, in their interior, vital germs of
some sort, which, being homogeneous with, or of the same
colour as, the parenchyma of the mould itself, are invisible —
just as we know them to be for a season in puff-balls, in the
veins of truffles, or in the Agyrium, the receptacle of which
last breaks up, when ripe, into sporidia, which then and not
till then become manifest. The seeds of funguses are called
spores : in the great majority of cases, the microscope, which
brings their shapes under observation (for to the naked eye
they appear as dust), presents them to us as round, oval, ob-
long, or even angular eorpuseulcs, and, more rarely still,
cchinulate or \\\i\\ a tail. They are as various in size as in
shape, the first bearing no proportion whatever to the dimen-
sions of the future plant. They vary, too, greatly in colour,
being sometimes of a pure white, and continuing so through-
out the whole of their seminal existence; at other times, the
white acquires a yellow tinge on drying. Some are brown,
some yellow, some pink, some purple, some purple-black, and
some pass successively from pink to purple, and from purple
to purple-black, t These seeds or spores are sometimes naked,
but are much more commonly shut up in little pouches or
receptacles, either of a regular or of an irregular shai:e; the
first are called ihecce, the latter sporanges ; thecae (m hich are
in shape similar to the cases of the same name that used to
receive the ancient elXi^fiaTa, or scrolls) are small, cylindrical

* " Who seek for life in creatures thoj dissect,

Will lose it in the moment they detect." — Pope.
t The colours of tlie spores are of considerable practical use in distinguishing
the members of the large family of Agarics, some of wliich are determined by
them.

60 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

bodies, in which the seeds lie one over the other, as in a rou-
leau ; they are themselves let into a receptacle (or that part of
the fungus the office of which is to receive and support tlie
reproductive organs) in a regular and symmetrical manner, and
at length occupy it completely, Not all are prolific ; for some,
pressing upon others, cause them to abort, leaving wherever
this happens, sterile thecce, or parajjhyses, betweeii those that
are fertile. Sporanges are little globose or turbinated recep-
tacles, frequently furnished with a pedicle, in which the seeds
lie without order, as they are themselves inserted symmetri-
cally, or without order, into the receptacle. Sometimes these
seeds are packed in series of fours, as in the fimetary Agarics ; in
other genera, as in the Helvellse and jNIorels, they are stored
away in series of eights. The spores, so soon as they are ripe,
either drop out of the sporiferous membrane [hymenium],
or, as more frequently happens, are projected from it Avith
an elastic jerk, or else, as is the case of Agarics of a deli-
quescent kind, return to the earth mixed up with the black
liquid into which these ultimately resolve themselves. Some-
times the whole external surface of the fungus is dusted with
seed ; but much more frequently they are restricted to some
particular part, and either lie on the upper side, as in the
Pezizce, or on that which is beneath, as in the mushroom.
The spores generally lie on the outside of the fungus, but in
the puff-ball, as every one knows, they are internal, and in
such prodigious quantity as sometimes entirely to fill its
cavity. It is a speculation from Germany, that spores are
capable of altering their forms, and that according to the ac-
cidents of climate or soil, they assume this or that type, and
give rise at different times to different kinds of funguses; on
which it is sufficient to remark, that while there is not the
least foundation for such an hypothesis, there is in fact much

SPORES OR SEEDS. 61

evidence against it; nature acts by immutable laws and has
no changelings. To appeal to experience, Avhen did mush-
rooms ever spawn toadstools? When was the Pietra funghaia
ever seen to bring forth anything but its own Polyporus ? or
the fig, the poplai', or the hazel (when singed and watered
to render them prolific) exhibit any but their own particular
mushroom? Spores are endowed, like other seeds, with an
extraordinary vitality, which may lie dormant in them for an
indefinite period ; but unlike most other seeds, they seem ca-
pable of resisting the prolonged heat of boiling water, infused
in which, and poured upon the ground, they are still capable
of producing each after its kind. The specific gravity of spores
is greater than that of water, as may be seen by placing a
mushroom over a glass which contains it, when, falling upon
the surface, they presently subside to the bottom. These
spores sometimes merely multiply without any further progress
in development ; sometimes they proceed a certain way only,
and then, the conditions necessary for their further advance
failing, this is arrested ; sometimes, as in the Sistotrema, the
plant appears twice under a perfect form, being for part of its
existence a Hydtium, and during the other half a Boletus ;
but, generally speaking, these minute corpuscular bodies arc
destined to receive an infinite variety of protean and imperfect
forms, and to pass stage by stage, and step by step, to the full
attainment of that ultimate one which they assume when their
growth has reached its natural limits. Sometimes the spore
expands outright into a puff-ball; sometimes it shoots up
straight into a club, as in some of the Clavarias ; or lies like
a bowl, resupinate on the ground and stalkless, as in the
Peziza ; in other cases, it assumes the more perfect but much
less simple forms of Chanterelle, Boletus, Daedalea, Morel, or
MiLshroom.

62 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

DEVELOPMENT OF SEEDS.

The mode iu M'liich the organs immediately containing the
seeds are formed, differs according to the family. In the tribe
of puff-balls, where the seed is formed in the interior of the
fungus, there is no hymeniuin ; a few of the internal cells
(when the Lycoperdon has attained its full size) begin to en-
large, and these in a short time are found to contain small
granules, generally of a determinate number, and moistened
by a fluid secreted from within the walls. In such funguses
as have an hymenium it is only some of the superficial cells,
and these in a particular position in reference to the receptacle,
that contain seeds; though perfect identity of structiu'e
throughout, is evinced in a conclusive manner if we invert the
head of a young fungus on its stalk ; for then these thecse
begin to form and to fill themselves with seed, not on the side
where they were about to do so previous to this inversion of
the head, but on that which was the uppermost and sterile
surface, and which, now that it is the undermost, has become
prolific. The expansion of a fungus, according to Vittadini, is
effected as follows : — " These thecse," of which we have been
speaking, " as they swell, become distended with the contained
seed, and mostly so at their free extremity, since they have
more room for expansion in that direction than at the other,
which is impacted into the substance of the pileus ; in conse-
quence of this, a series of wedges are formed which, as the
seed continues to distend them, force out the pileus, loosen
its marginal connections with the stalk, uncurl its involuted
borders, and finally open up its cells, pores, and sinuses."^

* It appears too mechanical an explanation of a phenomenon so purely vital
as growth, to make it in any way dependent on a system of wedges, however
ingeniously applied.

i

DEVELOPMENT OF SEEDS. 63

In those subterranean funguses wliich mature their seeds
below the surface of the ground, the louer portion, so soon as
this is accomplished in the upper, suddenly takes to grow up-
wards, carrying along jwith it the bag, which, on reaching the
surface of the ground, bursts its envelopes and scatters its pro-
lific dust to the winds. All funguses, as has already been ob-
served, have in all probability spores, though in a few instances,
of byssoid growths, (Hyphas, Himantias, and ^thelias,) these
are not apparent ; in most cases too, they are attached to an
hymcnium, into Avhich, or on the surface of which, they are
placed till ripe. One very large tribe, by far the largest, are
called Hymenomycetes, from v[jii]v, a membrane, and fiv/co'i, a
fungus; i. f. funguses witli a seed meml^rane : to distinguish
them from those other kinds, very small numerically in pro-
portion to themselves, Gasteromycetes, in which the seeds, ar-
ranged and stored a^ay in particular receptacles, named spo-
ranges or thecte, are with them included in the belly {'yacni]p)
of the fungus, as is the case in truffles and puff-balls. The
hymenium, like that curiously doubled-down sheet of paper
w^hich conjurors turn into so many shapes, assumes a great
variety of forms; running down the gills of the mushrooms
and the plaits of the Cant/tan/lus, up into the tubes of the
Boletuses; sheathing the vegetable teeth of Hydua, forming
an intricate labyrinth of anastomosing plates in Dadalea ; noAV
rising into little rough eminences on the surface of the Thcle-
j)horce, and now affording a smooth investment to that of the
ClavaruB. It is covered with a veil, m hich disappears so soon
as the spores begin to ripen, and its pi'otection is no longer
required ; seen under the microscope, it appears to be wholly
made up of thecae.

64 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

SUCCESSIVE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SPORES.

When the spore is to cease to be a spore, and to become
a mushroom, the first thing it does is to send forth certain'
cotton-like filaments, whose interlacings entangle it com-
pletely while they also serve to attach it to the place of its
birth ; these threads (like the spongioles attached to the roots
of phsenogamons plants, whose name sufficiently explains their
office) absorb and bring nourishment to the quickened spore,
which then maintains itself entirely by intus-susccption. All
this takes place before the germ has burst, or the embrj'o fun-
gus begun to develope its organs. In some instances, these
elementary threads ai-e, like the ordinary roots of plants,
spread out to a considerable distance underground, forming
here and there in their course small bulbs or tubercles, each
of which, in turn, becomes a new individual; in others, and
more commonly, these spores are sprinkled about uncon-
nectedly, as in the Pietra funghaia, affecting certain spots
only, which become so many small matrices whereof each fur-
nishes a crop. The union of many germinating granules to-
gether with their connecting threads, constitutes mushroom
spawn, or, as it is technically called, carcytes.^ Examined a
short time after quickening, the spore is found to have swelled
out into a fleshy kernel ; which in puff-balls, truffles, and the
uterine subterranean families generally, constitutes of itself
the whole fungus; this only grows in size afterwards, the
substance and original form remaining the same through the
entire period of development. In those destined to live under
the iufluence of air and light, this same rudimental nucleus
gradually evolves new parts, and assumes, as we have seen, a

* " The facility with which these floccose threads are injured, and their con-
nectiou destroyed, explains," says Vittadiiii, " the difficulty of transplanting
funguses with success."

DEVELOPMENT OF THE SPORES. 65

vast variety of forms, (wlicreof each particular one is pre-
determined by the original bias imprinted upon every spore at
its creation,) and here there is a manifest analogy with the
progressive development of new parts in the higher plants. In
such funguses as are wrapped up in a volva or bag, during the
earliest period of growth, this furnishes them not only with
the means of protection, but of nourishment also. This volva
which is formed by the mere swelling out of the original
fleshy bulb, when it has grown to a certain size, exhibits to-
wards its centre the rudiments of the young fungus ; of which
the receptacle appears first, and all the other parts in succes-
sion. The embryo, next taking to grow, in its turn approaches
the circumference of the volva, which, having by this time
ceased to expand, is burst open, and sometimes with much
violence, by the emerging Amanite. As soon as the hymenium
has parted with its seed, which falls from it in the form of fine
dust, the fungus, collapsing, either withers on its stem, or else
dissolves into a black liquid and so escapes to the earth. In such
funguses as have not a volva, the basilar or primary nucleus
shoots up at once in the form of a cone, and a little later pre-
sents at its apex the rudiirients of a receptacle or head ; by
degrees, and frequently by slow degrees,* the perfected struc-
tures of the plant are elaborated and spread themselves out
into some of the forms mentioned above, of which the clavatc
is the most simple, and that with gills the most complex. The
primary nucleus is formed out of simple cellular membrane,
the cells of which, at first elongating, and at length uniting

* The great rapidity with which these wonderful changes succeed each other
in funguses with a volva, is widely different from what occurs in those that
have none. Thus the Morel takes thirty-one days, Geastcrs six, and many
Tubers twelve months for their full development : so that " To come up like a
niusliroom" is a proverb witli limitations.

P

66 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

into little bundles, assume a fibrous appearance ; sometimes
these fascicular bodies effuse themselves unchanged into the
substance of the receptacle, in which they spread out and
are lost ; at others, a transverse line makes the demarcation
between the pileus and stem.* The last part formed in a
fungus, generally, is that which bears the seed ; and whenever
an exception to this occurs, and the seed is formed at an
earlier period than usual, nature has in this case provided
three membranes, to cover and protect these delicate organs
till the plant shall have attained maturity : these are the ring
[annulus), the veil {velum), and the wrapper {volva).

OF THE ANNULUS, THE VELUM, AND THE VOLYA.

Of these involucra the first two are partial, the other uni-
versal. The Volva is a thick membranaceous covering, ori-
ginating at the base of the fungus, which it thus connects
with the earth, and furnishes, during its fcetal life, with the
means of support and nourishment. When this has ceased,
and the plant has quitted its wrapper, if this still adhere to
the base of the stalk, it is styled manifest {manifesto), but if
there be no traces of it left, obliterated {obliterata). It is
free when it can be easily detached, and congenital when it
cannot without laceration. In funguses with bulbous roots
it is congenital, in those without bulbs it is free. All fun-
guses that have a volva are of course volvati, but as this organ
exists in many only so long as they are underground, my-
cologists are agreed to restrict the term to such alone as re-
tain it afterwards.

* When the base is formed before the receptacle, the fibres are conti-
nuous ; but when the receptacle has been formed first, as the fibres of the last
cannot be transmitted through those already formed, these two parts remain
distinct.

OF THE ANNULUS, ETC. 67

The Ring. — This, which differs considerably in form, sub-
stance, and in its attachments, is composed either of a con-
tinuous sheet of membrane or else of a number of delicately-
spun threads, resembling a spider's Aveb,* which in either case
passing from the margin of the pileus to the corresponding
upper portion of the stem, give way as the plant expands, and
either festoon for a season the margin of the cap, or encircle
the stalk with a ring. The marginal remains of the Annulus
are extremely fugacious, but the ring round the stalk, though
generally transitory, is sometimes persistent; it is suj)erior
or descending when originating from the summit of the stem,
it descends outwards and downwards to form connections with
the rim of the pileus; inferior or ascending when, coming
off from that portion of the stalk which is below the pilens,
it ascends to attach itself to this. In a few cases the ring
is partly membranaceous and partly composed of radiating
arachnoid threads.

The Veil. — Some funguses not only present the ring just
mentioned, their hymenium or seed membrane being further
protected from harm by a second investment, the veil, Velum,
the stalk origin of which, when existing in conjunction with
an annulus, is below it, but when the fungus is not annulate,
the velum rises higher up on the stalk, stretches across to
meet and is afterwards reflected over the whole surface of the
pileus ; on the expansion of the Agaric this investment is en-
tirely broken up, and exhil)its those well-knoMn flocks, which
have been called by the learned verruca, but which, as they
are generally of a dirty leprous hue, and affect more or less
of a circular arrangement, have procured for this whole tribe
of Amanites in Italy the uncomely epithet of tignosi, or

* In the first instauce the fungus is called annulaie, in the second corti-
tiate.

V 2

68 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

scald-heads. Where there has been both a volva and a velum,
as sometimes happens in the same fungus, these verruc?e are
of different colours according as they are remnants of the
first merely, or of both together* The velum in the sub-
genus Limacium is a slimy coating adhering to the head of
the fungus, which then looks as if it had been dipped in gum
mucilage ; this generally disappears after a time, leaving the
epidermis dry, though sometimes, like the solid membranace-
ous veil, it is more or less persistent. The waxy covering
on the pileus of the Ag. virescens, which after a time cracks
and tessellates its surface, is only an exudation limited to the
upper portion of the cap, and not a veil.

The Stalk. — This, which is absent in many parasitical fun-
guses of the Order Pileati, when present, either effuses itself
uninterruptedly into the substance of the pileus, which it
then, in fact, forms, or else supports merely as on a pillar, a
distinct line of demarcation showing where the fibres ter-
minate. It assumes a great variety of forms, which serve in
many instances to characterize species ; besides which pecu-
liarities there are others to be noted, as the mode of its inser-
tion into the pileus, its having or not having a ring, the cir-
cumstance of its being scabrous, glossy, or tomentose, reticu-
lated, spotted, or striped, of one colour above and another
below, or of its changing colour when bruised, any of which
may sometimes assist our diagnosis.

The Pileus. — By far the larger number of funguses men-
tioned in this work have a pileus, or cap ; all such belong to
the first great tnbe Pileati ; they include the genera Aga-
ricus, Boletus, Cantharellus, Morchella, Hydnum, Fistulina, and

* i. e. when these happen to be of different hues originally, the fragments
of the Teil being in some places covered by those of the wrapper, in others
naked.

OF THE ANNULUS, ETC. 69

Puhjponts, each of which furnishes its quota of alirncntarv
species, together with many others not esculent. The form
of the pileus, like that of the stalk, is various in these difTer-
cnt genera, besides being variable in the different species of
the same genus ; generally it assumes an orbicular or um-
brella shape, es])ecially in such funguses as grow solitary on the
ground, whilst in others, parasitical on trees, (particularly when
they have no stalk,) it is more or less of a lialf-hemisphere.

The GUIs. — Those vertical plates on the vnider surface of
the mushroom, which radiate from the centre to the circum-
ference, like the spokes of a wheel, are called Gills {lamellce) ;
they are not formed, as some have supposed, of layers of the
reduplicated seed-membrane alone, but by a prolongation of
the fibres of the pilcus, which these merely invest. The fi-
brous structure is most apparent in Agarics Avith thick gills;
in those where the flesh changes colour when bruised ; or
where, the interposed flesh remaining white, the hymeuinm is
tinged with the colour of the ripening spores. In those fun-
guses which have little flesh the upper surface of the pileus,
especially towards the circumference, is frequently farrowed
with transverse sulci ; these are occasioned by the sinking in
of the epidermis along with the fibres of the flesh between
the layers of the hymenium, and consequently their position
always corresponds precisely to that occupied by the backs of
the gills. The end nearest the stalk is termed posterior
{posiica), the opposite extremity anterior {antica) ; the ter-
minations of the lesser gills take place at various distances
short of the stalk, Avhich the perfect gills reach, and down
which they sometimes course or arc decurrent {decnrrentcs) ;
they are said to be adnate [adiiata) when connected at their
posterior end ; free [libera) when they do not adhere ; remote
[rcmota) when they terminate at a certain distance from the

70 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

stem; emarginate [emarginatce) \vlien they are obtusely notched
or hollowed out posteriorly ; denticulate {denticulatce) when
connected by means of a tooth ; equal {aquales) when all of
the same length; forked {furcatee) and branched {ramosce)
when they divide in their course, once, or more frequently, or
are connected at the sides with the imperfect gills; dedalcan
{dadalece) when they anastomose irregularly together; simple
{simplices) when they are free from all connections ; distant
{disf antes) when they are few and wade apart ; close [conferta)
when they are veiy numerous and touch each other ; serrated
{serrata:) when notched like a saw ; waved [undulatce) when
the margin is undulating j and imbricating [imbricata) when
they lie one over another, like tiles.

The Tubes. — Funguses of the genus Boletus, etc., present
on their under surface, in place of gills, series of small hollow
cylinders or tubes ; which are for the most part soldered side
to side like the cells of a honeycomb, but in the Fistulina
are unconnected. Like the gills, they are prolongations of the
fibres of the pileus, but lined, instead of coated, by the hyme-
nium ; their free extremities are the pores, which at first are
closed, but afterwards open to let the seed escape : they are
generally of equal length and simple, but sometimes in the
interior of a large one smaller tubes may be discerned, in
which case the first is termed compound. With reference to
the stalk, they are either adnate or decurrcnt, they first appear
as a network formed by slight prominences of the fibres of the
pileus; if at this early period a portion be removed together
with a piece of the fiesh, it is reproduced in a few days and
the tubes developed as usual. The beautiful reticulations
observed on the stalk of some Boletuses are produced by
abortive tubes decurrent along their surface.

The Plaits : Venae, Plicae. — The plaits of the Chanterelle

OF THE ANNULUS, ETC. 71

are formed like the gills and tubes of the mushroom and
Boletus, i. e. by the fibres of the flesh running down from
the pileus, and invested in a reduplication of the hymcnium ;
with this difference, however, that while in the two latter the
seed membrane is divided into as many portions as there are
gills or tubes, in the former the continuity of its surface is
perfectly unbroken. These plaits {plica) are always late in
appearing, and sometimes are only developed when the fungus
is about to cast its seed.

The Spines : Aculei, etc. — The under surface of the pileus
in the genus Hydnum is shagged with vegetable spines or
teeth {denies, aculei) of unequal lengths, generally isolated,
but sometimes connected at the base, and formed originally
out of a congeries of minute papillae invested by the hymc-
nium, which gradually elongate their fibres and assume this
form. Light seems essential to their production, for if a
Hydnum grow in the dark, the teeth shrink up into long
threads and are sterile.

METHODICAL DISTRIBUTION

BRITISH ESCULENT FUNGUSES.

The primary division of Funguses into Hymenormjcetes and
Gasteromycetes is founded upon the position of their seed,
■which lies, as we have seen, externally in the fii'st, and inter-
nally in the members of the second. The funguses described
in the present work belong chiefly to the first division, Hyme-
nomycetes ; to Tribe 1, Pileati ; and many of them to Genus
1, Agaricus. This genus includes a great variety of species,
and is distinguished from all other genera by having a fleshy
pileus furnished underneath with gills, which are placed at
right angles to the stem. Some species, during their infancy,
are enclosed either in one or more membranes.

Division I. IIYMENOMYCETES.
Tribe 1. PILEATI.

Genus 1. AGARICUS.

Old words in Natural History seldom become obsolete, but
they change their meanings strangely. Were Dioscorides and
Pliny redivivi, they would find nothing but misnomers ! The
term Agaricus, which anciently applied indiscriminately to all

CLASSIFICATION. 73

hard coriaceous funguses growiug on trees (while the word
Fungus did imperfect duty for this genus), was next arbitrarily
made by Linnaeus to stand representative for such only as
had gills, " fungi lamellati terrestres et arborei."* Persoon,
again, under the name Atnanita (a Galenic word, but hitherto
unappropriated), made a new genus of such Agarics as were
invaginated, i. e. shut up during the earlier period of their
development in a volva ; of such as had veins in place of gills,
MeruHus ; and of such as had anastomosing gills formed an-
other, Dadalea, a third division. ]More recently, Fries has
greatly simplified the study of this very large and difficult
genus by eliminating all of a coriaceous texture, and (having
restored to it the genus Amanita) by then dividing the whole
into sections ; enabling us to arrive at an accuracy in the dis-
crimination of species which was wholly unattainable before
his time. His first grand series of Agarics comprehends those
of white spoi'es (LEUcospoiiit), and of this his first section is —

Subgenus 1. Amanita. J

All the Agarics belonging to this subgenus are, during tlic
immaturity of the fungus, furnished with a volva and a ring ;
some have a velum in addition, and in this case, the surface
of the pileus is covered with warts, or verrucse. This natural
division was adopted long ago by iNIieheli, who gave the name
Uovoli to those which had only the first two, and that of
Tignosi to those that had all three. Altogether they form
but a very small group, but one very important to distinguish
accurately, as it includes, besides one or two very delicate
species, some which arc highly poisonous.

* Raii Syn. 2. t KevKbs, white, aud (rw6pos, a seed.

X A(j. oroides (TJuU.^, which is white, and Aff. Ccesareus (Scop.), which is
rod, with yellow frills', belong to this division.

74 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

Bot. Char. Pileus at first campanulate, then plane ; fleshy
towards the centre, attenuated at the margin ; gills ventricose,
narrow behind, free, numerous^ at length denticulate, the im-
perfect ones few, of a determinate form according to the kind,
and, with one exception (that of Ag. Casareus), white. Stalk
generally enlarged at the base, frequently bulbous, solid, or
stuffed with a cotton-like substance, which is at length ab-
sorbed ; ring descending, imperfect, fugacious ; flesh white,
unchanging.

Esculent species : Ag. vaginatus.

Of the Tignosi, that is, those with warts on their surface,
some have striated margins, others are without striae.

Esculent species : Ag. rubescens.

Subgenus 2. Lepiota.*

Bot. Char. Volva fugacious, veil single, universal, closely
adhering to and confluent with the epidermis, when burst
forming a more or less persistent ring towards the middle of
the stem ; stem hollow, stuffed more or less densely with fine
arachnoid threads, thickened at the base, fibrillose ; j^i/ew^
fleshy, not compact, ovate when young, soon campanulate,
then expanded and umbonate, more or less shagged with
scales; flesh white, soft, sometimes changing colour; gills
free, unequal, white, never decurrent.

Solitary, persistent, autumnal funguses, growing on the
ground. Not dangerous.

Esculent species : Ag. procerus, Ag. excoriatus.

Subgenus 3. ARMiLLARiA.f
Bot. Char. Veil single, partial, forming a persistent ring,
which in the unexpanded plant is joined to the margin of the

* XfTrh, a scale. t Armilla, a ring.

CLASSIFICATION. 75

pileus;* s^^m solid, firm, subfibrillose, unequal ; pileus^eshj,
convex, expanded, obtuse ; epidermis entire, even in the scaly
species, and not continuous Avith the fibres of the ring ; flesh
white and firm; gills broad, unequal, somewhat acute behind.
Esculent species : Aff. melleus (?) .

Subgenus 4. LiMACiuM.t
Esculent species : no7ie.

Sul)gcuus 5. Tricholoma.J

Bot. Char. Veil fibrous or floccose, fugacious ; stalk gene-
rally solid, firm, fleshy, attenuated upwards, scaly, fibrillose
or striate ; pUcus fleshy, compact, campanulate or depressed,
convex ; margin attenuated, at first involute, shagged with
woolly fibres or lanugo ; gills unequal, obtuse behind, emar-
ginate; flesh white and unchangeable.

Esculent species : Ag. prunulus and Ag. personatus.^

Subgenus 6. Russula|I {Scop.).

Bot. Char. No veil ; stem smooth, equal, glabrous, strong,
white, spongy within ; ;;z7e?« at first campanulate, then hemi-
spherical, in age depressed, fleshy in the centre, thin at the
margin, which is never reflexed at any period of growth, the
epidermis bare, smooth, occasionally sticky in wet weather ;
gills juiccless, mostly equal, occasionally forked, the short
ones few, rigid, brittle, broad in front, behind narrow, acute,

* This ring seems foniied by the external fibres of the stalk, which, having
reached the posterior extremity of the gills, are reflected backwards to the
margin of the pilous when they become attached.

t Limax, a sliiff. J ^^i|, a hair, and Xw/ia, o, fringe.

§ Not described by Vittadini among the esculent funguses of Italy, and so
probably unknown there.

II Russulus, red.

76 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

properly free but apparently adnato-decurreut, from the effu-
sion of the stem into the pileus; flesh firiUj dry, white, mode-
rately compact, brittle ; sporules white or ochraceous ; gills
white or yellow.

Large or middle size, persistent, solitary funguses, growing
on the ground.

Esculent species : Ag. heterophyllus, virescens, and ruber.

Acrid species : Ag. emeticus, sanguineus, and alutaceus.

Subgenus 7. Galorrheus.'^

Bot. Char. No veil; stalk equal, round, solid, effused into
the pileus ; pileus fleshy, compact, generally umbilicate, mar-
gin even, when young involute ; gills unequal, sometimes very
thick, often forked, narrow, attenuated behind, brittle, con-
nected by a prolonged tooth to the stalk, down which they are
slightly deeurrent; flesh firm and juicy, distilling milk.

Esculent species : Ag. deliciosus and piperatus.

Subgenus 8. CLYTOCYBE.f
Bot. Char. Veil none ; pileus at first convex, at length in-
fundibuliform ; gills unequal. The characteristics of this sub-
genus are rather negative than positive ; many of the con-
tained species vary considerably amongst themselves, but the
subdivisions founded on such variations are all well marked.

Subdivision Dasyphylli.X Gills in close juxtaposition, de-
current or acutely adnate.

Esculent species : Ag. nebularis.

Subdivision Camarophylli.^ Pileus subcompact, dry ; gills
very distant, vaulted, deeurrent.
Esculent species : Ag. virgineus.

* yd\a, milk, and pew, to flow. f kK'itos, a decUviti/, and kv^)), a head.

X 5acr^s, tkicJc, and (pvKXov, a leaf. § Ka^idpa, a vault, and (pvWou, a leaf.

CLASSIFICATION, / /

Subdivision Chondropodes.^ Pileus tough, dry, gills nearly
free, close, white, external coat of stem subcartilaginous.
Esculent species : Ag. fuslpes.

Subdivision Scortei. Pileus subcoriaceous ; gills free, sub-
distant.

Esculent species : Ag. oi'eades.

Subgenus 9. CoLLVBiA.f
Esculent species : none.

Subgenus 10. Mvcena.J
Esculent species : none.

Subgenus 11. Omphalia.§
Esculent species : none.

Subgenus 12. Pleuropus.||

Bot. Char. Pileus unequal, eccentric or lateral ; stem, when
present, solid and firm ; gills unequal, juiceless, unchange-
able, acute behind, growing on trees or wood ; for the most
part innocuous, but two only generally eaten.

Esculent species : Ag. ostreatus, in the subdivision Con-
charia ; and Ag. tilmarin.t, in the subdivision j^Egeritaria.

Series 2. HYPORHODEUS.H
Sporules pale rose-colour.

Subgenus 13. Clitopilus."'^^
Bot. Char. Veil none ; stem tolerably firm, subequal, dis-

* x''*'5f>0Si a ligament, ami ttoDs, nfoof. t k6\\v$os, a copper coin.

X /iVKTjs, nfunijus. § dfj.<t>a\hs, nmhilicus.

II •KXfvfibv, a side, invX iroxis, iifout. ^ irwh, under, and f)6S(os, rose-coloured.

** k\'itos, a drrlirlft/, nnd irTXos, a rrrp.

78 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

tinct from the pileus ; pileus fleshy, campanulate or convex, at
length somewhat plane, dry, regular ; gills unequal, changing
colour as the fungus matures its seed, fixed, or free.
Esculent species : Ag. orcella.

Subgenus 14. Leptonia."^
Esculent species : none.

Subgenus 15. Nolan e a. t
Esculent species : none.

Subgenus 16. Eccilia.J
Esculent species : none.

Series 3. C0RT1NAIIIA.§
Sporules reddish-ochre ; veil arachnoid.

Subgenus 17. Telamonia.]]
Esculent species : none.

Subgenus 18. Inoloma.^

Bot. Char, Veil fugacious, marginal, consisting of free
arachnoid threads ; slem solid, bulbous, fibrillose, more or less
diffused into the pileus, fleshy; pileus fleshy, convex when
young, then expanded, fibrillose, or viscid, regular, juicy ; gills
emarginato-adnexed, broad, changing colour; colour of the
gills or pileus violet.

Large autumnal funguses growing on the ground.

Esculent species : Ag. violaceus.

* Xiirrhs, slender. f Nola, a little hell.

J (KKoix6(t), to hollow out. § Cortina, a veil.

II TeXaniiv, lint. IT ivhs, of a Hire, Kwfia, & fringe.

CLASSIFICATION. 79

Subgenus 19. Dermocybe.*

Boi. Char. Veil dry, arachnoid, very fugacious; stem not
truly bulbous, fibrillose, stuffed \vhcn young ; pileus clothed
with fibrillae, rarely with gluten ; gills rather unequal, broad,
close.

Esculent species : Ag. castaneus.

Series 4. DERxMINUS.

[In the nine subgenera following, from 20 to 28, viz. Pho-
liota, Myxacium, Hebeloma, Flammula, Inocybe, Naucoria,
Galera, Tapinia, and Crepidotus, there are no esculent
species.]

Series 5. PRATELLA.f
Bot. Char. Veil not arachnoid ; gills changing colour,
clouded, at length dissolving; sporidia brown-purple.

Subgenus 29. Volvaria.
Esculent species : none.

Subgenus 30. Psaliota.J

Bot. Char. Veil forming a partial ring-like investment,
more or less persistent ; stalk robust, subcqual, distinct from
the pileus ; pileus fleshy, more or less campanulate when
young, almost flat when fully expanded ; sometimes sticky,
sometimes scaly or else fibrillose, sometimes naked ; gills un-
equal, free, or connected with the stalk, broad and deepening
in colour.

In addition to the ring, some have a very fugacious volva
or velum, some both one and the other.

Esculent species : Jg. campestris and Georgii.

* Sfpfjia, a skill, and Kvfii], a head.

t PratiiiP, a pasture. J \\id\iov, a rhiff.

80 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

[In the four next subgenera, from 31 to 34-, Hypholoma,
Psilocyhe, Psathyra, and Coprinarius, there are no esculent
species.]

Subgenus 35. Coprinus.'^

Bot. Char. Gills free, unequal, thin, simple, changing
colour, at length deliquescent. Veil universal, floccose, fu-
gacious; stem fistulose, straight, elongated, brittle, subsqua-
mulose, .whitish ; pileus membranaceous, rarely sul)carnose,
when young ovato-conic, then campanulate, at length torn
and revolute, deliquescent, distinct from the stem, clothed
with the flocculose fragments of the veil.

Fugacious funguses, growing in rich dungy places or on
rotten wood.

Esculent species : Ag. comatus and atramentarius.

Subgenus 36. Gomphus.
No esculent species.

Genus 2. CANTHARELLUS.f

Bot. Char. These are distinguished from Agarics, which at
first sight they resemble, by having veins in place of gills ;
that is, by having the prolongations of the fibres of the pileus
invested in an undivided, in place of a divided hymenium, as
occurs in Agarics and in the genus Boletus. These veins are
prominent, ramifying, seldom anastomosing ; central, eccen-
tric, or wanting ; no investments ; dust white.

Esculent species : C. cibarius.

[In the next three genera, MeruUus, Schizophyllum, and
Dadalea, there are no esculent species.]

* KOTrpoi, clinii/. f KOLvOapos. n nrp.

CLASSIFICATION. 81

Genus 6. POLYPORUS *

Bot. Char. Hymenium concrete with the substance of the
pileus, consisting of subrotund pores with thin simple dissepi-
ments.

Esculent species : P. frondosus.

Genus 7. BOLETUS.f

Bot. Char. The word Boletus, which has at diflferent times,
and under different mycologists, been made to represent in
turn many very different funguses, is now restricted to such
as have a soft flesh, vertical tubes underneath, round or an-
gular, slightly connected together and with the substance of
the pileus, open below, and lined by the sporiferous mem-
brane ; the cap horizontal, very fleshy, the stalk generally
reticulated, some have an investment ; the flesh of many
changes colour.

They are all innocuous, according to Vittadini, whicli is
not strictly the case, though many species hitherto reputed
unwholesome, or worse, appear to lose their bad properties by
drying. The kinds generally eaten are B. edulis and scaber.

Genus 8. FISTULINA.t

Bot. Char. Hymenium formed of a distinct substance, but
concrete with the fibres of the pileus ; tubes at first wart-like,
somewhat remote, radiato-fimbriate, closed; at length ap-
proximated, elongated, open.

Esculent species : F. hepatica.

* iroXvs, many, and ir6pos, a pore. t /SwAot, a hall.

X Named from the Jtstulous nature of the hrnieniinn.

G

82 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

Genus 9. HYDNUM.^

Bot. Char. In this genus the under surface presents a series
of conical teeth or bristles of unequal length, solid, continuous
with the flesh of the pileus and covered entirely by the spo-
riferous membrane. The species composing it have no in-
vestments ; the flesh is dry, frequently corky or coriaceous ;
the pileus irregular in shape, and its margin arched and un-
dulated. There are no dangerous species, but which to eat
must depend upon the united consent of the stomach and of
the teeth.

Esculent species : H. repandum.

[In the last five genera of this tribe, namely, Sistotrema,
Irpex, Radulum, Phlebia, and Thelephora, there are no escu-
lent species.]

Tribe 2. CLAVATI.-f

Hymenium above, smooth ; receptacle club-shaped or cylin-
drical, with no distinct margin ; substance fleshy.

Genus 15. CLAVARIA.

Bot. Char. Receptacle erect, homogeneous, smooth, not dis-
tinguishable from the stalk, simple or entirely covered by the
hymenium.

All the species in this genus are good to eat.

[In the remaining six genera of this tribe there are no
esculent species.]

* v^vov, a truffle, etc. f Clava, a club.

CLASSIFICATION'. 83

Tribe 3. MITRATL

Receptacle bullate, pileiform, luargiucd ; hymenium superior,
never closed.

Genus 22. MORCHELLA.

Bot. Char. Receptacle hollow and confluent with stalk,
clulj-shapcd, or, like the pileus, fissured above with lacunae
more or less deep, limited by thick folds, anastomosed with
reticulations, entirely covered with sporiferous membrane;
flesh waxy in texture ; stalk constant.

There are two esculent kinds, M. esculenta and semilibera ;
the esculenta and hybrida of Sowerby.

Genus 23. HELVELLA.

Bot. Char. Substance fleshy ; margins sinuous ; only the
upper portion of the pileus sporiferous.

Esculent species : H. crispa, lacunosa, and esculenta.

[In Genera 2 i to 2G there are no esculent species.]

Tribe 4. CUPULATI.

Hymenium concrete, superior, smooth, shut in while young
by the margins of the receptacle ; sporules disseminated with
elasticity or otherwise ; receptacle bowl-shaped, flat or con-
cave ; some of this tribe when young have an involucrum.

Genus 27. PEZIZA.

Series Aleuhia. Subgenus Megaloptxis.
Esculent species : P. acetabulum.

[In Genera 28 to 45, which conclude the flrst great division,
Hymenomycetes, there are no esculent species.]

G 2

84 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

Division II. GASTEROMYCETES.

Bot. Char. The receptacle a close cavity with or without a
hynienium ; spores at last fiee and variously disseminated.

[Ill Genera 46 to 73 there are no esculent species.]

Genus 74. BOVISTA.^

Bot. Char. Peridium papyraceous, furnished with a distinct
baek_, Avhicli at length peels off altogether^ fertile within ; ca-
pillitium equal.

Esculent species : B. plumbea.

Genus 75. LYCOPEUDON.

Bot. Char. A sessile peridium, membranaceous; at first
filled with a white, consistent, homogeneous substance, Avhich
after a time is converted into a dust of various hues, and is
interspersed with copious filaments. The funguses of this
genus are invested in two membranes ; the innermost of which,
or peridium, is tough and smooth on the outside, shaggy with
floccose threads within. The external membrane, wliich is
very fragile and tender, frequently falls off during the matura-
tion of the seed, which then escapes through the peridium by
an irregular orifice at the apex.

Esculent species : L. pJainbeum and Bovista.

* Xame Latinized from the German Bojist.

DKSCRIPTIOX or SPECIES. 85

AGARICUS PRUNULU8, Vitt

Plate I. Fig. 1.

Subgenus Triciioloma, Fries. Subdivision Peksonata, ibid.

AoABicrs MorcEROX, BttUiard. Ceesalpinus, p. 617.
MorcERON GBis, Paiilet, Persoon.

" Cogitatioue ante pascuntur succineis novaculis ant argeutcoappa-
ratu comitante." — Plinif.

"Tout CO qui fait rornemcnt dcs fcsl ins s'cmbaunie du parfuni de
CCS cryptogames." — Persoon.

Bot. Char. Gregarious, or growing in rings^' on tbe
ground ; jiiJeus tbick, convex, irregular in sbapc, more or less
tuberculated, sometimes lobedjf margin not striate, wavy, ex-
panding unequally ; epidermis cream-coloured, grey, reddisb,
or of a dirty nankeen bue, paler towards tbe cireumferenee,
soft to tbe toncb like kid, minutely tomentose, fragile, dry,
firmly attacbed to tbe Hesli ; flesb firm, conipaet ; gills watery,
wbite, very numerous, irregular, witb many smaller ones
(from 5-11, Vitt.) interposed, lying over eaeb otber like tbe
plaits of a frill, adnato-emarginate,J tbe imperfect gills
rounded off at tbcir posterior end. Stem wbite, robust, firm,
solid, somewbat irregular in form, generally tbickened at tbe
base, constantly so in young specimens, but in older ones,

* They are reproduced in these rings about the same time every year, the
circle continuing to enlarge till it breaks up at last into irrcgxdar lines, which is
a sure sign to tlie collector that the Pninulus is about to disappear from that
place, just as the presence of an unbroken ring is conclusive of a plentiful
harvest the next sjiring.

t These lobes, formed by the constriction of the pilous, whilst emerging from
the roots of the grass, arc sometimes so much strangulated as to present the
appearance of small stalklcss Agarics growing from the large, and projecting
from tinir sides like ears.

X That is, connected by a tooth to the cud of the stalk, and not running
down it.

86 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

though occasionally bulging, it presents not unfrequently an
equal cylinder throughout, and sometimes tapers slightly
downwards. The fibres are effused into the pileus, spreading
out like a fan through its substance ; smell strong, tasle agree-
able ; spores white, elliptical, adhering firmly to the body on
which they fall. The dried plant retains much the same form
it had when fresh.

On tracing this fungus to its origin, (spring is the only
time, and the borders of the woodlands the proper place, to
look for it,) if we dig up the earth where it grows, this will
be found mouldy to a considerable depth beneath the surface,
and strongly impregnated with the peculiar odour which the
Prunulus exhales ; this apparent mouldiness being, in fact, the
spawn, amidst the white filaments of which many minute
Agarics, in various stages of their development, may be found ;
some, in the earliest, presenting merely white cones destitute
of heads, whilst in others a slight protuberance indicates the
future pileus forming or already fojmed. The pileus is at
first almost spherical, and involute in its borders, the gills
whitish, very minute, and so thickly set as to press one
against the other, each communicating to the membrane that
lines the next the impressions of its own fibres, which remain
in the form of transverse strise, and furnish a characteristic
to this fungus retained during all its subsequent growth [Vitt.).
The greatest size which I have known the PrunuJus attain has
been in England, where I have picked specimens measuring
six inches across, and weighing between four and five ounces;
as to the fecundity of this fungus, I collected this spring,
from a single ring on the War-jNIount at Keston (Kent), from
ten to twelve pounds, and in the one field from twenty to
twenty-five pounds. In this neighbourhood they are generally
destroyed, as injurious to his grass-crops, by the over-careful

DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES. 87

farmer, quite ignorant, of course, of their value ; to which the
following extract from a letter of Professor Balbi to Persoou
bears testimony : — " This rare and most delicious Agaric, the
Mouceron of Bulliard, and the Ag. prunulus of other authors,
abounds on the hills above the valley of Stafora, near Bobbio,
"where it is called Spinaroli, and is in great request ; the coun-
try people eat it fresh in a variety of ways, or they dry and
sell it for from twelve to sixteen francs a pound." Vittadini
says, truly enough, that the fresh is better than the dried
Prumtlus, the substance of the latter being rather coriaceous,
but the gravy prepared from it in this state, being very rich
and well-flavoured, is largely used by those who reject the
body of the mushroom ; three or four thrown into a pot of
the lighter broths or of beef-tea render them more savoury.
To dry the Prunulus it is usual to cut it into four or more
pieces, Avhich are exposed for some days to a dry air and then
threaded : it acquires an aroma by the process, and commnni-
eatcs this to any dish of which it is afterwards an ingredient.

It would be extremely difficult to confound this Agaric
with any other; its mode of growth in circles, the extreme
narrowness of its gills, which are moreover striate, the thick-
ness of its pileus, and the bulging character of its stalk,
would render a mistake almost impossible, even did it grow
in autumn when other funguses abound, in place of appear-
ing only in spring when few species comparativelv abound.

The best mode of cooking the Ag. prumthis is either in a
mince or fricassee it with any sort of meat, or in a vol-au-vent,
the flavour of which it greatly improves ; or simply prepared
with salt, pepper, and a small piece of bacon, lard, or butter,
to prevent burning, it constitutes of itself a most excellent
dish. It has the great advantage of appearing in spring, at a
season the common mushroom never occurs. I have placed

88 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

it first in the series of Plates^ as being the most savoury-
fungus with which I am acquainted.*

"When eaten alone, Sterbeck's white mustard will be found
an excellent condiment for it ; this is prepared as follows : —
Bruise in a mortar some sweet almonds with a little water,
then add salt, pepper, and some lemon -juice, rub together till
the whole is of the consistence of common mustard.

AGARICUS PROCERUS, Scop.

Plate II.

Subgenus Lepiota, Fries.

"Elle est d'une saveur tres-agreable et cl'une chair tendre, tres-
delicate et tres-bonne a manger. Les amateurs la preferent meme
au cliaiuiDignon de eouclie, comme ayant mie chair plus fine et etant
beaucoup plus legere sur J'estomac." — Paiilet.

This, which is one of the most delicate funguses, fortu-
nately is not rare in England. In Italy it is in equal request
with the Amanita Ceesarea ; in France it is also in high es-
teem,— " servie sur toutes les tables, elle est bonne a toute
sauce " [Tliore) ; and were its excellent qualities better known
here, they could not fail to secure it a general reception into
our best kitchens, and a frequent place among our side-dishes
at table. The beauty and remarkable appearance of this
Agaric have procured for it a variety of names : colubrinus,
from the snake-like markings on the stem ; clypeatus, from

* The Prunulus is much prized intheKomau market, where it easily fetches
30 baioccbi, i.e. \bd. per lb. ; a large sum for any luxury at Eome. It is sent
in little baskets as presents to patrons, fees to medical men, and bribes to Eoman
lawyers. When dried, it constitutes the so-called " Fuughi di Genoa," which
are sold on strings throughout Italy.

DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES. 89

its umbonated top ; 'fungo parasole,' from the orbicular form
of the wide-spread pilcus ; and Gambaltiem. or Fonz de la
gamha hmga, from the extraordinary height of the stalk.
Autumn is the time of its greatest abundance, but individual
specimens occur occasionally throughout the summer.

It grows solitary or few together in hcdgcbanks and pas-
ture-grounds.

The pilcus, which is commonly from four to four and a half
inches across, sometimes attains a width of six or seven. At
first it is concealed in a volva, but breaking from this it goes
through a variety of forms, from that of an ovoid cone to that
of a flattened disk. It is umbonated at the centre, and co-
vered with scales, which are formed by the breaking up of the
mud-coloured epidermis, and are large, raised, and persistent
at the centre ; thin^ regular, and lighter in hue at the circum-
ference, " the whole surface resembling a delightfully soft,
shaggy-brown leather ^^ {Purton). The flesh of the pilcus is
white and cottony, that of the stalk fibrous and somewhat
brittle, with a subrubescent tinge, the whole plant turning to
a rufous-orange when bruised ; the gills are of a pale flesh-
colour, occasionally forked, vcntricose, denticulate, remote
from the stalk, and having a circular pit between it and their
central extremities, which are fixed into a kind of collar.
The stalk tawnj'^, striped circularly with bands of white,
formed by the breaking up of the epidermis ; is bulbous at
the base and attenuated upwards ; its apex rounded, and pe-
netrating deeply through the flesh of the pilcus (which re-
ceives it as in a socket), gives rise to the central nml)o on the
upper surface of the cap. The ring moveable, like that of an
mnbrella -stick, broad, compact, membranaceous immediately
round the stalk, and fibrous towards its free margin, is white
above and tawnv or of the same colour as the stalk on its

90 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

under surface. The smell is like that of newly-ground meal ;
the taste is pleasant ; the spores are white and elliptic.

The Ag. excoriatus resembles the Ag. procerus very closely,
but is easily distinguished from it by its smaller size, the ab-
sence of the bulb at the base of the stalk, and the ring being
often attached instead of free.

Being equally esculent, the following receipts will serve for
both :—

" Comme il est tres-leger et tres-delicat, il faut le faire
sauter dans I'huile fine apres I'avoir assaisonne d'un point
d'ail, de poivre et de sel ; en quelques instants il est cuit. On
le mange aussi en fricassee de poiilet, cuit sur le gril ou dans
la tourtiere avec de beurre, de fines herbes, du poivre, du sel,
et de la chapelure de pain ; on ne mange point la tige, elle est
d'nne texture coriace'' {Eoques).

The ketchup from both kinds is better than that procured
from the Agaricus campestris, or common mushroom.

N.B. — I hare in the above notice described one yariety oi Agaricus procerus ;
there is, however, if not another, at least a remarkable modification of this, in
which tlae pileus is thinner and mxichless shaggy, the gills less broad but similar
in shape, the stalk more slender and elongate. This variety is also nearly void
of odour, and its flesh does not change colour on being bruised : for culinary
purposes this distinction is without importance, as both are equally good.

BOLETUS EDULIS, Bidliard.

Plate III. Figs. 1 and 2.

Section Cortinaria, Fi^ies.

" Atto sovra ognnn altro fungo al commercio, forma da questo lato,
per non pochi paesi della Lombardia, una delle principal! risorsi della
povera gente." — Vitt.

The ancient Romans were well acquainted with this truly

DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES. 91

delicious fungus, and in general appear to have done it jus-
tice; the strings of dried Suillus, which his countrymen, on
the testimony of Pliny, were in the habit of fetching from
Bithynia, were in all likelihood the same as those similarly-
prepared strings of the modern Porcino which are sold du-
ring the winter in every market-place throughout Italy.*
Vittadini mentions a curious fact respecting them, viz. that
though they are composed of many different Boletuses, no
mischief was ever known to originate from their indiscrimi-
nate and very extensive consumption ; whence he concludes
that all the species of this genus are innocuous, or, at least,
that drying and cooking will extract any deleterious principles
which they may have originally contained ; — an inference, he
thinks, supported by the daily use among the peasantry of
certain districts of the B. luridus, which of all bad Boletuses
commonly passes for the worst, and l)y his having experi-
mented with it in large doses upon animals, who did not suffer
in consequence. I have eaten in England a small quantity
both oi B. Gi'evillei and of B. granulaius, which have much
of the flavour of the B. edulis ; of the B. subtomentosus (though,
on the authority of Trattinick, it is eaten in Germany) I have
no personal experience, nor do I recommend to the amateur
any species beyond the two universally eaten and approved of
on the Continent, viz. : — B. edulis and B. scaber.

B. edulis. — Box. Char. Pileus from six to seven inches
across, pulvinatc, smooth, with a thick margin, varying in
colour from light brown or brouze, to bay, dark brown, or

* If tl\e Suillus be indeed the same as the modern Porcino, as its name
■would imply, few who know how good it is will be disposed to pity Martial,
who laments his hard case, in having had to eat this fungus at his patron's table,
while he feasted on the Boletus, /. e. the Aff. Casareu-s. It would seem however
from tliis epigram, that the Suillus was not in Martial's time, what it now un-
questionably is, a favourite with the rich.

92 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF EXGLAND.

black, or a mixture of all these colours. The epidermis firmly
adherent to the flesh, that firm, and except the part in imme-
diate contact with the skin, which has a slight brown tint,
white; the under surface of the cap nearly fiat, often pre-
senting a circular pit or depression round the stalk; tubes at
first white, then yellow, lastly of an olive or yellow-green tint,
in the earlier stage of development (their free extremities then
lie against the side of the stalk) closed ; afterwards, as the cap
expands, stopped up with a waxy-looking material of a dirty
pearl colour. Sttm varying much in shape at different periods
of the growth of the Boletus, always thick and solid; at first
white, but soon changing to fawn colour, beautifully meshed
or mapped (especially on its upper portion) with reticulations
characteristic of this species. As the period for casting its
seed advances, the inferior surface of the cap swells out, the
waxy matter is absorbed, the tubes present deep and rounded
orifices to the e\e, and presently emit an abundant seminal
dust, of an ochraceous green hue (sometimes difficult to collect,
from the quantity of moisture exhaled with it), after wliich
both cap and stalk become flaccid, the tubes turn to a dirty
green, and the whole fungus falls rapidly into a state of
decomposition. The favourite sites for this Boletus are woods,
especially those of pines, oaks, and chestnuts ; it abounds in
autumn, but occurs in spring and occasionally in summer.
There is one variety, the jj'tnicola, whose name gives its where-
abouts, which differs from the foregoing, in having a moist,
somewhat sticky cap, a watery flesh clianging near the tubes
to a light yellow-green when bruised; the reticulations are
ill-marked in this species.

The Boletus eclulis cannot be mistaken for any other Boletus
because it alone presents all the following characters united,
viz. a cap of which the surface is smooth ; tubes the colour

DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES. 93

of which varies witli each period of its growth, beautiful and
singular reticulations of the stalk, especially towards the
upper portion, and a flesh which is white and unchanging.

The Boletus castaneus, which bears some little general re-
semblance to it, is at once distinguished by having a cottony
fibrillose stem without reticulations, a downy cap and dirty
yellow dust : neither can it be confounded with the B. suhto-
mentosus nor B. luridus, because in addition to many other
points of difference, both these change colour on being cut or
bruised.

As to the best manner of cooking B. edulis, this must be left
to the taste of the gourmet; in every way it is good. Its
tender and juicy flesh, its delicate and sapid flavour, render it
equally acceptable to the plain and to the accomplished cook.
It imparts a relish alike to the homely hash and the dainty
ragout, and may be truly said to improve every dish of which
it is a constituent. " Nihil tetigit quod non ornavit."
" Though much neglected in this country, it appears to be
a most valuable article of food. It resembles much in taste
the common mushroom, and is quite as delicate ; it abounds
in seasons when these are not to be found." [Berkeley .)

Modes of Cooking Boletus edulis. (Persoon.)
It may be cooked iu white sauce, with or without chicken,
in fricassee broiled or baked with butter, salad oil, pepper,
salt, chopped herbs, and bread-crumbs ; to which some add
ham or a mince of anchovy. It makes excellent fritters :
some roast it with onions (basting with butter), but as these
take longer to cook than the Boletus, this must not be put
down till the onions have begun to soften.

Boletus edulis Soup, made in Hungary. (Paulet.)
Having dried some Boletuses in an oven, soak them iu

94 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

tepid water, thickening with toasted bread, till the whole be of
the consistence of a puree, then rub through a sieve, throw in
some stewed Boletuses, boil together, and serve with the usual
condiments.

AGAEICUS CAMPESTRIS.

Section Pratella. Subdivision Psaliota, Fries.

Agaeicus campesteis, Linn.

" Oil croit ce champignon, clelice des festins,
Que I'art fait cliaque jour uaitre dans nos jardins." — Castel.

There is scarcely any one in England who does not feel
himself competent to decide on the genuineness of a mush-
room : its pink gills are carefully separated from those of a
kindred fungus Ag. Georgii, which are of a flesh-coloured grey,
and out of the pickings of ten thousand hands, a mistake is
of rare occurrence ; and yet no fungus presents itself under
such a variety of forms, of such singular diversities of aspect !
the inference is plain ; less discrimination than that employed
to distinguish this, would enable any who should take the
trouble, to recognize at a glance many of those esculent
species, which every spring and autumn fill our plantations
and pastures with pleuteousness. Neither is this left to be a
mere matter of inference ; it is corroborated in a singular man-
ner by what takes place at Rome ; here, whilst many hundred
baskets of what we call toadstools are carried home for the
table, almost the only one condemned to be thrown into the
Tiber, by the inspector of the fungus market is our own
mushroom •.'^ indeed, in such dread is this held in the Papal

* " II Sorregliatore fa gettare ai venditor! tutti i funglii fracidi e quelli che
crede nocivi, ed e assolutamente proibita la vendita dei cosi detti prateroli
buoni o cattivi die sieno." — Sangidnetti (extract from an unpublished letter).

DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES. 95

States, that no one knowingly would touch it. " It is reckoned
one of their fiercest imprecations," writes Professor Sangui-
netti, " amongst our lower orders, infamous for the horrible
nature of their oaths, to pray that any one may die of a
Pratiolo ; " and although it has been some years registered
among the esculent funguses of jNIilan and Pavia (on the
authority of Yittadini), it has not yet found its way into those
markets. Besides the general botanical characters which
apply to all varieties of Aff. campestris, almost every writer
has felt the necessity of pointing out several peculiarities,
belonging to each. Common to all are a fieshy pilcus, which
is sometimes smooth, sometimes scaly, in colour white, or of
diflferent shades of tawny, fuliginous, or brown; gills free, at
first pallid, then flesh-coloured, then pink, next purple, at
length tawny-black ; the stem white, full, firm, varying in
shape, furnished with a white persistent ring ; the spores
brown-black, and a volva which is very fugacious.

Var. A. edulis.

Tliis, Avhich is our button mushroom, lies at first concealed
in the earth, at which period it presents the appearance of a
puff-ball; at a second stage of its growth, it exhibits a white,
smooth, and continuous epidermis ; gills rounded off at their
posterior end ; a large, somewhat funnel-shaped, double ring,
free, and somewhat moveable on the stem, which is short and
thick. This, according to Yittadini, is the most sapid variety
of any.

Var. B. pratensis.

This differs from the last in the duskier hue of its pileus,
which is moreover scaly, and has ragged margins ; the gills
are ventricosc ; and the ring, which is subfugacious, is corti-
narious, i. e. of a cobweb texture, and reflexed ; the stalk is

96 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

longer than in the last species, and tapers towards the base ;
the colour of the flesh in this variety is vinous or even
sanguine.

Jar. c. silvlcola.

This differs from the two former in the following particu-
lars; the gills are pallid, taper equally at both ends, and come
off at a considerable distance from the stalk, which is sur-
rounded above by a very delicate ring, and is bulbous at the
base, tlie bulb showing traces of the volva.^

Var. D. anceps.
Such uncultivated mushrooms as when eaten even in small
quantity, produce violent derangement of the stomach and
intestinal canal, belong to a variety which, since it grows under
hedges, is sometimes called '^ the hedge mushroom ;" this,
to which, for distinction's sake, 1 have given the name of anceps,
is by no means of rare occurrence. In order to discriminate
it properly from the wholesome varieties, the first point to
notice is its extreme lightness as compared with its bulk, that
the gills are of a deeper and of a more lurid red than those of
var. eduJis, and in age less purple ; they are also less deliques-
cent. The flesh is more tough and not so juicy. The stem,
as in the var. sihicola, is curved and bulbous, but also fistu-
lose throughout. The ring complete, firm, broad, reflexed,
and persistent ; the odour disagreeable, and the taste insipid.
The form of the pileus that of an obtuse cone in young speci-
mens ; extremely flat in the middle state ; and more or less
concave in age. It seldom grows solitary. The mushroom

* " This is that yariety oi Ag. campestris wliich has been so often confounded
with the Amanita verna, and with these the Ag. alius rirosus ; all these fun-
guses, besides pi-eseuting a strong similarity in appearance, are found in the
same locality, and at about the same time of year." — l^itf.

DKSCKIPTION OF SPECIES, 97

proper, like other funguses, should be eaten fresh ; a few hours
making all the difference between its wholesomeuess or un-
wholesomeness : nor need this surprise us when wc consider how
many principles enter into its composition, how short is the
period of its existence, and how lial)lc it must be to enter into
new combinations in consequence. Vauquelin found in its flesh
fat, adipoccre, osmazomc, an animal matter insoluble in alcohol,
sugar, fungine, and acetate of potash. What a medley ! and what
wonder, if the changes induced during decomposition should
cause the indigestions suffered by those who have eaten them
in this state ! The mushroom, having the same proximate
principles as meat, requires, like meat, to be cooked before
these become changed. The Ag. campestris may be prepared
in a great variety of ways : they give a fine flavour to soups,
and greatly improve beef-tea ; — where arrow-root and weak
broths are distasteful to the patient, the simple seasoning of a
little ketchup will frequently form an agreeable change. Some
roast them, basting with melted butter and white (French)
wine sauce."^ In patties and vols-au-vent they are equally
excellent; in fricassees, as everybody knows, they are the
important element of the dish. Roques recommends in all
cases the removal of the gills before dressing, which though
it secures a more elegant-looking entremet, is only flattering
the eye at the expense of the palate.

Var. E. bovinus.

This variety differs from the A(/. Georgii and the type of
the species in size and other particulars. There are specimens
which measure fifteen inches across the pileus, with a stalk of
corresponding dimensions. The pileus is shaggy, like that of

* Ude complains that we have none of the hght French wines for sauces ex-
cept champagne. Cider or perry will, liowever, be found good substitutes.

H

98 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

the Ag. procerus, with epidermic scales, which are at first
nearly white, but in fully developed specimens, of a rich
tawny colour, like the Polyporus squamosus ; and sometimes
of a red-brown. The scales more depressed than in Ag. pro-
cerus, the gills not ventricose, equal at both ends, separated
from the stalk by a fossa or groove which runs round its apex ;
the stalk solid, attenuated at the very base, but thickened just
above it, a slightly vinous hue when bruised; flesh of ring
perfect, persistent, and hanging round the stalk like a sheet
of thin white kid ; into which a number of delicate silver
threads may be traced proceeding from the apex of stem.
The smell is powerful but agreeable, as also is the flavour ; no
part of the surface ever turns yellow. This variety is both
wholesome and well-flavoured ; as it is commonly known by
the peasants under the name of the " Ox-Mushroom,^^ I have
called it bovinus.

Receipt I. — " A la Provenqale."

Steep for two hours in oil, with some salt, pepper, and a
little garlic : then toss up in a small stewpan over a brisk
fire, with parsley chopped and a little lemon-juice.

Receipt II. — To stuff Mushrooms,

Take large mushrooms, full-grown, but not black ; remove
the gills, and place in lieu of them the following stuffing : —
bacon shredded, crumbs of bread, chopped herbs, and a little
garlic or eschalots (as for omelettes), salt, pepper, and a taste
of spice. Broil in paper as a Maintenon cutlet, moistening
with butter when necessary.

Receipt III. — Mushrooms " a la Marquis Cussi."
Take button mushrooms ; put to them a very small quan-

DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES. 99

tity of garlic, finely chopped ; toss up over a brisk fire with a
little butter; add some leraou-juice ; give them a few tm'iis ;
then add salt^ pepper, nutmeg, and a wine-glassful of the
richest brown gravy (Grande Espagnole) ; when the mush-
rooms are warmed through in this, add a couple of glasses of
Sauterue, simmer for ten minutes, and serve.

A homely mode of cooking Ag. campestris in Bucks, is to
cut up the buttons with pieces of bacon the size of dice, and
tlien to boil them in a dumpling.

Method of Cultivating.

The following method of cultivating mushrooms is given in
Paxton's ' Botanical Dictionary :' —

" Collect a sufficient quantity of fresh horse-droppings, as
free from straw as possible ; lay it in an open shed in a heap
or ridge ; here it will heat violently, and in consequence
should be now and then turned for sweetening ; after this has
subsided to moderation, it will be in a fit state for forming
into a bed. In the process of making the bed, the dung
should be put on in small quantities and beat firmly and
equally together, until it is the required size ; in this state let
it remain until the highest degree of heat to which it is ca-
pable of coming is ascertained, which may be readily done by
inserting a heat-stick, and pressing it with the hand ; if not
found violent, the spawn may be broken up into pieces of two
or three inches square, and put into holes about three inches
in depth by six inches asunder, over its surface; after this,
throw a very small quantity of well-broken droppings over the
whole. In this state let it remain for two or three weeks,
when a loamy soil may be put on about an inch or an inch
and a half thick, and gently patted Avith the spade. If the
temperature of the house be kept about sixty or sLxty-five

H 2

100 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

degrees, mushrooms may be expected in six weeks. It is not
■well to water the beds much, particularly when bearing ; it is
much better to throw a little water over the path and flues,
which will both improve the colour and the flavour of the
mushrooms, without being attended with those bad effects
frequently resulting from watering, viz. that of destroying
the young stock, and turning browner those already flt for
table.'-'— Person's Bot. Diet.

With regard to the spawn, it may be collected as recom-
mended in the French work cited by M. Roques, and kept
in a dry place till wanted ; or by digging about the roots of
growing mushrooms, and carrying away the earth which con-
tains it. The debris of a former mushroom-bed will always
furnish spawn for a new.

AGARICUS EXQUISITUS, noh.

Plate IV., Figs. 3, 4, and 5.

Section Psaliota, Fries. Subdivision Pratella, ibid.

Agaeictts GrEOEGli, Witherinff.

" L'Agarico esquisito e un fungo sano, oltremodo delicato e di
facilissima digestione." — Vitt.

" Its flavour is far inferior to that of the common mushroom." — Berkeley.

This fungus, called also the Horse Mushroom, from the
enormous dimensions"^ to which it sometimes attains, is for
the most part shunned by the English epicure ; it is also this
species from which many persons report themselves to have

* " Hopkirk records an instance of one weighing fire pounds six ounces, and
measuring forty-thi-ee inches in circumference. Withering mentions another
that weighed fourteen pounds." — Berkeley.

DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES. 101

suffered indigestion attended with violent colicky pains, when
they have eaten it by mistake for the Ag. campestris. It is
sold, under the name of White Caps, for making ketchup ; but,
notwithstanding its foreign name and reputation, most per-
sons will agree with Mr. Berkeley, in holding both its flesh
and its juices as greatly inferior to those of the Ay. camjyestris.
Our other name for it, that of St. George's Agaric, can have
no reference to the time of its appearance, as it is seldom met
with in England till after that saint's day ; it has, moreover,
the same name in Hungary, where the inhabitants look upon
it as a special gift from Saint George.

Its botanical characters arc the following : —
Pileus at first conico-campanulate, covered with floccosc
shreds, which are very fugacious ; when fully expanded, mi-
nutely squamulose, of a beautiful white, shining and smooth ;
turning yellow when bruised, and sometimes exuding a yellow
juice (Sibthorpe). GUIs numerous, broad, attenuated both
ways, but most so behind, free, of a pallid hue (grey flesh-
colour), during the growth of the fungus; later, clouded
brown-black; the imperfect gills obtuse behind. Stem long,
subcylindrical, slightly thickened at the base, white without,
stuffed within. Ring tumid and reflected over the stalk.
Flesh of both pileus and stalk compact, fibrous, and fragile.
Flavour and smell strong, and, according to Yittadini, agree-
able, but according to English i)erccption generally the re-
verse. Persoon pronounces this fungus to be superior to the
common mushroom in smell, taste, and digestibility, on which
accounts, he says, it is generally preferred in France. It is
to be cooked in the same way as that, and, if eaten in mode-
ration, will seldom be found to incommode the stomach or
offend the palate.

Locality. — Pastures, amidst thickets, under trees, generally

103 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

in large rings, reproducing itself every year in the same
situations.

AGARICUS DELICIOSUS.

Plate V., Fig. 4.

Orange Milk Agaric.

Subgenus Galorrheus.

Bot. Char. Gregarious. Pileus from three to four inches
across j colour dull orange-rufous, frequently zoned with con-
centric circles of a brighter hue, fleshy, firm, full of red orange
milk, which turns green on exposure to the air (as does the
whole plant when bruised) ; the margin at first involute and
downy, then expanded, afterwards depressed. Gills decur-
rent, forked at the base, always of the same colour as the
pileus, rather distant, substantial. Ston from two to three
inches high, slightly bent, stuffed in part, scrobiculate {i. e.
marked with little superficial pits) ; at the base strigose (i. e.
covered with short pointed hairs).

This is one of the best Agarics with which I am acquainted,
fully deserving both its name and the estimation in which it
is held abroad. Its flesh is firm, juicy, sapid, and nutritious.
It grows under old Scotch ftrs and pines, and occasionally in
considerable abundance, and is well worth the trouble of
searching for from September to the beginning of November,
when it is in season. There is but one fungus which it in
any way resembles, and as that one [Ag. torminosus) is acrid
and poisonous, the gatherer must pay particular attention to
the following characteristic difiference between the two, viz.
that the milk of the Ag. deliciosus is red and subsequently

DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES. 103

turns green, while that of the Ag. torminosus is white and un-
changeable.

Mr. Sowerby thus speaks in praise of this species : — " I
had one dressed ; it was very luscious eating, full of rich
gravy, with a little of the flavour of mussels/'

Sir James Smith, in his ' Tour,' says : — " The market of
Marseilles exhibited a prodigious quantity of Ag. deliciosus,
which really deserves its name, being the most delicious mush-
room known."

The Agaricus deliciosus may be served with a white sauce,
or fried ; but the best way to cook them, after duly seasoning
with pepper and salt, and putting a piece of butter upon each,
is to bake (in a closely-covered pie-dish) for about three-
quarters of an hour.

BOLETUS SCABER, Fries.
Plate VI. Figs. 1, 2.

" Fungo innocente e die nou puo cagioiiare alcun danno, non molto
riccrcato a motiTO, senza dubbio, del canibiamento di colore in cui ra
soggetto la sua came allorchfe viene i-otta o compressa." — T'itt,

Bot. Char. This fungus presents itself under two distinct
forms; in the first, the B. aurantiacus of Bull., the pikus
(generally rather downy, but sometimes rough) is of a beau-
tiful deep orange hue ; in the other it is cinereous.

In both cases its shape is that of a hemisphere of from three
to seven inches across, the surface of which becoiues viscid
when moist, and is minutely downy. In the first variety,
the stem is rough with black, in the second with orange
scales.

104 ESCULKNT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

Half a foot is its average height ; it is attenuated upwards.
While young, it is very thick in proportion to the pileus, and
exhibits frequently the traces of a floccose veil. The flesh is
thick and flabby^ of a dingy white, not greatly changeable in
young specimens, but deepening in colour when old, and ac-
quiring a vinous tint ;* the tubes are of a dirty white, those
that surround the stem being shorter than the rest.

The odour of this fungus is slight ; the taste subacid ; the
seminal dust copious, and tawny-ferruginous. It may be
cooked like the B. edulis, and has an agreeable flavour ; but
being more viscid in substance, it requires when stewed to be
thinned with water ; when dried, it loses all odour, and is then
insipid and unfit for food.

BOLETUS LURIDUS.
Plate VI. Figs. 3, 4, and 5.

Nothing can be more accurate than Mr. Berkeley's descrip-
tion of this species, which I therefore subjoin : — " Woods.
Summer and autumn. Common. Pileus two to six inches
broad, convex, expanded, minutely tomentose, olive, brick-
red, pinkish, cream-coloured, or ferruginous-brown. Flesh
more or less yellow, changing to blucf Tubes free, yellow

* " It is commonly supposed that such funguses as change colour afford
thereby a clear evidence of their noxious properties, and yet daily experience,
as far as it went, ought to have led to just the opposite conclusion. Almost
all the poisonous Agarics have a flesh that does not change colour, and we know
as yet of no Boletus, many of which do so change, that is really unsafe to eat."
—Vitt.

t This blue loses much of its intensity by long exposure to the air. It is
moreover to be remarked that in specimens, the flesh of wliich has been eaten
into by slugs or insects, no change of colour takes place.

DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES. 105

or greenish ; their orifices of a beautiful red or bright orange,
quite simple, round. Sjwj'es olivaceous-ochre. Stem very
variable in length, bulbous, toraentose, sometimes quite smooth,
red with ferruginous or the brightest yellow shades, solid,
generally more or less marked or reticulated with crimson-
red, very deleterious " (? *) .

AGARICUS PERSONATUS.

Plate I. Fig. 2.

Subgenus Tricholoma, Fries.

Blewitts.

I never met with this fungus in Italy ; it has not been de-
scribed by Vittadini, nor, that I am aware of, by any Italian
mycologist ; neither is it mentioned by Cordicr or Roques, in
their treatises on the esculent funguses of France. Extremely
common in England, this species has already found its way to
Covent Garden, where, according to Sowerby, it is sold under
the name of " Blewitts."t The favourite haunt of the Blewitt
is amidst grass, where it grows in clusters, or in large rings,
seldom app'eihring before October.

The botanical charact^s, as given by ]\Ir. Berkeley, are as
follows : — " Pileus from two to six inches broad, fleshy, firm ;
pale bistre or purple-lilac, occasionally violet ; convex, obtuse,
very smooth, and shining, as if oiled, but not viscid ; margin
involute, pulverulento-tomentose. Gills rounded ; free, nar-
row in front, paler than the pileus, sometimes violet, turning

* This requires further corroboration.

t Sc. "Blue nats"(?), as Ag. Qeorgii is called "Wliite Caps," and Ag.
Oread es "Scotch BonnetB."

106 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

to a dirty flesh-colour, especially when bruised ; stem from one
to three inches high, three-quarters of an inch thick, firm,
bulbous, solid, mottled within towards the apex, with watery
spots ; clothed more or less with villous fibrillse, tinged with
violet ; odour like that of Oreades, but rather overpowering ;
taste pleasant." As the " Blewitt " is apt to imljibe in wet
weather a great quantity of moisture, it should not be gathered
during rain ; when not water-soaked it is a fine firm fungus
Avith a flavour of veal, like which it is to be dressed en papil-
lottes with savoury herbs and the usual condiments, and the
more highly seasoned the better.

AGARICUS OREADES, Bolt

Plate VII. Fig. 4.

Subgenus Clitocybe. Section Scortei, Fries.

Scotch Bonnets.

Every one knows the Champignon, — that little bufl" fungus
which during so many months in the year comes up in succes-
sive crops, in great profusion after rain, and generally in
rings. These Champignons abound everywhere : this summer
(1847) Hyde Park was full of them ; amid the seared and much-
trodden grass they were continually tracing their fairy rings,
and in some instances they reached the very border of the
gravel walks. Independent of the excellent flavour of this
little mushroom, which is as good as that of most funguses,
two circumstances give it an additional value in a domestic
point of view, viz. the facility with which it is dried, and its
very extensive dissemination. When dried (two or three

DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES. 107

days' exposure to the air is generally sufficient to effect this),
the Ag. oreades may be kept for years without losing any of
its aroma or goodness, which on the contrary become im-
proved by the pi'ocess, so as, in fact, to impart more flavour
to the dish than would have been imparted by the fresh
fungus ; though it is not to be denied that tlie flesh then be-
comes coriaceous and less easy of digestion.* From the sad
accidents occasioned by persons mistaking other small and
poisonous Agarics growing in the neighbourhood of the
Champignon for the Champignon itself, this species is fre-
quently looked upon with suspicion, and not often eaten in
England. The Agaric the least unlike and most commonly
found growing in company with the Ag. oreades, is the Ag.
semilobatus, which is nearly allied to, if it be not the same as
the Ag. virosus of Sowerby. But as I have also heard of a
gentleman who intending to gather Champignons, and taking
home some Ag. dryophilus by mistake, was rendered vcr}' ill
by his repast, to prevent the recurrence of such mistakes for
the future, I here add the botanical characters, marking what
is peculiar to each in italics. Ag. dryophilus is represented in
PI. VII. fig. 5.

AG. DRYOPHILUS.

Solitary or tufted. Pileus from one to two inches broad, whitish, pinkish,
ycUowisli, or yellow-brown, flat, sometimes depressed .,&es\\j, \\\m, fragile, when
moist easily injured, of a tougher substance when dry. Gills soft, tender, nu-
merous, wliite, or pale yellow straw-colour. Stem shining, hollow, of the same
colour as the pileus, but towards the apex generally darker and of a redder
tinge.

* Tliis mushroom, famous for the flavour it imparts to rich soups and gi-avies,
is also used in the French " il la mode " beef shops in London, with the view of
heightening the flavour of that dish. As the aroma is dissipated by over-
cooking, it sliould be thrown in only a few minutes before sei-ving. The dried
Champignon is much more extensively used in France and Italy tliau it is in
England.

108 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

AG. OREADES.

In dense rings, or gregarious. Pileus smooth, fleshy, convex, suhuinhonate,
generally more or less compressed , or sinuate ; tough, coriaceous, elastic, wrin-
kled, when water-soaked brown, buff or cream-colour when dry ; the umbo
often remaining red-broivn, as if scorched. Gills distant, ventricose, of the same
tint as the pileus ov paler. Stem equal, solid, twisted, very tough andflhrous,
pure, silky, white ; base downy, somewhat rooting and attached to the roots of
grass.*

AG. SEMIGLOBATUS.

PUeus liemispherical, viscid wlien moist, shining and smooth as if rarnished,
obtuse, fleshy. Gills very broad, perfectly horizontal to the stem, broadly ad-
nate, with a little tooth, minutely serrated, mottled with purple-brown sporules.
Stalk very viscid, sliining when dry with a closely-matted sUkiness, fistulose,
sometimes bulbous with a hollow bidb ; ring generally complete, reflexed, often
dusted with the dark-coloured spores.

AGARICUS NEBULARIS.

Plate IV. Fig. 2.

Subgenus Clitocybe. Section Dasyphylli^ Fries.

Ag. pileolaeius, JBulliard.

" II est tres-agreable au gout." — BuUiard.

The following description was made from some among the

more characteristic specimens of a large supply which I

gathered this autumn (1847) near HajeSj from a spot where

they are in the habit of re-appearing regularly in October.

Pileus from two and a half to five inches across ; at first
depresso-convex ; when expanded nearly flat or broadly sub-
umbonatCj never depressed, margin at first involute and prui-
nose; occasionally somewhat waved and lobed, but generally

* Although the Ag. oreades be, properly speaking, a terrestrial and not a
parasitical fungus, still as it springs up amidst the roots of the grasses and
flom-ishes by depriving them of their supplies, the herbage in its neighbour-
hood is the first to scorch up and wither.

DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES. 109

regular in form ; smooth, viscid when moist, so that dead
leaves adhere to it j grey, brown at the centre, paler towards
the circumference. Flesh thick, white, unchanging ; gills
cream-colour, narrow, docurrcnt, close, their margins waved,
unequal, generally simple. Stem from two to four inches
long, from a quarter of an inch to an inch thick ; incurved at
the base, not rooting, but attaching by means of a floccose
down, round its lower portion and for one-third of its length,
a large quantity of dead leaves, by which the plant is held
erect ; subcqual, more or less marked with longitudinal pits,
firm externally, within of a softer substance. The odour
strong, like that of curd cheese.

This Agaric appears to be local in Italy; otherwise it could
scarcely have been omitted in Yittadini's work, nor by the
author of the article " Fungo " in the Venice edition of the
' Dizionario Classico di INIedicina :' add to which that I have
never met with it myself either at Florence, Pisa, Naples, or
Leghorn. That it grows in the neighbourhood of Rome is
certain, since I find it admirably delineated in a curious col-
lection of very old drawings which I purchased there. More-
over Professor Sanguinetti, of that city, writes in terms of
high commendation of this mushroom, which, he says, may be
discerned ifitei' alia, " by its peculiar odour and grateful taste :
when properly cooked it is equal to any of our funguses, rival-
ling not only the Ag. prunulus, but even the C<2sareus : as
few are aware of its good qualities, it seldom finds its way into
the Roman market." The Ag. nebulnris requires but little
cooking; a few minutes' broiling (si la Maintenon is best),
with butter, pepper, and salt, is sufficient. It may also be
delicately fried with bread crumbs, or stewed in white sauce.
The flesh of this mushroom is perhaps lighter of digestion
than that of any other.

110 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

CANTHAEELLUS CIBARIUS.

Plate VIII. Fig. 1.
Tribe Mesopus. Subdivision Agaricini, Fries.

" Sunt qiii hunc perniciosiun scripsere. Verum etiam latranti sto-
maclio eum comedi ; atque ex eo pulmenta parantur, quae si aridis
mortuorum oribus admoveantur peream ni reviviscerent !" — Bait.

" Jure inter sapidissimos fuiigos numeratur." — Fries.

No fungus is more popular than the above, though the
merits — nay, the very existence — of such a fungus at home is
confined to the Freemasons, who keep the secret ! Having
collected a quantity at Tunbridge Wells, this summer, and
given them to the cook at the Calverley Hotel to dress, I
learnt from the waiter that they were not novelties to him ;
that, in fact, he had been in the habit of dressing them for
years, on state occasions, at the Freemasons^ Tavern. They
were generally fetched, so he said, from the neighbourhood of
Chelmsford, and were always well paid for. Of the Cantha-
rellus, this summer (1847), the supplies were immense ! the
moss under the beech-trees in Buckhurst Park in particu-
lar, was so lavish of them, that a hamper might soon have
been filled, had there been hands to gather them. On re-
visiting the same park about five weeks later, they were still
continuing to come up, but in less abundance.

The botanical characters of the Cantharellus are as follow : —
When young, its stalk is tough, white, and solid ; but as it
grows this becomes hollow and presently changes to yellow ;
tapering below, it is efi'used into the substance of the pileus,
which is of the same colour with it. The pileus is lobed, and
irregular in shape, its margin at first deeply involute, after-
wards when expanded, wavy. The veins or plaits are thick,
subdistant, much sinuated, running some way down the stalk.

DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES. Ill

The flesh is white, fibrous, dense, " having the odour of apri-
cots" {Purton), or of ''plums" [Vitt.). The colour yellow,
that of the yolk of eggs, is deeper on the under surface ; when
raw it has the pungent taste of pepper ; the spores which are
elliptic, are of a pallid ochi'c colour (Vitt.).*- The Chantarelle
grows sometimes sporadically, sometimes in circles or segments
of a circle, and may be found from June to October. At first
it assumes the shape of a minute cone ; next, in consequence
of the rolling in of the margin, the pileus is almost spherical,
but as this unfolds, it becomes hemispherical, then flat, at
length irregular and depressed.

" This fungus," observes Vittadini, " being rather dry and
tough by nature, requires a considerable quantity of fluid
sauce to cook it properly." The common people in Italy dry
or pickle, or keep it in oil for winter use. Perhaps the best
ways of dressing the Cantharellus are to stew or mince it
by itself, or to combine it with meat or with other funguses.
It requires to be gently stewed and a long time to make
it tender ; but by soaking it in milk the night before, less
cooking will be requisite.

The Canth. cibarius is very abundant about Rome, where it
fetches, not being in great esteem, from twopence to two-
pence halfpenny a pound.

AGARICUS ATRA:\IENTARIUS, Bull
Plate IX. Figs. 1 and 2.
Subgenus Coprinus, Fries.
Bat. Char. Pileus fleshy, campanulate, margin uneven,

* I have, howerer, found them white.

112 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

colour greyish, then light brown, slightly hairy, often corru-
gated, sometimes scaly in the centre. Gills numerous, deep,
with clear veins, light brown, black in age, the edges grey or
white, free, obtuse behind. Stem about four inches high,
swollen at the base, piped, juicy, fibrous, marked with bands.

This is a common fungus in gardens, waste corners of
fields, and lanes, and occasionally growing on stumps of trees
in such situations : it is gregarious and caspitose, and occurs
both in spring and autumn. Young specimens afibrd a fine
ketchup.

AGAEICUS COMATUS.

Plate VII. Figs. 1, 2, and 3.

Subgenus Coprinus, Fries.

" A fungus in great request about Yia Reggio and Li;cca." — Puccinelli.

But. Char. Pileus cylindrical, breaking up into long scales,
campanulate, epidermis thin, flesh thick in the centre, very
thin and stringy at the margins. Gills numerous, quite free,
leaving a space round the top of the stem. Stem from four
to five inches high, rather bulbous at the base, stuffed with
fibres, brittle, ring moveable.

This fungus may be found from early spring till late in the
autumn, in meadows and waste places.

When used for making ketchup or for the table, only young
specimens should be selected.

DESCRIPTION OF SPKCIES. 113

AGARICUS HETEROPHYLLUS, Fries.

Plate III. Figs. 3 and 4.

Subgenus Russula, Scopoli.

MILD RUSSULE. RUSSULE MITES, auct.

"Non mcno sicuro c gustoso del Cosarco c del Porcino." — Tl/t.

It is of the utmost importance that those who gather fun-
guses for the table, shouhl be accurately acquainted with the
different species composing this genus; its members are so
abundantly distributed ; some of them form so excellent and
delicate a food, whilst others produce such deleterious effects
on the economy, that they are well entitled to a diligent and
careful attention. The limits of this work will not permit an
accurate discrimination of all the species, which would require
a long monograph to themselves ; but I have endeavoured
to point out amidst those of most frequent occurrence, the
three which may be selected with profit for the table, and
some others which are nearly allied, from which we must be
careful to separate them.

The three mild-flavoured Russula are the Ac/. heterophyUus,
Ag. ruber, and Ag. viresccm ; the botanical characters of the
first are as follows : —

Ag. heteropltyllus.
Pileus subirregular, from three and a half to four and a half
inches across, at first convex, then more or less excavated
towards the centre ; for the most part smooth, the epidermis
covering it, more or less moist, never scored or fissured, but
exhibiting a continuous surface, marked by very small raised
lines, radiating as from the centre, and frequently crossing so
as to present a very minute finely reticulated meshwork, some-

I

HI- ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

times slightly zoned, aflhering to the flesh of the ^i/ews, which
peels away with it iu flakes resembling asbestos. It is very
various in colour, being found of all shades of yellow^, lilac,
azure, green, and sometimes a mixture of these in different
parts. The margin even, i. e. not striate, irregularly elevated
and depressed. The ffills are watery white, rather numerous
and thick, ascending, tapering away at their stalk extremity,
rather broader at the other, some simple but many of them
forked at the base, in a few instances branched ; the imperfect
gills very few, irregular, occasionally broadly adhering to the
side of a perfect gill ; the stalk naked, variable as to length
and size, equal or attenuated slightly at the base, white like
spermaceti, externally rugulose, and meshed, like the pileus,
with minute meandering lines, internally stuffed with a com-
pact subfriable medullary substance, Avhich, as the fungus
grows old, lireaks up here and there into sinuses which gradu-
ally coalesce, till at last the whole stem becomes hollow. The
parenchyma is compact, but not thick, and does not change
colour when cut. The spores white, round, and very abun-
dant. The taste sweet and nutty. Odour none.

This excellent fungus, which Vittadini pronounces to be
not surpassed for fineness of flavour by Am. Ccesarea or by B.
edulis, wdth either of w hich it is equally wholesome, has been
introduced by Roques into the houses of many of his friends
in the environs of Paris, some of whom prefer it to A(/. cam-
pestris : an opinion shared by several of our own friends on
this side the Channel. It grows in great abundance during
the summer months generally, and this year nowhere more
plentifully than under the Elm-trees in Kensington Gardens.
There must be no delay in dressing it, otherwise insects, who
are as fond of it as we are, appropriate it to their larvse, which
in a few hours will utterly consume it ; the flesh, being very
tender, requires but slight cooking.

DESCRIPTION- OF SPFXIES. ]15

Agaricus ruber, Schoefter. Ag. griseua, Persoou.

" L'Agarico Rosso e uiio clei funghi pin dclicati e gustosi die si
conoscono." — J'Ht.

Bot. Char. Pileus rather fleshy, at first hemispherical, then
obtusely convex, and, when fully expanded, more or less exca-
vated towards the centre. The margins at first even, at len2;th
tubercnlo-sulcate, that is, marked with lines similar to those
left on the skin after cupping. The epidermis dry in dry
weather, but very sticky in moist, of various hues, tawny-
purple, olive-green, ochraceous-yellow, or several of these
united, and generally darkest at the centre ; peeling off readily
without laceration of the flesh. The flesh white, when cut
slightly rufescent, when dry cream-coloured. The gills fragile,
cream-coloured, connected Ijclow l^y transverse plaits or veins,
thick and broad, but tapering away towards the stalk, really
simple, though a few imperfect gills interposed between the
entire ones, and attaching themselves to their sides give these
sometimes the appearance of being forked ; the stalk equal,
white, or blotched here and there with purple stains, stuffed,
brittle, and Vittadini adds, '^ long,^' which is not my experi-
ence of it ; when young it is so short as to be entirely hid by
the globose head of the unexpandcd pileus. The flesh incon-
siderable but compact ; sporules pale-buff.

The Ag. ruber, the Colomba rossa of the Tuscans, and Rolher
TiiubUng of Schocflbr, is a complete wood-\A^eo\\ in its haunts ;
it grows very abundantly, may be gathered from July to a
very late period in the autumn, and is as delicate and light of
digestion as the Russula last described. It may be readily
distinguished from Ag. alufaceus by the different colour of its
gills and spores, which in that species are buff, but in the Ag.
ruber cream-coloured : moreover the greater thickness of the

I 2

116 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

substance of the pilcus of Ag. alutacem, the margin of which
is deeply sulcate, even at an early period of its development,
and the pungent acrid taste, which is seldom wanting, are
further means of distinguishing it from Ag. ruber. Ag. erne-
ticus differs from it in having unequal snow-wliite gills, and in
extreme acrimony of taste.

Agaricus virescens, Schceff. : the Verdettc ? Ag. bifidus, Bull.
Russula ceruginosa, Persoon.

" La came di questo Agarico e tenera e di sapore gi-atissiino." — Vitt.

Pileus at first flatly convex; at length depressed towards
the centre with an even margin ; epidermis whitish, fibrous,
continuous and firmly adhering to the flesh, dry, but coated
over with a thick stratum of opaque meal, which gradually
breaking as the pileus expands maps it in a singular and quite
characteristic manner with a series of irregular polygonal
figures, in greater or less relief according to the thickness of
the coating; its colour varies slightly but is generally made
up of some admixture of green and yellow, commuuicating to
the surface, as Bulliard has remarked, a farinaceous or mouldy
appearance. The gills of some thickness, very brittle, white,
sublanceolate, generally simple, but occasionally forked, the
imperfect gills interspersed without order amongst the entire
ones; the sfa/k equal, short, its centre stuffed with cottony
fibres : somewhat compact and elastic. According to Thore,
as quoted by Persoon, this Agaric may be cultivated.^

* " Dans le depai'teinent des Landes on seme rAgai'icus Palomet. Pourcela
on se eontente d'arroser la terre d'lm bosquet plante en chenes avec de I'eau
dans laquelle on a fait bouillii" une gi-ande qnantite de ces champignons ; la cul-
ture n'exige d'autres soins que d' eloigner de ces lieux les chevaux, les pores etles
betes a comes, qui sont tres-friandes de ces plantes ; ce mojen reussit toujours,
mais nous laissons aux physiciens h, nous expliquer pourquoi I'ebuUitiou n'a pas
fait niourir les germes." — Thore.

DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES. 117

It is an exceedingly delicate fungus, but not very common
in England. The best way of cooking it, according to Vitta-
dini, is on the gridiron ; tlie peasants about ]Milan are in the
habit of putting it over wood embers to toast, eating it after-
■wards with a little salt, in which way it has a savoury smell,
and a taste like that of the Cancer asfacus ; when fresh it is
without odour, l)ut acquires a very strong one while drying,
which he compares to that of salt meat. jNIr. Berkeley quotes
Roques' authority as to its being eaten in France; Vittadini,
without giving any authority, states that it is eaten in England.
It loses but little of its volume in drying.

ACRID RUSSUL.E. RUSSULiE ACRES, auct.
Agaricus aluiaceus, Persoon.

Three acrid Russules remain to be described, Ag. alutaceus,
Ag. emeticus, Ag. sanguineus ; all three common, though not
perhaps so common as the mild ones, and all to be avoided.
The first, A. alutaceus. Fries, is ranked by Vittadini among
the safe kinds, he even affixes a misplaced note of admiration
after his epithet " esculentus ! " and describes it even when
raw as " a dainty food, possessed of a most agreeable flavour."

iNIr. Berkeley, who reports it esculent when young, remarks
that individual specimens occur, which prove almost as acrid
as the Ag. emdiciis itself; my own experience of it in England
is, that whether young or old, it is always acrid when raw."^
I have never tried it dressed, which might possibly extract

* The reader must not conclude from this that soil, any more than age, will
account for such differences ; there is a variety of Ag. alufaceiis, described by
Vittadini, which he says is " endowed with a very caustic taste, smelling of
pepper, and to be avoided." The kind generally found in England is probably
the same as this, which BuUiard has described inidcr the name of Ag. ahi-
taceus acris.

118 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

its noxious qualities, as Vittadini reports to have been the
case with a caustic variety which he subjected to this test ;
but since even then, on his own showing, it proved indiges-
tible, I would advise no one to try this species, especially
when there are so many others, the good qualities of which are
known.

It is easy to distinguish A. alutaceus from any of the fore-
going species ; to do this it is only necessary to look at the
gills, which, in place of being, as in these, white, watery white,
or cream-coloured, are of a rich buflF; pileus about three inches
broad, pink or livid olive, smooth on the surface, and viscid in
wet weather ; the margin at first even, but in age striate ; the
gills broad, equal, slightly forked, ventricose, free, connected
by veins ; the sporules rich buff; the stem one and a half inches
long, blunt, surface longitudinally Avrinkled or grooved, solid
without, spongy within, varying from white to buff.

Agaricus emeticus, Schoeffer.

Reports concerning the qualities of this fungus differ widely,
some asserting it to be a most deleterious species, of which
the mischief was not to be removed by cooking, whilst others,
on the authority of dogs whom they persuaded to eat some,
pronounced it innoxious. In this state of uncertainty Vitta-
dini, for the sake of science, and perad venture of adventure
also, determined to test its effects upon himself; he had pre-
viously given at different times large doses, of from six to
twelve ounces, to dogs, both in the crude state and also
cooked ; but without result. " Still," says he,* " thinking that
though dogs might eat Ag. emeticus with impunity, it might yet

* " Sospettando ragionevolmentc dietro le csperienze del Krapfe delRoques
che questo fungo potcsse esser nocivo all' iiomo e uon agli animali, ho voluto
anch'io sperimentarlo su di me stesso." — Vili.

DESCRIPTIOX OF SPECIES. 119

prove injurious to man, I took five specimens of fair dimen-
sions, and having fried, I ate them with the usual condiments ;
but though pains were taken to have them delicately prepared
{ottimamente cucinati), they still retained their acrid bitter
taste, and were most distasteful to the palate.^' The reader
will be glad to learn, that the only incouvenieuee suffered by
this bold self-experimentalist w^as a slight sense of prajcordial
uneasiness accompanied with flatulence, — effects attributable
entirely, as he believed, to the rich mode in which his dish
was prepared : though, more timid apparently for others'
safety than his own, he particularly adds, "though I have
clearly established to my own satisfaction, the complete inno-
cuousness of the A. emeticus ; still, as there are, or are said to
be, other Russvia of highly deleterious properties and closely
allied, the mistaking which for it might be paid for by the
loss of life, the safer rule is to abstain from all such as have
acrid juices."

The botanical characters of Ag. eitielkus are as follow : —
Pi/cms more or less rosy, flesh compact, margin striate, epi-
dermis adherent ; ffills very brittle, arched in front, attenuated
towards the stalk, connected below by transverse plaits, gene-
rally simple, a few forked, the imperfect gills rounded off be-
hind ; the slalk, which is compact, of equal dimensions, and
white, is generally more or less stained with red spots of the
same hue as the pileus ; in the growing fungus, where the
epidermis has been removed and the flesh eaten by insects,
this soon acquires a tint as lively as that of the skin itself;
generally I have remarked that the erosions of insects and
slugs do not produce any change of colour, even in the spe-
cies notorious nnder other circumstances for manifesting such
a change; thus the flesh of the Aff. rubescens, which turns
red when it is divided, may be frequently seen half eaten

120 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

through, exhibiting a white flesh ; and the same is the case
with the Boletus luridus, the flesh of which, though eroded,
remains white till it is broken through,

Ag. sanguineus, Bull.
This fungus, of which the general facies and most of the
botanical characters, as well as the taste and other qualities,
are similar to those of the last-mentioned Agaric, difiers from
it in having its gills for the most part forked, many smaller
ones being interposed between those that are entire, also in
7iot having its margin striate, as the Ag. eineticus when mo-
derately expanded always has. The smell of this fungus,
which is only developed in drying, is, according to Vittadini,
" most agreeable,^' resembling that of fresh meal ; to me its
odour is unpleasant and like that of sour paste.

Ag. acris minor.

Pileus one or two inches across, sticky, of a light muddy -
pink, the epidermis peeling ofl" easily and entire from the flesh,
margin not striate, flesh soft, white, and cellular ; gills aduate,
white, forked, brittle, slightly ventricose ; the margin sub-
denticulate; i\iG stalk of spermaceti-whiteness and appearance,
solid within, brittle, the internal texture looser than the ex-
ternal ; the surface minutely rugulose, li-H inch, by2-4 lines
thick, intensely acrid. In meadows, throughout the summer;
abundant.

DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES. 121

AGARICUS OSTREATUS, Jacq.
Plate X.

Subgenus Pleuropus, Persoon. Subdivision Concharia,

Fries.

"L'Ag. ostreato vienc giustanicnte per la sua bonta cd innoccnza
amesso tra i fuiighi comniostihili, de' qiiali i; pure pcrniossa la veudita
sullo pubbliclie piazza." — VUt.

Bot. Char. Cicspitose.* Pileus fleshy, smooth, blackish,
then cinereous, at length paler; epidermis strongly adherent,
flesh fibrous, moderately firm ; gills anastomosing behind, not
glandular, white ; stem sublateral or wanting. On dead trees.f
Season, spring and autumn.

As there are some singular diflerences presented by this
fungus in regard to development, odour, taste, and the colour
of the spores, which seem almost sufficient to entitle it to be
divided into two distinct species, I shall first describe the more
ordinary form, as given by INIr. Berkeley, and then mention
the variations from it.

" Imbricated, large ; pileus subdimidiate, very thick and
fleshy ', flesh white, dusky towards the surface ; one inch
deep, the border at first fibrillose ; margin involute, as the
pileus expands the white fibrill?e vanish, and the colour
changes to bistre ; margin paler and rimulosc, the whole sur-
face shining and satiny when dry, soft and clammy when moist ;
gills broad, here and there forked,"^ standing out sharp and
erect like the fine flutings of a column, winding down the
stalk to diff'crcnt lengths, and those that reach the bottom
forming there a beautiful raised mesliwork highly characteris-

* I lately foiuid a single specimen of it, wliicli Vittadini says is rare,
t On the Poplar and Willow, according to Vittadini ; Apple andLabunium,
on the autliority of Berkeley ; Elm and Ash, on my own.
X In some speciiuens the gills are all solitary.

122 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

tic of this species, " dirty (pure ?) white, the edge serrated,
umber ; taste and smell like that of Ag. jiersonatus, -which it
resembles somewhat in colour ;" '' spores white like those of
the Polyporus suaveolens."* The points of difference in those
which departed from the ordinary type were as follows :t — first,
in specimens gTowing close together and all equally exposed
to the light, the colour of all at the same period of growth
was not the same, being a delicate waxy-white in some of the
specimens, in others, a light-brown. Secondly, whereas this
fungus is generally "invested during infancy with a white
lanugo or down/'X I observed the young Agarics, which pre-
sented themselves at first as small semitransparent eminences
rising irregularly from a common stalk, and not unlike in ap-
pearance the blisters on a chalcedony, to be thickly coated
with a light-blue varnish in place of it ; the dry debris of
which varnish continued to adhere to the surface of the pileus
for some time afterwards. Thirdly, the complexion of the
spores, commonly described as lohite, was in these specimens
pale-rose. Fourthly, they exhaled the strong and peculiar
odour of Tarragon ; and, finally, in place of being the delicate
fungus at table which in July I had always found it, these
specimens afforded a distasteful food. The Ag. ostreatus re-
sists cold in a remarkable manner ; the circumstance of its
being found in winter has procured for it the trivial name of
Gelon. Ag. ostreatus is found on the barks of many sorts of
trees, and wherever it has once been it is apt to recur fre-
quently afterwards. It may be dressed in any of the more
usual ways ; but as the flesh is rather over-solid and tenacious,
it is all the better for being cooked leisurely over a slow fire.

* Vitt.

+ It M probable that the varieties here referred to belonged to Ag. euos-
mus, B. Care must be taken to distinguish between the two, as Aff. euosimis is
an unsafe species. — Ed. X Vitt.

DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES. 123

AGARICUS RUBESCENS, Fersoo7i.

Plate XI. Figs. 3, 4, and 5.

Subgenus 1. Amanita.

"Non altrinicnti del Ccsareo delicato e sano." — Jltt.

Bot. Char. Pileiis covered with warts of different sizes;
margins even, convex, flesh turns obscurel)' red when cut or
bruised, slightly moist and shining ; gills attenuated behind ;
stem at first stuffed, in age becoming hollow, bulbous, some-
times scaly ; ring wide, marked with strise ; spores nearly
elliptical ; smell strong ; taste not unpleasant.

This is a very delicate fungus, which grows in suflBcient
abundance to render it of importance in a culinary point of
view. It makes excellent ketchup. Cordicr roixjrts it as one
of the most delicate mushrooms of the Lorraine; and Eoques
speaks equally well of it. It generally grows in woods, par-
ticularly of oak and chestnut, both in summer and autumn.
No fungus is more preyed upon than this by mice, snails, and
insects.

MORCHELLA ESC'ULENTA, Bill.

Plate XII. Figs. 6 and 7.

Tribe 3. Mitrati.

Morell.

" Sommamcnte riccrcata." — VM.

Every one knows the Morell, that expensive luxury which
the rich are content to procure at great cost from our Italian
warehouses, and the poor are fain to do without. It is less

124 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

generally known that this fungus, though by no means so
common with us as some others, (a circumstance partly at-
tributable to the prevailing ignorance as to when and where
to look for it, or even of its being indigenous to England,"^)
occurs not unfrequently in our orchards and woods, towards
the beginning of summer. Roques reports favourably of some
specimens sent to him by the Duke of Athol; and others,
from different parts of the country, occasionally find their
way into Covent Garden market. The genus Morchella com-
prises very few species, and they are all good to eat. Persoon
remarks, that though the Morell rarely appears in a sandy
soil, preferring a calcareous or argillaceous ground, it fre-
quently springs up on sites where charcoal has been burnt or
where cinders have been thrown.

Morchella esculenta.

Bot. Char. Pileus very various in shape and hue, the sur-
face broken up into little sinuses or cells, made by folds or
plaits of the hymenium, which are more or less salient, and
constitute the so-called ribs. These ribs are very irregular,
and anastomose with each other throughout ; the pileus hol-
low, opening into the irregular hollow stem. Spores pale-
yellow.

Morchella semilibera.

Bot. Char. This may be known from the M. esculenta by
being, as its name imports, half free, i. e. having the pileus
for half its length detached from the stalk. Spores are pale-

* A countryman, last spring (1847), stumbled upon a large quantity in the
neighbourhood of Chiselluirst, Kent, and being struck with their appearance
gathered some, and took them to a medical man of the place, who, not recog-
nizing the plant, suffered tlie whole to perish ! He has since been made aware
of his mistake.

DESClllPTION OF SPECIES. 125

yellow. Odour, at first feeble, becomes stronger in drying.
Occurring less frequently than the last, and much less sapid.
Neither of these funguses should be gathered after rain, as
they are then insipid and soon spoil. "^

M. Roques says the ^lorell may be dressed in a variety of
ways, both fresh and dry, with butter or in oil, au gras or a
la crhne. The following receipts for cooking them arc from
Persoon.

1st. Having washed and cleansed them from the earth
which is apt to collect between the plaits, dry thoroughly in a
napkin, and put them into a saucepan with pepper, salt, and
parsley, adding or not a piece of ham ; stew for an hour, pour-
ing in occasionally a little broth to prevent burning ; when
sufficiently done, bind with the yolks of two or three eggs,
and serve on buttered toast.

2nd. Morelles a Vltalienne.— Having Avashed and dried,
divide them across, put them on the fire with some parsley,
scallion, chervil, burnet, tarragon, chives, a little salt, and
two spoonfuls of fine oil. Stew till the juice runs out; then
thicken svith a little flour; serve with bread-crumbs and a
squeeze of lemon.

3rd. Stuffed Morells. — Choose the freshest and whitest
Morells, open the stalk at the bottom ; wash and wipe them
well, fill with veal stuffing, anchovy, or any rich farce you
please, securing the ends, and dressing between thin slices of
bacon. Serve with a sauce like the last.f

* It is a common fraud in the Italian market for the salesmen to soak them
in water ; wliieli increases their weight, but spoils their flavour.

+ In the Roman market the Morell is held in little esteem, and sells for
4<f. or 5rf. per lb. Three varieties of the esculenta are brought in by the
" Asparagarii," i. e. the peasants who gather the wild Asparagus on tlie hills ;
viz. tlie M. rotunda, wliich is almosf globose, M. vulgaris, and M. fulva,
which is of a tawnv colour.

126 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

HYDNUM REPAXDUM, Linn,

Plate YIII. Figs. 3 and 4.

Subgeuus Mesopus, Fries.

" The general use made of this fungus tlu'oughout France, Italj, and
Germany leaves no doubt as to its good qualities." — Eoques.

Bot. Char. Pileus fleshy, tawny, red, smoothly tomentose,-
very irregular in shape, from two to five inches across, lobed
or undulated ; margin vaulted, acute, wavy ; flesh white,
turning yellow when cut, if bruised becoming brown-red;
spines pale-yellow, unequal, thick-set, apices canino-denticulate
or conical, straight or slightly ungulate; occasionally bifid;
shorter and more obtuse towards the stalk, on the upper part
of which they are somewhat decurrent, leaving small forami-
nules when detached ; stem at first white, then tawny ; two
inches long, solid, of vai'iable thickness (from half an inch to
two inches) more or less flattened, papillated above with the
rudiments of spines which have aborted ; spores round, white,
taste when raw at first pleasant, but presently of a saline
bitter, like Glauber salts, somewhat peppery, and stnell like
that of horse-radish.

This fungus occurs principally in woods, and especially in
those of pine and oak; sometimes solitary, but more fre-
quently in company and in rings. In Italy (where the spines
have procured for it the name of " Steccherino," or Hedge-
hog), it is brought into the market and sold promiscuously
with the Chantarelle, to which in colour and in some other
respects it bears a resemblance. There is no fungus with
which this is likely to be confounded ; once seen, it is recog-
nized at a glance afterwards, and may be gathered fearlessly.

According to Paulet, Persoon, and Vittadini, the Hyd. re-

DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES. 127

pandum should be cooked for a long time, and with plenty of
sauce, otherwise, being deficient in moisture, it is apt to be-
come rather tough; when well stewed it is an excellent dish,
witli a slight flavour of oysters; it makes also a very good
puree. Vittadini places it among the most delicate of the
funguses of Italy.

FISTULINA HEPATICA, Fries.
Plate XII. Figs, 1 and 2.

" Fungus pauperibus esculent us." — Schaff".

This fungus, which, in the earlier stages of its development,
frequently resembles very closely a tongue in shape, structure,
and general appearance, presents later a dark, amorphous,
grumous-looking mass, bearing a still more striking likeness
to liver. Thus, seen while young, and just beginning to bud
out from the oak,* its papillated surface, regular shape, and
clear fibrous flesh make it an object of interest to many who,
introduced to it at an advanced period of growth, can hardly
be brought to believe that the blackened misshapen mass, that
looks like liver, and that deeply stains the fingers with an un-
sightly red fluid, can indeed be the same plant. It has, from
the earliest-recorded accounts, been designated by names
pointing to these resemblances : Ccsalpinus calls it Lwguce ;
AYallemb, Buglossus qiiercimis ; the vulgar name in Italy is
" Lingua quercina," or " Lingua di castagna." It constitutes
a genus by itself.

* Though the F. hepatica grows both upon oak and chestnut trees, this dif-
ference in its origin never perceptibly affects the plant, which is equally good,
whether it be gathered from one or from the other.

128 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

Bot. Char. Pileus confluent with the stalk : at first studded
on the upper side with minute papillae (the rudiments of tubes),
which afterwards disappear ; flesh succulent, fibrous, like beet-
root in appearance, with a vinous smell and a slight acid
taste ; tubes continuous with the fibres of the receptacle, un-
equal, very short, small, cylindrical, ochraceous-rufescent ; at
first with closed pores, but as they elongate they become
patent; colour at first a dry dusky white, afterwards a
yelloAvish-red ; the whole surface more or less sticky, with a
gelatinous secretion exuding from it; sporidia ochraceous-
green, and matured at different times from the unequal length
of the tubes. This fungus varies in size from that of a small
kidney to an irregular mass of many pounds' w^eight, and of
several feet in circumference. I recently picked a specimen
which measured nearly five feet round, and weighed upwards of
eight pounds ; but this is nothing to one found by Mr. Graves,
which, on the authority of Mr. Berkeley, weighed nearly
thirty pounds.

The Fistulina hepatica, which Schoeffer calls the Poor Man's
fungus^ " fungus pauperibus esculentus," deserves indeed the
epithet if we look to its abundance, which makes it an acqui-
sition to the labouring class wherever it is known ; but that it
is in any other sense fitted for the poor, or to be eaten by
those only who can purchase no other food, is Avhat I cannot
subscribe to. No fungus yields a richer gravy, and though
rather tough, when grilled it is scarcely to be distinguished
from broiled meat. The best way to dress it if old, is to stew
it down for stock, and reject the flesh, but if young, it may
be eaten in substance, plain, or with minced meat; in all
cases its succulency is such that it furnishes its own sauce,
which a friend of ours, well versed in the science of the table,
declares each time he eats it to be " undeniably good.'^

DESCRIPTION OF SPECIKS. 129

In England tlie F. hepatica grows principally on old oak-
trees, and may be found throughout the summer in great
abundance.

AGARICUS ORCELLA,* Bull

Plate XI. Figs. 1 and 2.

Section Mouceron, Fries.

" Scnzn flubbio uno do' miglidri funglii indigciii." — Jltf.
" Esculcntvis !" — Ibid.

This is a very delicate mushroom ; it grows either solitary
or in company, and sometimes in rings, succeeding occa-
sionally a crop of Ag. oreades and Ag. prunulus which had
recently occupied the same site. Its general appearance,
once recognized, is such as to render the mistaking it for any
other species afterwards unlikely, whilst the least attention to
its botanical characters makes it impossible to do so. Its
irregular lobed pileus with smooth undulated borders, its de-
current gills, and short solid stem are so many particulars in
■which at first it might seem to resemble in outline the Canth.
cib., with which it has, however, nothing else in common.
It bears a nearer general resemblance to several of the section
LnctiJJuus of Persoon, but the exudation, or not, of milk
would be conclusive in any doubtful case, to say nothing of its
peculiar smell of cucumber rind, or syringa leaf,t in which
respect it resembles no other fungus. The surface is as soft
and smooth to the touch as kid, except in wet weather, when

* Whence the Tcrnaciilar names, " Orgella," " Orgelle," and " Oreille."
t Most authors compare this odour to that of fresli meal, but as several
friends think with me that the above comparison is more accurate, I have ven-
tured to substitute it.

130 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

it becomes more or less sticky ; the size, which does uot admit
of much variation, is from two to three inches across ; whilst
young the borders are rolled inwards towards the gills, the
stalk is in the centre, and somewhat enlarged at the base;
but as the fungus grows the borders vuiroll themselves, one
side grows more rapidly than the other, the stalk becomes, in
consequence, eccentric, and this eccentricity is often rendered
greater by a lateral twist towards the base. The gills, Avhich
at first are white, assume later a pale salmon hue ; Berkeley
adds that " they are more or less forked, covered with very
minute conical papillae ending in four spiculse;" those that
are entire taper away posteriorly and terminate on the stalk,
but the imperfect ones are rounded off midway ; the spores
are elliptic, and of the colour of brown-holland.^

This mushroom is found occasionally, throughout the sum-
mer, but autumn is the season to look for it, amidst the grass
of woods and pastures, where it abounds. It should be eaten
the day it is gathered, either stewed, broiled, or fried with egg
and bread-crumbs, like cutlets. "When dried, it loses much of
its volume and acquires " a very sweet smell," — " un' aroma
suavissimo" {Viti.).

HELVELLA CRISPA, Fries.

HELVELLA LACUNOSA, Afz.

Tribe Mitrati, Fries.

" Pub essere con vantaggio raccolta ed agli stessi xisi delle spugniole
destinata." — Vitt.

All Helvellcs are esculent, have an agreeable odour, and bear

* Mr. Berkeley says rose-coloured ; Vittadini pale rust-colour ; but I find
that on placing a watchglass thickly coated with spores on fine brown-hoUand,
the colours very nearly correspond.

DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES. 181

a general resemblance in flavour to the Morell. The Helvella
crispa, or pallid Helvella of Scopoli and Fries, is, it seems, " not
uncommon,"* and the Helvella lacimosa, or cinereous Helvella
of Afzel (on each of Mhose heads respectively Sowerby and
Schoeffer place an inappropriate mitre), are both indigenous.
They are thus succinctly but excellently described by Mr.
Berkeley.

Helvella crispa, Fries.

Bot. Char. Pileus whitish, flesh-coloured or yellowish, de-
flexed, lobcd, free, crisped, pallid ; stem fistulose, costato-la-
cunose, 3-5 inches high, snowy- white, deeply lacunose and
ribbed, the ribs hollow.

Helvella lacunosa, Afzel.

Bot. Char. P?7eM5 inflated, lobed, cinereous,t lobes deflexed,
adnate, stem fistulose, costato-lacunose ; stem white or dusky.

This Helvella is not so common as the last, neither is it so
sapid. They both grow in woods and ou the stumps of old
trees. Bendiscioli places them, for flavour, before the Morell.
but this is not the general opinion entertained of them.

Helvella esculent a, Pers.

Plate XII. Figs. 3, 4, and 5.

Bot. Char. Pileus inflated, irregular, undulated, gyroso-
rugose, of a rich dark-brown colour, margin united with the

* Berk. Brit. Fung.

t Tlie lobes are at first nearly white, afterwards of an ash-grey colour on the
under surface ; the upper, or that which bears the seed membrane, continuing
white.

K 2

132 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND,

stem ; stem white or dusky. In plantations of fir and chestnut
adjoining Weybridge Heath, in Surrey. It has not yet been
foinid elsewhere in Britain.

VERPA DIGITALIFORMIS, Persoon.

PEZIZA ACETABULUM, Linn.

Tribe Cupulati.

These funguses are very similar in their properties to the
Helvell<E ; that is, are not to be despised when one cannot get
better, nor to be eaten when one can. " The Verpa," says
Vittadini, " though sold in the market, is only to be recom-
mended when no other esculent fungus offers, which is some-
times the case in spring." The Peziza acetabulum is utterly
insipid, and depends entirely for flavour upon the sauce in
which it is served. As they are rare in England, I shall
merely give the botanical character of each.*

Verjm digit alif or mis, Persoon.

Pileus campanulate, three-quarters of an inch high, more or
less closely pressed to the stem, but Always free, wrinkled, but
not reticulated, under side slightly pubescent, sporidia yellow-
ish, elliptic, stem three inches high, half an inch thick, equal
or slightly attenuated downwards, loosely stuffed, by no means
hollow, transversely squamulose.* Season, spring.

* Another species of Peziza, the P. cocTileata, grew very abimdantly last
spring in Holwood Park, Keston. This species is quite insipid, and some-
what leathery, but Mr. Berkeley has seen it offered for sale under the name of
Morell.

DESCKIPTION OF SPECIES. 133

Peziza acetabulum, Liun. Series Alcuria, Sectiou Helvella,

Fries.

Bot. Char. Deeply cup-shaped, two inches broad, one and
a half deep, externally floccosc, light-umber, darker witliin,
mouth puckered, tough ; stciu half to one inch high, smooth,
deeply but irregularly costato-lacunose, ribs solid " branching
at the top and forming reticulations on the outside of the cup,
so as to present the appearance of a cluster of pillars supporting
a font or roof, with fret- work between them" [Berkehy).
Season, spring.

POLYPORU8 FRONDOSUS, Schmnk.
Plate IV. Fig. 1.

There are many species of Polyporus eaten on the Conti-
neut ; among the more common kinds to be mentioned are
/-*. frondosus and P. tuberastcr, Persoon, P. coryUnus, jNIauri,
P.subsquamosus, Pers., P.giganteus, ibid., P.fomentarius, ibid.,
Avhieh last is the Amadou, or German tinder fungus. Two
of these are local ; the P. tuberastcr, which occurs princii)ally
in the kingdom of Naples, and the P. corylinus or that of the
cob-nut tree, which (though it might perhaps be cultivated
elsewhere) is at present restricted to Rome ; both these are
excellent for food.

As to the Polyporus squamosus, which is as common in
England as abroad, in substance it cannot be masticated, and
its expressed juice is exceedingly disagreeable; I should not
think the P.fomentarius, to judge from its texture, promised
much better; nor P. yiyanteus, of which the flesh is some-
times so tough as to creak under the knife.

]34 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

The true P. frondosus is probably rare in Englaud, that
■which I have met with and have had cooked, without being
able to say much in its favour, is the P. intybaceus of Fries,
which j\Ir. Berkeley says is distinguished from the other by
having larger pores. Vittadini has not included it among the
esculent funguses in his work ; Persoon does not recommend
it for weak stomachs on account of its toughness."^ Paulet,
indeed, is of a different opinion, telling us that in place of its
being heavy for the stomach, he will feel all the lighter who
sups upon it. The people in the Vosges seem to have an equal
affection for it with this writer, giving it the somewhat whim-
sical, though really most graphic sobriquets of the Hen-of-the-
Woods and the Breeding Hen (Mougeot). Professor Sau-
guinetti informs me that it sells for six or seven baiocchi in
the Roman market, the finer specimens being sent as surprise
presents, '' per meraviglia,'^ from poor tenants to hard land-
lords.

Bot. Char. " Pilei very numerous, dimidiate, condensed
into a convex tuft from half a foot to a foot broad, imbricated,
variously confluent, irregular, at first downy, dusky, then
smooth, livid grey ; disk depressed, dilated above, from half
to one inch broad, convex, the base confluent with the com-
pound stem" [Fries).

* The toughness is owing to its being stewed too quickly ; when properly
sweated with butter, as recommended for C. coralloides, it is quite tender.

DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES. 135

CLAVARIA CORALLOIUES, Linn.

Plate V. Fig. 3.

Subgenus OcHiiospoREA, Fries.

" Esculcnta delieiosa." — Jl'ft.

All the funguses of this genus being esculent, enter more
or less largely into the supplies of the Italian markets. Roques
describes seven species ; Persoon five ; Vittadini gives a de-
tailed account and drawings of three, selecting those princi-
pally for the superiority of their flavour over the rest, and be-
cause of their greater abundance in the Milanese district.
Mr. Berkeley, in a list with which he has favoured me, enu-
merates four British species as esculent, C. corolloides, C.
grisea, C. cristata, and C. rugosa ; as, however, he has no
personal experience of any of these as articles of food, I
shall merely give the botanical character of the C. coral-
loides, the most abundant of all the species (for the excellent
qualities of which I can myself vouch), furnishing the reader
w ith one or two drawings of other sorts, in further illustration
of this elegant genus.

Clavaria coralloides.

Bot. Char. Pileus erect, white ; stem rather thick, branches
unequal, elongated, mostly acute, pure white, sometimes violet
at the base.

Mode of Dressing.

Having thoroughly cleansed away the earth, which is apt

to adhere to them,, they are to be sweated with a little butter,

over a slow fire, afterwards to be strained, then (throwing

away the liquor) to be replaced to stew for an hour, with salt.

136 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

pepper, chopped chives and parsley, moistening with plain
stock, and dredging with flour occasionally. When suffi-
ciently cooked, to be thickened with yolks of eggs and cream.

Another Mode.

Proceed as before ; after sweating the Clavarias, wrap them
in bacon and stew in a little broth seasoned with salt, pepper,
parsley, and ham; cook for an hour, then serve in white
sauce, or with a fricassee of chicken.

N.B. — The saucepan should be covered with a sheet of paper
under the lid, which keeps the Clavarias white and also pre-
serves their flavour.

There can be little doubt that our woods, properly explored,
would be found to abound in funguses hitherto considered
rare, and this would probably be one of them. At present
the weald of Kent, within forty miles of London, remains, so
far as Mycology is concerned, nearly as unexplored as the in-
terior of Africa.

Plate V. fig. 2, represents Clavaria amethystina, Bull.
Plate V. fig. 5, represents C. cinerea, Bull. Plate V., fig. 6,
represents C. rugosa, Bull.

LYCOPERDON PLUMBEUM, nob.

Pvff-balls.

Subdivision Gasteromycetes, Fries.

Tribe 3. Tkichospekmi.

Family]. Trichogastres. Genus 1. Lycoperdon, Tbwrne/.

" II Licopertlo piombino e uno dei funghi mangiativi piil delicati
che si conoscano. II suo uso e pressoclie gcnerale." — l^itt.

All these more or less spherical white funguses furnished

DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES. 137

with a raembranaccous covering, and filled when young with
a white, compact, homogeneous pulp, which we call Puff-balls,
are good to cat ; those in most request for the table abroad,
and the best, have no stem, i. c. no sterile base, but are pro-
lific throughout their whole substance. One of the most
common of these is the Lycoperdon plumbeiim, of which the
following excellent description is chiefly taken from Vittadini.

Bot. Char. Body globose ; when full-grown about the size
of a walnut, invested with two^ tunics, the outer one white,
loosely membranaceous and fragile, sometimes smooth, at
others furfuraceous ; the innermost one (peridium) very te-
nacious, smooth, of a grey-lead colour externally, internally
more or less shaggy with very fine hairs ; these hairs occupy
the whole cavity, and in the midst of them a prodigious num-
ber of minute granular bodies, the sporules (each of which is
furnished with a long caudiform process), lie entangled. The
whole plant, carefully removed from the earth, with its root
still adhering, is in form not unlike one of its own seeds
vastly magnified.

The L. jihiinbinim abounds in dry places, and is to be found
in spring, summer, and autumn, solitary or in groups. ''This,"
says Vittadini, "is one of our commonest Puff-balls, and after
the warm rains of summer and of autumn, myriads of these
little plants suddenly springing up will often completely cover
a piece of ground as if they had been sown like grain, for a
crop ; if we dig them up we shall find that they are connected
Mith long fragile threads, extending horizontally underground
and giving attachment to numerous smaller Puff-balls in dif-

* There are, in fact, three at first, whereof the external one either coalesces
with the second, or else peels off in shreds, when the other two become united,
and continue to maintain the globular form of the Puff-ball unimpaired, even
aft«r tlic escape of the seed.

138 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OV ENGLAND.

ferent stages of development, which, by continuing to grow,
afford fresh supplies as the old ones die off."

LYCOPERDON BO VISTA, Unn.

Subdivision Gasteromycetes, Fries.
Tribe 3. Trichospermi, Family 1. Trichogastres.

" Vcscie buoue da friggere" (Tuscan yernaciilai' name).

" La sua carne Candida compatta si presta facUemente a tutte le
specidazioni del cuoco." — Vitt.

This differs from the last-mentioned Puff-ball in many par-
ticulars ; in the first place it is much larger (sometimes attain-
ing to vast dimensions), its shape is different, being that of
an inverted cone ; never globular, the flesh also is more com-
pact, while the membrane which holds what is first the pulp
and afterwards the seed, is very thin and tender; the seed,
moreover, has no caudal appendage ; and finally, a considerable
portion of the base is sterile, in all which additional parti-
culars it is unlike the Lycoperdon jjlumbeum. The plant is
sessile, a purple-black fragile membrane contains the spores,
•which are also sessile,* and of the same colour as the peri-
dium.

No fungus requires to be eaten so soon after gathering as
this ; a few hours will destroy the compactness of the flesh
and change its colour from delicate- white to dirty-yellow ;t

* Without appendages.

f Vittaduii recommends, wherever tliis fungus grows conveniently for the
purpose, that it should not be all taken at once, but by slices cut off from the
living plant, care being taken not to break up its attachments with the earth ;
in this way, he says, you may have a fine " frittura " every day for a week.

DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES. 139

but when perfectly fresh and properly prepared, it yields to
no other in digestibility. It may be dressed in many ways,
but the best method is to cut it into slices and fry these in
egg and bread-crumbs; so prepared, it has the flavour of a
rich, light omelette.*

AGARICUS MELLEUS.

Plate IX. Fig. 3.
Subgenus 3. Amillaria.

This is a nauseous, disagreeable fungus, however cooked,
and merely finds mention here, as its omission in a work on
the esculent funguses of England might seem strange to
those unacquainted with is demerits ; it is really extraordi-
nary how some Continental writers, speaking from their own
experience, should ever have recommended it for the table.
Pliny's general apage against all funguses really finds an ap-
plication to this, which is so repugnant to our notions of the
savoury, that few would make a second attempt, or get dan-
gerously far in a first dish. Not to be poisonous is its only
recommendation ; for as to the inviting epithet melleus, or
honeyed, by which it is designated, this alludes only to the
colour, and by no means to the taste, which is both harsh
and styptic.

Bot. Char. In tufts, near or upon stumps of trees, or posts.
Pileu^ dirty-yellow, more or less hairy ; stem fibrous, varying
gVeatly in length, from one inch to nine or ten ; enlarged
above and below, thinner in the middle ; ring thick, spread-

* I have been iuforiiied that this Puff-ball is soinetiiiics served on state
occasions at the Freemasons' Tavern.

140 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OE ENGLAND.

ing, rough or leathery ; gills somewhat decurrent, deeper
than the pileus ; spores white^ appearing like fine dust on
the gills.

AGARICUS ULMAKIUS, Bull.
Subgenus Pleuropus. Subdivision tEgeritaria.

" Fuugo niangiativo sommamente ricercato c diottinia qualita."- — J'itt.

Bot. Char. Solitary or connected to others by a common
root ; the pileus presenting a dirty- white surface^ turning
afterwards to a pale rust-colour, and sometimes tessellated ;
varying like all parasitical funguses in shape, but generally
more or less orbicular ; flesh continiious with the stalk, Avhite,
compact ; stalk very thick, solid, elastic, smooth towards the
summit, tomentose at the base; ffills of a yellowish tint,
broad, thick, ventricose, emarginate, i. e. terminating upon
the surface of the stem in a receding angle ; the imperfect
gills few ; taste and smell agreeable ; spores white.

This Agaric which takes its name from the tree where it is
most commonly found, grows also, though less frequently, on
the Poplar and Beech. Mr. Berkeley reports it rare; perhaps,
however, as it is eminently local, it may here, as in Italy, be
common in some places though of unfrequent general occur-
rence. No country being so rich in Elm-trees as our own, we
should probably find A. uhnarius more often if the height at
which it grows among the branches did not frequently screen
it from observation.* Though registered in the Flora of
Tunbridge Wells, I have not met with a single specimen of it
this autumn.

* " Ce Champignon croit au milieu et vers le sommet de I'arbre, de sorte qii'il
n'cst pas facile a voir ou a recolter." — Persoon.

DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES. 141

This Agaric dries well and may be kept (not, however, with-
out losing some of its aroma) for a long time without spoiling ;
the gills, after a time, assume the same hue as the pileus.

AGARICUS FUSIPES, Bull
Subgenus Ci.ytocyre. Subdivision CnoNDROPonEs.

" II a Ic nicinc gout que le Champignon do Couclic, quoique un pcu
plus prononco." — Persoon.

Bot. Char. Gregarious ; pileus fleshy, loose, of a uniform
brown colour, sometimes marked with dark blotches, as if
burnt ; ffills nearly free, serrated, at first dirty-white, after-
wards a clear bistre; easily separable from the stalk; stalk
hollow, ventrifcose, sulcate, rooting, spindle-shaped, slightly
grooved, tapering at the base, sometimes cracked transversely,
varyiug singularly botli in length and breadth.

This excellent fungus is very abundant throughout summer
and autumn, coming up in tufts at the roots of old Oak-trees
after rain. It may be easily recognized by its peculiar spindle-
shaped stalk.

^'ittadini docs not mention it, nor does its name occur in
the list of esculent funguses in the Diz. di Med. Class. ;
notwithstanding which the young plants make an excellent
pickle ; while the full-grown ones may be stewed or dressed
in any of the usual modes adopted for the common mush-
room.

143 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

AGARICUS VAGINATUS, Bull
Series 1. Leucosporus. Subgenus 1. Amanita.

" La Coucoiunele grise (^Ag. vag.) est une cles especes les plus deli-
cates et les plus siires a manger." — De CandoUe.

Bot. Char. " Margin of the pileus sulcate^ gills white,
stuffed with cottony pith, fistulose, attenuated upwards, almost
smooth; volva like a sheath. Woods and pastures, August
and October; not uncommon. Pileus four inches or more
broad, plane, slightly depressed in the centre, scarcely umbo-
nate, fleshy, but not at the extreme margin, which is elegantly
grooved in consequence, viscid when moist, beautifully glossy
when dry ; epidermis easily detached, more or less studded
with brown scales, the remnants of the volva, not persistent ;
gills free, ventricose, broadest in front, often imbricated,
white ; sporiiles white, round ; stem six inches or more high,
from half to an inch thick, attenuated upwards, obtuse at the
base, furnished with a volva, this adnate below to the extent
of an inch, with the base of the stem, closely surrounding it
above as in a sheath, but with the margin sometimes expanded ;
within and at the base marked with the groovings of the pileus,
brittle, sericeo-squamulose, scarcely fibrillose, but splitting with
ease longitudinally, hollow, or rather stuffed with fine cottony
fibres; the very base solid, not acrid, insipid. Smell scarcely
any. It occurs of various colours, the more general one is a
mouse-grey" {Berkeley).

The perfect accuracy of the above description will strike
every one familiar with this species. Vittadini speaks of it as
a solitary fungus, but I have found it on more than one occa-
sion in rings. Its flesh, being very delicate and tender, must
not be over-dressed. "When properly fried in* butter or oil.

DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES. 143

and as soon after gathering as possible, the Ag. vaginntus will
be found inferior to but few Agarics in its flavour.

AGARICUS VIOLACEUS, Linn.

Subgenus 18. Inoloma.

Bot. Char. Pileus from four to six inches broad, obtuse,
expanded, covered with soft hairs, colour deep violet ; stem
spongy, grey, tinged with violet, minutely downy, about four
inches high ; veil fugacious, composed of fine threads ; gills
deep violet when young, but turning tawny in age ; flesh thick,
juicy.

This is a handsome fungus, not very common, but plentiful
where it occurs ; it grows in woods, particularly under Pine
and Fir trees, and may be dressed either with a white or
a brown sauce.

AGARICUS CASTANEUS, Bull

Subgenus 19. Dehmocybe.

Bot. Char. Pileus slightly fleshy, convex when young, at
length nmbonate, chestnut colour, from one to three inches
broad, glabrous ; gills rather broad, easily detached from the
stem, ventricose, changing from light-purple to a ferruginous
hue; stem rather thin, from one and a half to three inches
long, hollow, silvery, light-lilac or white ; veil delicate, com-
posed of floecose threads; in taste, when raw, it somewhat
resembles the Ag. oreades, but it has no smell.

This Agaric may be distinguished from others by its chest-
nut or bistre colour ; it is probably not uncommon ; growing
all the summer and autumn in woods, and under trees in

144 ESCULEXT FUNGUSES OF EXGLAND.

meadows. Mr. Berkeley reports it esculent ; I have no ex-
perience of it.

AGARICUS PIPERATUS, Scop.
Subgenus 7. Galorrheus.

" Ed fe veramcntc commestibile e saporoso quando se iic Icvi il latte."

Bendiscioli.

Bot. Char. " Pileus infundibuliform, rigid, smooth, white ;
gills very narrow, close; milk, and the solid blunt stem, white.
In woods, July and August. Pileus 3-7 inches broad, slightly
rugulose, quite smooth, white, a little clouded with umber, or
stained with yellow where scratched or bruised, convex, more
or less depressed, often quite infundibuliform, more or less
waved, fleshy, thick, firm but brittle ; margin involute at first,
sometimes excentric, milk-white, hot. Gills generally very
narrow (—; of an inch broad), but sometimes much broader,
cream-colour, repeatedly dichotoraous, very close, ' like the
teeth of an ivory comb,' decurrent from the shape of the
pileus, when bruised changing to umber. Ste7n 1-3 inches
high, 1^-2 inches thick, often compressed, minutely pruinose,
solid, but spongy Avithin, the substance breaking up into trans-
verse cavities.'' "^

Though very acrid when raw, it loses its bad qualities
entirely by cooking, and is extensively used on the Continent,
prepared in various ways. It is preserved for winter use by
drving or pickling in a mixture of salt and vinegar {Berkeley) .

I have frequently eaten this fungus at Lucca, where it is
very abundant, but as it resembles the Ay.vellereus in appear-
ance, with the properties of which we are unacquainted, too
much caution cannot be exercised in learning to discriminate
it from this and neighbouring species.

* Berkeley.

DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES. 145

AGARICUS VIRGINEUS, WaUf.

Subgenus 8. Clitocybe. Subdivision Camaropuvlli.

White Field-Agaric.

But. Cliar. Pilcus from one to two inches broad, margin
involute wlicn young, then expanded, depressed in the centre.
Gills deep, connected with veins, sometimes forked, broadly
adnate, but breaking away from the stem as the pilcus becomes
depressed. Stem six lines broad at the top, tapering down-
wards, uot more than two at the base ; at first stuft'ed Avith
fibres, then hollow, excentric ; the whole plant white, w ith
occasionally a tinge of pink. Taste pleasant, odour disagree-
able.

These graceful little Agarics grow in pastures, and arc ex-
tremely common in the autumn. They are so small that it
requires a great many of them to make a dish, but as they
occur frequently in the same fields w itli puff-balls, and may be
dressed in the same manner, it is not unusual when the supply
is scarce to serve them together, with the same sauce. The
flavour of Ag. virgineus is not unlike that of Ag. oreades.

TU13E11 .ESTIVUM, Viff.
Plate VIII. Fig. 2.

Peridium warty, of a blackish-brown colour, the warts
polygonal and striate, flesh traversed by numerous veins ; asci
4-6-spored ; spores elliptical, reticulated.

This plant, the common trufile of our markets, is abundant
in Wiltshire and some other parts of England, and probably
occurs in many places where it escapes observation, from its
subterranean liabit.

146 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

CONCLUSION.

Italy is not the country for the English florist ; he will find
twenty times as many petals at home. Trim parterres are
not inventions of the South ; summer-houses would be no
luxuries in a climate that never knows winter; the only
Conservatories that flourish there are not for flowers, but
for music. In few northern regions is Plora worse off
for a bouquet than at Rome or Naples ; regarded mei'cly
as the herald of Spring and not appreciated for her own
sake, as soon as she has waved her wand over the land
and covered it with the March blossoms of Crocuses, Cycla-
mens, and Anemones, her reign is over. All scents are held
in equal abhorrence save those of frankincense and garlic, for
which there seems to be a prescriptive toleration ; but every
other odour, fetid or fragrant, musk"^ or mignonette, is equally
proscribed ; and an Italian Signora would as soon permit a
Locusta to cook for her, as a violet to scent her boudoir. To
pick wild flowers is as dangerous as it is difficult to find culti-
vated ones ; a coup de soleil or a fever is easily procured by
imprudent exposure before sunset, while the interval between

* In 1843, the friends of a patient, for whom I had occasion to prescribe
Bome musk, had recom-se to many chemists in succession before the hcensed
dealer in it could be found, and he was obliged by law to keep it in his back
premises.

FUNGUSES IN [TALY. l^?

that and night is too brief to be employed for the purpose ;
but when the season for flowers is long past, and Autumn
with her fruits is come round again, when the stranger can
wander forth where he lists without an umbrella, he will be
able to luxuriate amidst the lovely scenery, and to delight
himself in the natural history of the district : the season of
the periodical rains has ceased ; the repose of the forest is no
longer troubled by the Power of the waters; the mountain
Pines borne for miles down into the valleys are stranded on
the broad shingly bed of the exhausted torrent ; broken
bridges are safely repaired ; the maize is receiving the last
mellowing touches as it festoons the cottage fronts, the
prickly chestnut-pods are beginning to gape and the brown
chestnuts to leap out shining from their envelopes ; the last re-
luctant olive has been beaten from the bough ; the vintage has
nearly ceased to bleed ; night fires'^ already begin to flicker on
the mountains, and the hemp stubble is daily crackling on
the plain. This is indeed the time for enjoying Italy ; nature
has revived again, and with nature, man. The feverish torpor,
I had almost ventured to call it the summer hybernation, has
ceased with September, and Autumn has come round with
the vivifying influence of a new Spring ; then if we go abroad
to wander, whether our walk be across plains or through up-
land woods, we shall not stroll a mile without stopping a
hundred times to admire what is to many of us a nearly new
class of objects which have sprung up suddenly and now beset
our path on every side. These arc the Fungus tribe, which
are as beautiful as the fairest flowers, and more useful than

* Night fires. This is to clear the ground under the Chcstnut-trecs for the
falling fruits, which niiglit otherwise be lost amidst the heath. But the prnetice
is unsafe ; as nianv a ti*ce has been charred by the flames, and some have ac-
tiiallv tal<eu fire and given rise to a general eonflagration.

]48 ESCULENT FUNGUSES OE ENGLAND.

most fruits; and now tliat butcliers' meat is bad, that tlie
beans have become stringy, and the potatoes are hydrated by
the rain, they appear thus opportunely to eke out the scanti-
ness of autumnal larders in the South and give a fresh zest to
the daily repast. AY ell may their sudden apparition surpi'ise
us, for not ten days since the waters were all out, and only
three or four nights back peals of thunder rattled against the
casements and kept the most determined sleepers in awful
"vigil ; and now — behold the meadows by natural magic studded
with countless fairy-rings of every diameter, formed of such
species as grow upon the ground, while the Chestnut and the
Oak are teeming with a new class of fruits that had no pre-
vious blossoming, many of which have already attained their
full growth. We recollect with gratitude the ol)jects of a
pursuit, which has accidentally brought us to such an ac-
quaintance with the diversities of Italian scenery as we never
should have experienced without it. In fishing, it is not the
fish we catch, vthich alone repays us for our toil; it is the
waudering as the rivulet wanders, " at its own sweet will,'^
the exercise and the appetite consequent upon it, the pinze in
natural history, the reciting aloud, or reflecting as we walk,
and when it is pleasantly warm the " molles sub arbore
somni/' which console us for the lack of sport. On the same
principle, mushroom-hunting may be recommended to the
young naturalist not only for the beauty of the objects which
he is sure to come upon (if he do but hunt at the right sea-
son), but also because in that most beautiful of months, whe-
ther at home or abroad, it brings the wanderer out of beaten
paths to fall in with many striking views which he would not
otherwise have explored. The extremely limited time during
which funguses are to be found, their fragility, their infinite
diversity, their ephemeral existence, these, too, add to the

roxcLUSTON. 1 49

interest of an autumnal ualk in quest of them. At Lucea^
leaving idleness and indigestion in bed, just as the sun Mas
beginning to shoot his first rays on the Avhitc convents and
the spires of the village ehnrches on the mountains, making-
morning above, uhile the deep valley beneath was still in twi-
light, it was pleasant to pass the little opening coffee-house
v/ith its two or three candidates for early breakfast, and cross-
ing the noiseless trout-stream over the little bridge, to enter
one of those old chestnut-forests and begin clambering up the
laddery pathway, to reach the summit just as he poured his
full eflulgeuce on the magnificent rival of the Lucchese and
Modenese territories. Pleasant, too, was it on the road Rome-
w^ard, pausing a few days to enjoy the exquisite scenery about
Spoleto, to climb the steep streets to the cathedral, and thence,
passing the giddy viaduct several hundred feet above the white
ravine which it traverses, to issue upon those Nursian Hills
then fragrant with the breath of morning, "le beau matin qui
sort humidc ct piile," and with the scent of sweet herbs ; but
above all other hills renowned for the fragrance of those ever-
reproductive mines of coal-black subterranean truflfles ! It is
a pleasant remembrance to have plucked the crimson Amanite,
that ministered to a Crcsar's decease, in the very neighbour-
hood of the Talatine Hill; to have collected mushrooms amidst
the meadows of Horace's farm, AAhcre he tells us they grew
best ; and to have watched along the moist pastures of the
Crcmera a stand of the stately Jr/. jyrocerus nodding upon
their stalks; or, standing on the heights above Sorrento, just
as the setting sun flashed upon the waters of the bay ere
they engulfed him, and left us to his sister the evening star,
to have come upon that wonderful Polyporus tuberaster whose
matrix is the hard stone, from which it derives strength and
luxuriance as if from a soft and ireninl soil.

150 ESCULEXT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.

But not only in Italy, in our own country also, the Collec-
tor in ]\Iycology will have to traverse much beautiful and
diversified scenery ; amid woods, greenswards, winding lanes,
rich meadows, healthy commons, open downs, the nodding
hop-grove and the mountain shccp-path ; and all shone upon
by an autumnal sunset, — as compared with Southern climes
"obscurely bright," and unpreccded by that beautiful rosy
tint which bathes the whole landscape in Italy, but with a far
finer background of clouds to reflect its departed glories : and
throughout all this range of scenery he will never hunt in
vain ; indulgent gamekeepers, made aware of what he is poach-
ing, may warn him that he is not collecting mushrooms, but
will never warn him off" from the best-kept preserves. In
such rambles he will see, what I have this autumn (184-7)
myself witnessed, whole hundrechveights of rich ivliolesome diet
rotting under the trees ; woods teeining with food and not one
hand to gather it ; and this, perhaps, in the midst of potato
blight, poverty and all manner of privations, and public
prayers against imminent famine. I have indeed grieved,
when I reflected on the straitened condition of the lower
orders this year, to see pounds innumerable of extempore
beef-steaks growing on our oaks in the shape of Fisiulina
hepatica ; Ag. fusipes to pickle, in clusters under them ; Pufi"-
balls, which some of our friends have not inaptly compared to
sweet-bread for the rich delicacy of their unassisted flavour ;
Hydna as good as oysters, which they somewhat resemble in
taste ; Agaricus deliciosus, reminding us of tender lamb-kid-
neys ; the beautiful yellow Chantarelle, that kalon kagathon of
diet, growing by the Ijushel, and no basket but our own to pick
up a few specimens in our way; the sweet nutty-flavoured
Boletus, in vain calling himself edulis where there was none
to believe him ; the dainty Orcella ; the Ag. hcterophyllus,

CONCLUSIOX. 151

uliicli tastes like tlic craAv-fisli when gvilled ; the Ay. ruber
and A(j. tr'iresceiis, to cook in any way, and equally good in
all ; — these were among the most conspicuous of the trou-
vailles. But that the reader may know all he is likely to find
in one single autumn, let him glance at the catalogue below.*
He may at first alarm his friends' cooks, but their fears will,
I pi'omise him, soon be appeased, after one or two trials of this
uew class of viands, and he will not long pass either for a con-
juror or something worse, in giving directions to stew toad-
stools. As soon as he is initiated in this class of dainties, he
will, I am persuaded, lose no time in making the discovery
known to the poor of the neighbourhood ; while in so doing
he will render an important service to the country at large,
by instructing the indigent and ignorant in the choice of an
ample, wholesome, and excellent article, which they may con-
vert into money, or consume at their own tables, when pro-
perly prepared, throughout the winter.

* The whole of the species mentioned in the annexed Hst were met with by
the author this summer and autumn (1847), and partaken of by himself and
friends, viz. Amanita vaginata ; Ag. rubescens, procerus, prunulus, ruber, hetero-
phyUns, rirescens, delieiostis, nebtilaris, personafus, virghieus, fitsipes, oreades,
ostreatus, Orcella, campestris (and its varieties edulis and prafensis), exquisUu.i,
comatus, a)id ulmariiis ; CanihareUits cibarius ; Poli/porns frondosus ; Boletus
edulis and scaler; Fistuliiia hejyatica ; ITt/dnum repandum ; Helvetia lacu-
)?osa ; Peziza acetabulum and Bovista pi umbea ; Lycoperdon gemmatum and
Clavaria strigosa.

152 CONCLUSION.

Note ox the Aekangejient of tue Spoees in IIym;exoiiyc'etous

FuxcrsEa.

On the authority of Lmk, Fries, Tittadiui, and other Continental mycolo-
gists, I have, in speating of the spores of the genera Agaricus, Boletus, Can-
iharelliis, Mi/dnum, and Clavaria, represented them as enclosed in cases (tliecse
or sporanges). Eut from an interesting memou-, pubhshed by Mr. Berkeley
in the ' Annals of Natiu-al History,' " On the Fructification of the Pileatc and
Clayate tribes of Ilymeuomycetous Fungi," wliich I liad not then perused, it
woidd appear that this arrangement only holds good with respect to Fezizus,
Selvellas, and Morels, and not with respect to the above-mentioned genera,
the spores of which are attaclied (generally in a quaternary and star form)
to the ends of tubes, to which Mr. Berkeley has given the name of sporo-
phores ; a disposition which, as he observes, had been long ago pointed out by
the great Florentine mycologist, Micheli. M. Montagne, m his ' Recherches
Anatomiques et Physiologiqiies siu* I'Hymenium,' while he conlh-ms the fact of
a quaternary disposition of the spores in general, thinks that dming the first
stage of their devclojjment they are lodged within the sporifcrous tubes, to
the mouths of which they afterwards adhere by means of short spieidas or
brauchlets.

These, hke all other questions connected with the minute reproductive
gi'anules of funguses, require for their solution not only the most dextei'ous
manipulation and the aid of the finest modern microscopes, but are likely even
then to exercise the ingenuity of the ciu-ious.

THE END.

JOHN tUWAKU TAYLOll, FBINTEK,
LlTlLli UUEEN SIREET, LINCOLN'S IKN FIELDS

PI. I.

W.Fitch,del.etlith.

%nent Brooks.Imp

PI. II,

.'ji di(;:V,t>..

^incer-il broolv;. linv.

PI 111.

WFitchdel.eLliih,

"Vincent Brooks. Imp .

^^r^ Ifcc

PI. TV

' "%i.;

W.Titch.dd etlit}^

\ \

imcenL Brooks, Imp.

Pl.V.

^•fc.-

x^

V

^

0 \ - . ^,J»%

'-^if'^

\
^

^.

V

^-^'s' A
.^0

^ f

■/ J

^^k^^

Vincent Brooks, Imp .

Pl.VI.

WFitch.ddetlith.

Vincent Brooksjmp^

PI. VII.

W.?iuih,del eLlith

Vincent Brooks, Imp

PI. VIII

WFiuiv,dd.etlitK

Vmcent Brookftlnvp.

Pl.JX.

jtoc.lff!,inip

Pl.X

WFitdvad ethth.

Vincent Brooks. Imp.

PIK

X* .

^<S^ '"'^

\

^ .(/

WFitcK,dfil etM:

Vmcent Broote.Imp.

,^^^*^».»^»^.'r»►^^

Vim.

^■^^immA

W.Fiuiv,dd.eLliih

^fipcenl Broolis Imp

LOVELL REEVE & CO.'S

PUBLICATIONS IN

latural ^tmxtt, ^YiAvth,

w

ANTIQUITIES, ETC.

" None can express Thy works but he th:it knows them ;
And none can know Thy works, which are so many
And so complete, but only he that ones them."

Oeorge Herbert.

LONDON :
LOVELL REEVE AND CO.. 5, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN

1863.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

FLOWERING PLANTS

3

COLONIAL AND FOREIGN FLORAS

5

FERNS ...

6

MOSSES ...

6

SEAWEEDS

6

FUNGI

7

ZOOLOGY ... ...

7

INSECTS... ... ...

8

MOLLUSKS AND SHELLS

8

GEOLOGY

in

CHEMISTRY

10

GEOGRAPHY

10

VOYAGES AND TRAVELS

10

ANTIQUITIES

11

PHOTOGRAPHY ...

11

MISCELLANEOUS

13

SERIALS ...

14

NEW WORKS

... 15

FORTHCOMING WORKS ...

IG

LOVELL REEVE & CO.'S TUBLICATIONS.

FLOWERING PLANTS.
Oencra Plantarum

Ad Exemplaria imprimis in Herbariis Kewcnsibus servata dcfinita; auctoribus G.
IJk.mham ct J. 1). HooKEU. Vol. I., Pars I., sistens Dicotyledonuni I'olypeta-
laniiii OnliuL'S LVI : Ranuuciilaceas — Conuaraceas.
Royal 8vo, 21*.

The Field Botanist's Comjmnion ;

Being a Familiar Arcount, in the Four Seasons, of the Flowering Plants most
common to the British Isles. By Thomas Moore, F.L.S., F.R.H.S. With
coloured Fignrrs and Dissections by W. Fitch of 110 species.
In One Volume, 24' coloured plates, 2\s.

Handbook of the British Flora ;

A Description of the Flowering Plants and Ferns Indigenous to, or Naturalized
in, the British Isles. For the nse of Beginners and Amateurs. By Georgk
Bentham, F.L.S.

In One Volnme, G80 pages, 12*.

An Hhmtraicd Edition, with tinely-executed wood-engravings of every Species
and its Dissections, from Original Drawings by W. Fitch, now publishiug iu
Monthly Parts, 2*. M.

Illustrations of the Nueva Quinologia of Favon.

AVith Observations on the Barks described, by John Eliot Howard, F.L.S. ,
27 elaborately ("oloured Plates of Plants by W. Fitch, and 3 of Dissections by
TutTen AVest.'
In 10 parts, Imperial folio, £.">. .5*. : or in one vol. half-morocco, gilt edges, £3. Gj.

Select Orchidaceous Plants.

By RoBKKT Warner, F.R.H.S. AVith Notes on Culture by B. S. Wii.mams,
Author of ' The Orchid-Grower"s Jlannnl,' aud ' Hints on the Cultivation of Ferus;'
assisted by some of the best Growers.

To be completed in Ten Quarterly Parts, imperial )ol;o, each, with fonr coloured plates

10*. &d.

4 LOVELL REEVE AND CO. S PUBLICATIONS.

Curtis' Botanical Magazine ;

Comprising the Plauts of the Koyal Gardens of Kew, and of other Botanical Es-
tablishments in Great Britain, with suitable Descriptions. By Sir W.J. Hooker,
D.C.L., F.K.S., Director of the Royal Gai-dens of Kew. Third Series.
Royal 8vo, 6 coloured plates by Fitch, 3*. 6f/. monthly.
Vols. I. to XVIII., each, with 72 coloured plates, 42*.
A Complete Set of the Second Series, in 17 vols., new, £35. 14j. The only copy
remaining.

Vols. I. to XXV. of the First Series, bound iu 2i vols., whole calf (except the
last vol., which is in Numbers), £18.

The Floral Magazine.

Comprising Figures and Descriptions of New Popular Garden Flowers, and a
Companion, containing New and Original Articles on Subjects connected with
Floriculture. By the Rev. H. H. Dombrain.

Imperial Svo, 4 coloured plates by Andrews, 2*. ^d. Monthly.
Vols. I. and II., each, with 64 coloured plates, 42*.

The Rhododendrons of Sihldm-Himalaya ;

Being an Account of the Rhododendrons receutly discovered in the Mountains of
Eastern Himalaya. By J. D. Hooker, M.D., F.R.S.

Imperial folio, 80 coloured plates by Fitch, £3. 16.?.

Illustrations of SihJcim- Himalayan Plants.

Chiefly selected from Drawings made in Sikkim under the superintendence of the
late J. F. Cathcart, Esq., Bengal Civil Service. The Botanical Descriptions and
Analyses by J. D. Hooker, M.D., F.R.S.

Fobo, 24 coloured plates and illuminated title-page by Fitch, £5. 5*.

The Victoria Begia.

By Sir W. J. Hooker, F.R.S.

Elephant folio, 4 coloured plates by Fitch, 21*.

Pescatorea.

Figures of Orchidaceous Plants, chiefly from the Collection of M. Pescatore.
Edited by M. Linden, with the assistance of MM. G. Luddeman, J. E. Plan-
CHON, and M. G. Reichenbach.

Folio, Parts I. to XII., each, 4 coloured plates, 7*.

The Tourisfs Flora.

A Descriptive Catalogue of the Flowering Plants and Ferns of the British Islands,
France, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. By Joseph Woods.

Svo, 18.?.

Journal of Botany and Kew Miscellany.

Original Papers by eminent Botanists, Communications from Botanical Travellers,
etc." Edited by W. J. Hooker, D.C.L., F.R.S.

Vols. IV, to IX., each, 12 plates, some coloured, £1. 4*.
A complete set in 9 vols, half calf, £10. 16*.

LOVELL HKliVK AND GO/s PUBLICATIONS. 5

The London Journal of Botamj.

Edited by Sir W. J. Hooker, D.C.L., F.R.S., Director of the Royal Gardens of
Kcvv.

Vol. VII., completing the Series, 23 plates, plain, ms.

Icones Plan tar urn.

Fignrcs of New and Rare I'lants, By Sir W. J. llooKEit, D.C.L., F.R.S. New

series

Vol. v., 100 plates, 3U. 6rf.

COLONIAL AND FOREIGN FLORAS.
Flora Australiensis.

A Description of the Plants of the Australian Territory. By G. Bentham, F.R.S.,
P.L.S. : assisted by Fekdinano Mueller, M.D., F'.R.S. and L.S., Government
Botanist, Melbourne, Victoria.

Vol. I., 205.

Flora Honghongensis ;

A Description of the Flowering Plants and Ferns of the Island of Hongkong.
By George Bentham, V.P.L.S. With a Map of the Island.
In One Volnmc, 550 pages, Ifij.

Flora of the British JFest Indian Islands.

By A. II. K. Grisebach, M.D., Professor of Botany in the University of Got-
tins?en.

Parts I. to v., 5.f. each. To be completed in 7 Parts.

The Botany of the Antarctic Foyage

ofHJI.SS. "Erebus" and "Terror" in the years 1839-1843, under the command
of Captain Sir J. C. Ross, R.N., F.R.S. By Joseph Dalton Hooker, i\l.D.,
F.R.S.

1. Flora of Lord Auckland and Campbell's Islands, and of

Fiirriia, the Falkland Islands, etc.

hi 2 vols., 200 plates, £10. 15j. coloured; £7. 10.y. plain.

2. Flora of New Zealand.

In 2 vols., 130 plates, £13. 2*. &d. coloured; £9. hs. plain.

3. Flora of Tasmania.

In 2 vols., 200 plates, £17. 10s. coloured ; £12. 10«. plain.

Cryptoganiia Antarctica ;

Or, Cryptogamic Plants of the Antarctic Islands. Issued separately.
In One Volume, quarto, £4. U. coloured; £2. 17*. plain.

On the Flora of Australia,

Its Origin, Affinities, and Distribution . being an Introductory Essay to the 'Flora
of Tasmania.' By Joseph Daltos Hooker, M.D., F.R.S.
12^> pairi-s, quarto, 10*.

b LOVELL REEVE AND CO. S PUBLICATIONS.

On the Flora of Neio Zealand ;

Its Oi'igin, Affinities, and Geograpliical Distribution ; being an lutrnductory Essay
to the 'Flora of New Zealand.' By Joseph Dalton Hooker, M.D., F.R.S.
40 pages, quarto, 2*.

Outlines of Elementary Botany,

As lutroductory to Local Floras. By George Bentham, V.P.L.S.
45 pages, stitched, 2^. (>d.

FERNS.
The British Ferns.

Coloured Figures and Descriptions, with Analyses of the Fructification and A'^ena-
tion, of the Ferns of the British Isles, Systematically Arranged. By Sir W. J.
Hooker, K.H., D.C.L., etc.

Eoyal 8vo, 66 coloured plates by Fitch, £2. 2s.

Garden Ferns.

Coloured Figures and Descriptions, with Analyses of the Fructification and Ve-
nation, of the Ferns best adapted for Cultivation in the Garden, Hothouse, and
Conservatory. By Sir W. J. Hooker, K.H., D.C.L., etc.

Royal 8vo, 64 coloured plates by Fitch, £2. 2*.

Filices Exotica.

Centurv of Exotic Ferns, particularly of such as are most deserving of Cultivation.
By Sir'W. J. Hooker, K.H., D.C.L.

Royal 4to, 100 coloured plates by Fitch, £6. 11*.

Ferny Combes.

A Ramble after Ferns in the Gleus and Valleys of Devonshire. By Charlotte
Chanter. Second Edition.

Fop. 8vo, 8 coloured plates by Fitch, and a Map of the County, 5*.

MOSSES.
Handhooh of the British Mosses ;

Being a Description of all the Mosses inhabiting the British Isles, with Coloured
Figures and Dissections of 158 Species, from Original Drawings by W. Fitch.
By the Rev. M. J. Berkeley, M.A., F.L.S.

24 coloured plates, 21*.

SEAWEEDS.

Synopsis of British Seaweeds.

Descriptions, with Critical Remarks, of all the known Species, abridged from
Professor Harvey's 'Phycologia Britannica.'

A pocket volume, 220 pages, 5*.

LOVELL REEVE AND CO. S PUBLICATIONS. /

Tliycologia Britannica.

A History of the British Seaweeds; containing coloured Figures and Descriptions
of all the Species of Algie inhahiting the Shores of the British Islands. By \Vil-
LiAM Henry Harvky, M.H., F.R.S., Professor of Botany to the Dublin Society.
lu 4 vols, royal 8vo, 360 coloured plates, £G. 6j.

Phycologia Australica.

A History of Australian Seaweeds, containing Coloured Figures and Descriptions
uniform with the Thvcoloaiia Britannica.' Bv William UtiVin Harvey, M.D.,
F.R.S.

Complete in 5 vols. Vols. I. to IV., each, containing 00 coloured plates, 30*.
\o\. v., with Indexes.

Nereis Aastralls.

Figures and Descriptions of Marine Plants collected on the Shores of the Cape of
Good Hope, the extra-tropical Australian Colonies, Tasmania, New Zealand, and
the Antarctic Regions. By Professor Hakvey, M.D., F.R.S.

Imperial 8vo, Two Parts, each, containing 25 coloured plates, £1. 1;?.

FUNGI.

Outlines of British Fimijologij^

Containing Characters of above a Thoiisand Species of Fungi, aud a Complete List
of all that have been described as Natives of the British Isles. By the Rev. M. J.
Berkeley, M.A., F.L.S. With Coloured Figures and Dissections of 1 70 Species
by Fitch.

8vo, 24 coloured plates, 30*.

The Esculent Funguses of England.

An Account of their Classical History, L'scs, Characters, Development, Nutritious
Properties, Modes of Cooking, etc. By C. D. Badham, M.D. New Edition,
Edited by Fred. Currey, ]\I.A., F.R.S." F.L.S.

8vo, 12 coloured plates, 12*.

Illustrations of British Mycology.

Figures and Descriptions of the Funguses of interest and novelty indigenous to
Britain. By Mrs. Hussey.

Royal 4to; First Series, 90 coloured plates, £7- 12*. 6^/. ;
Second Series, 50 plates, £4. 10*.

ZOOLOGY.

Zoology of the Voyage of II.M.S. Samarang,

Under the command of Captain Sir J^dward Belcher, C.B., F.R.A.S., during the
Years lS.4.3-46. Edited by Arthur Adams, F.L.S.

The Vertcbrata, with 8 plates, by John Edward Gray, F.R.S. ; the Fishes, with
10 plates, by Sir John Richardson. F.R.S. ; the Mollusca. with 24 plates, by
Arthur .\dams, F.L.S., and Lovell Reeve, F.L.S. ; the Crustacea, with 13 plates,
by Arthur Adams, F.L.S., and Adam White, F.L.S.

Royal 4to, 55 coloured plates, £3. 10*.

T.OVELL IlEEVK A^D CO. S PUBLICATIONS.

INSECTS.
Curtis' British Entomology.

Ulnstvations and Descriptious of the Genera of lusecls found in Great Britain
and Ireland, eontainiug coloured figures, from nature, of the most rare and beau-
tiful species, and, in many instances, of the plants upon which they are found.

Complete iu 8 vols., 8vo, 770 coloured copper plates, £16. 16.?.

Ciu'tis' British. Entomology in Monographs.

Orders. Plates. £. ». d. Orders. Plates. £. t. d.

APHANl?Tri!A ~

CoLtOPTliKA 256

Dl.KMAi'TEKA 1

DlCTYOPTtKA 1

DiPTEKA 10:5

Hemipteka o2

HOMOPTBRA 21

(J 1

6 8
(J 1

6

0
0
0
0
6
0

Hymf.nopjera

Lepidopieka

125 .

193 .

.... 13 .

. 3 3
. 4 16
. 0 7
. 0 3
. 0 3
. 0 2
. 0 5

0
0
0

0 1

6 .

r.

2 12

0

0 16

3 .

0

0 11

TElCHOelEEA

9 .

(1

A Reissue of the Orders Coleoptera, Diptera, Hymenoptera, and l.epidoptera,
iu Monthly Parts, each eontainiug 5 plates, with text, price 2s.. (Jd., comuieuced
January 1st, 1863.

lusecta Britannica ;

Vols. II. and III., Diptera. By Fkancis Walkrr, F.L.S.

8vo, each, with 10 plates, 25*.

MOLLUSKS AND SHELLS.
The Zand and Freshtoater Mollnslcs

Indigenous to and Natiiralized in the British Isles. By LovELL Reeve, F.L.S.
^Vith finely- executed Wood-Engravings of the Shell of each Species by G. B.
SowERBV, and of t!>e Living Animal of each Genus by 0. Jewitt.
8vo, 10*. M.

Elements of Conchologij ;

An Introduction to the Natural History of Shells, and of the Animals which form
them. By Lovell Reeve, F.L S.

2 vols., 62 coloured plates, £2. 16*.

Con ch.o lotjia Systematica .

A Complete System of Concholotry ; in wliich the Lepades and Couchiferous Mol-
lusca are described and classified according to their Natural Organization and
Habits. By Lovell Reeve, F.L.S.

2 vols. 4to, 300 coloured plates, £8. 8*.

Concholoyia Iconica.

l'"i!iures and Descriptions of the Shells of the iMollusca, with Remarks on their Affi-
tiltics, Synonymy, and Geographical Distribution. By Lovell Reeve, F.L.S.,
F.G.S. The Drawings by G. B. Sowk.kby, F.L.S. Monthly. In Parts, demy 4to,
each, cf>ntaiiiiiig 8 coloured plates, 10*. Parts 228 and 22y just published.

LOVKI.L RKKVE AND CO. S PCBLICATIONS.

CONCHOLOGIA ICONICA IN MONOGRAPHS

Geners. I'latis

ACUATINA i3

ACHATINELLA. 6

Adamsiklli. 2

AUPUIDESMA 7

AuPCLLABIA. 28

AlJASTOMA 1

Anatina 4

Anculotus 6

Akomia 8

Abca 17

Abgon'auta 4

Abtrmis 10

Asi'EBGILLUM 4

Aviccla 18

bcccinum 14

BuLiMus 89

BULLIA 4

Calypth^a 8

Canckllaria 18

Capsa 1

Capsblla 2

Cabdita 9

Cabdium 23

Cassidabia 1

Cassis 12

Cbama 9

cuamostkea 1

Chiton 3;5

Chitonkllvs 1

cuondhopoma 11

colcmbblla 37

CoifCHOLKPAS 2

CONUS Bfl

COBBULA 5

Cbakia 1

CitASSATELLA ',i

Cbbnatula 2

Crkpidvla 5

Cbccidui.um 7

CvCl.OI'H iRCS 20

CtCLi STOKA 23

Ctmbicm 26

CVPK*A 27

CrPBICAKDIA 2

DEI.PaiNl'LA 5

DOLII'M 8

DoN-AX 9

Ebubxa 1

Fasciolabia 7

FiCCLA 1

FlSSiUBELLA 16

Fuses 21

Glaucomoue 1

Halia 1

HaI,IOTI3 17

Habpa 4

Helix 210

Hemipkctkn 1

Heuisincs 6

HlXNITES 1

HiPKOPUs 1

Ianthiha 5

to 3

[socabsia 1

Lbptopoma 8

LlIfGULA 2

LlTHODOMrS 5

LlTTOBINA 18

LlTIKA 11

t.vtrabia 5

Mactra 21

Malleus 3

1 9
0 8
0 3

0 9

1 15
0 1
0 5
0 8

0 10

1 1
0 5
0 13

0 5

1 3
0 18
5 12
0 5

0 10

1 3
0 1
0 3

0 11

1 8
0 1
0 15
0 11
0 1

2 2
0 1
0 14

2 7
0 S

3 11
0 6
0 1
0 4
0 3
0 6

0 9

1 5
1 9
1 13
1 14
0 3
0 6
0 10
0 12
0 1
0 9

0 1

1 0
1 6
0 1

0 1

1 1
0 5

13 5
0 1
0 8
0 1
0 1
0 6
0 4
0 1
0 10
0 3

0 6

1 3
0 14

0 7

1 6
0 4

Mangelia

Melania

Mblanopsis

Melatoma

Mesalia & Eglisia..

Mesodesma

Ueta

MiTBA

MODIOLA

MOSOCEBOS

MUREX

Mtadoba

Mtochama

Mttilus

Nassa

Natica

Nautilus

Navicella

Nebita

Nebitika

Oliva

i OSISCIA

Obbicui.a

Paludina

Paludomus

Pabtula

Patella

Pectbn

Pectuxculus

Pedum

Perna

PuASIAKELLA

Phobus

Pinna

PlhENA

Placunanomia

Pleurotoma

Psammobia

psammotella

Pterocera

Ptebocyclos

Purpura

Pybula

Kanella

ElCINULA

rostkllaria

Sanguinolabia

SCABABUS

SiMPULOPSIS

Siphon ARIA

Soletkllina

Spondyli's

Strombus

Sthuthiolaria

Teukbra

Terebellum

Tkhebratula

Thracia

Tkidacna

Thigonia

Triton

Trochita

Tbochus

Tugonia

tubbinklla

Turbo

Turritella

Umbrella

Voluta

Vitrina

Vulsella

ZlZTPHINUS

lates.

8 .

59 .

3 .

0 10

6

3 14

6

0 4

0

0 4

0

0 1

6

0 5

6

0 1

6

2 10

0

0 14

0

0 5

6

2 5

6

0 1

6

0 1

6

0 14

0

1 17

0

1 18

0

0 8

0

0 10

6

1 4

6

2 7

0

1 18

0

0 1

6

0 1

6

0 14

0

0 4

0

0 5

6

2 13

0

2 4

0

0 11

6

0 1

6

0 8

0

0 8

0

0 4

0

2 3-

0

0 3

0

0 4

0

2 10

6

0 10

6

0 1

0

0 8

0

0 6

6

0 17

0

0 11

6

0 10

6

0 8

0

0 4

6

0 1

6

0 4

0

0 3

0

0 9

6

0 5

6

1 3

6

1 4

R

0 1

6

1 14

0

0 1

6

0 14

0

0 4

0

0 10

6

0 1

0

1 5

6

0 4

6

1 0

6

0 1

6

0 17

0

0 17

0

0 14

6

0 1

a

1 8

0

0 13

0

0 3

0

0 10

6

10 LOVELL REEVE AND CO.'s PUBLICATIONS.

GEOLOGY.

The Geologist.

A Magazine of Geoloijv, Palfcontoloey, and Mineralogy. Illustrated with highly
finished Wood EngraVings. Editcd^by S. J. Mackie, F.G.S., F.S.A. Published
Monthly. Price 1*. 6</.

Vol. v., numerous Wood Eugiavings, IS*.

CHEMISTRY.

Chemical Analysis, Qualitative and Quantitative.

By Henry M. Noad, Ph.D., F.R.S., F.C.S., Lecturer on Chemistry at St. George's
Hospital. Part 1., ' QUALPrATIVE,' Wood-Engravings, 6s.

[Part II., Quantitative, iti the Press.

GEOGRAPHY.

A Survey of the Harly Geography of Western Eu-
rope, as connected with the First Inhabitants of Britain, their Origin, Language,
Eeligious Rites, and Edifices. By Henry Lawes Long, Esq.

8vo, 6*.

VOYAGES AND TRAVELS.
Three Cities in Russia.

By Professor C. PiAZZi Smyth, F.R.SS.L. & E., Astronomer Royal for Scotland,
Author of ' Teneriffe, an Astronomer's Experiment,' etc.

2 Vols., post 8vo, Maps and Wood-Engravings, 26j.

Travels on the Amazon and Bio Negro,

W^ith an Account of the Native Tribes, and Observations on the Climate, Geology,
and Natural History of the Amazon Valley. By Alfred R. Wallace, Esq.
With Remarks on the Vocabularies of Amazonian Languages, by R. G. Latham,
M.D., F.R.S.

Royal 8vo, 6 plates and maps, 18*.

LOVELL IJEEVK AND CO/s PLliLICATlONS. 11

JFesterii Himalaya and Tibet ;

Narrative of a Journey throusrh the Mountains of Northern India. By Thomas
Thomson, JI.D., Assistant-Surgeon, Bengal Army.

8vo, Tinted Lithographs and Map, 15j.

Travels in the Interior of Brazil^

Principally through the Northern Provinces and the Gold and Diamond Districts.
By George Gardner, M.D., F.L.S. Second Edition.
8vo, Plate and Jlap, 12*.

Narrative of a WalJcing Toicr in Brittany .

By John Moi'Nteney Jf.phson, B.A., F.S.A. Accompanied by Notes of a
Photographic Expedition by Lovicll Reeve, F.L.S.

Royal 8vo, with Map by .\rrowsraith, and Stereoscopic Frontispiece, 12*.;

or with 90 Photographic Vignettes, £2. 2*.

*,* Issued separately are 90 stereographs, mounted on cards for use in the

Stereoscope, in box with lock and key, £4. 4j.

TJie Conway.

■ a\

lOtes

Eitra gilt, 20 stereographs of Welsh Scenery, 21*.

Narrative of a Walking Tour in North Wales; accompanied by Descriptive and
Historical Notes. By J. B. Davidson, Esq., M.A.

ANTIQUITIES.
Manual of British Archceology.

By the Rev. Charles Boutell, M.A.

Contents. — Chap. 1. Architecture. — 2. Architectural Accessories. — 3. Sepulchral
Monuments. — 4. Heraldry. — 5. Seals. — 6. Coins. — 7- Paiaiography, Illuminations
and Inscriptions. — 8. Anns and Armour. — 9. Costumes and Personal Omaments. — 10.
Pottery, Porcelain and Glass. — 11. ^Miscellaneous Subjects.

Royal 16mo, 20 coloured plates, 10*. 6^.

HorcB Ferales.

Studies in the Archaeology of the Northeru Nations. By the late John M.

Kembi.e, M.A. Edited Vy R. G. Latham, M.D., F.R.S., and Ai.orsTus W.

Franks, F S.A. [/« the press.
4to, 30 plates, some coloured, £3. 3*.

13 LOVELL REEVii AND CO.'s PL'BLICATIONS.

PHOTOGRAPHY.

Portraits of Men of Eminence in Literature, Science^

and Art. "With Biographical Memoirs. The Portraits photograplied from Life
by Ernest Edwards, B.A.

lu Monthly Pai-ts, eaeh containing Three Portraits with Memoirs, 2*. 6rf.
The following have appeared : —
PART I. PART III.

Earl Stanhope. Dr. Whf.well.

Sir Charles Lyell. Professor Owen.

J. H. FoLtv, R.A. George Gilbert Scott, R.A.

PART II. PART IV.

W. M. Thackeray. Sir Gardiner Wilkinson.

Sir R. J. MiiRCHisoN. Sir AV. J. Hooker.

David Roberts, R.A. Professor Sterxdale Bennett.

Sketches in India.

Taken at Hyderabad and Secunderabad, in the Madras Presidency. By Captain
Allan N. Scott, Madras Artillery. Edited by C. R. "Weld.
100 Photographic Vignettes, £3. 3*. Mounted as Slides for the Stereoscope, £5. 5*.

The Stereoscopic Magazine.

A Gallery for the Stereoscope of Landscape Scenery, Architecture, Antiquities,
Natural History, Rustic Character, etc. With Descriptions. 2*. &d. Monthly.
3 vols., each complete in itself and containing 50 Stereographs, £2. 2*.

Ste7^eographs in Sets.

Stonyhurst College and its Environs ; Photographed by

Roger Fenton. 15 slides, 15*.
The Conway Stereographs. 20 slides, 20^.
The Brittany Stereographs. 90 slides, in box with lock and

key, £4. 4*.

The Isle of JVight Stereographs. 22 slides, 21s.

Interior of the British Museum. By Roger Fenton, Esq.

25 slides, 25s.

English Castles and Abbeys. 14 slides, 14s.
Foreign Castles and Abbeys. 24 slides, 24*.
English Cathedrals and Churches. 21 slides, 2\s.
Foreign Cathedrals and Churches. 38 slides, 38*.
Calvaries and Crosses. 10 slides, 10*.
Druidical Remains. 6 slides, 6*.

*»* Any of the above Stereographs may be had singly at \s. each; also a List of
440 subjects.

Folding Stereoscopes in cases, 3*. 6<f. each.

LOVELL REEVE AND CO.'s PUBLICATIONS. IS

MISCELLANEOUS.
The Gate of the Pacific.

By Commander Bedford Pim, R.N., F.R.G.S., Assoc. Inst. C.E.
Demy 8vo, 8 Chrome-Lithographs, Maps and Plans. 18*.

Phosphorescence ;

Or, Ihc Emission of Light by Minerals, Plants, and Animals. By Dr. T. L.
Phipson, F.C.S., Member of the Chemical Society of Paris, etc. etc.

Numerous Illustrations, 5.y.

Shakespeare's Sonnets,

Facsimile, by Photo-Zincography, of the First Printed edition of 1609. From the
Copy in the Library of Bridgewater House, by permission of the Right Hon. the
Earl of EUcsmere.

\0s. 6ff.

Literary Papers on Scientific Subjects.

By the late Professor Edward Forbes, F.R.S., selected from his AVritings in the
' Literary Gazette.' With a Portrait and Memoir. •
Small Svo, 6.J.

A Treatise on the Growth and Future Treatment

of Timber Trees. By G. W. Newton, of Ollersett, J.P.
Half-bound calf, \0s. 6rf.

Parks and Pleasure Grounds ;

Or, Practical Notes on Country Residences, Villas, Public Parivs, and Gardens.
By Charles H. J. Smith, Landscape Gardener.
Crown Svo, 6j.

The Planetary and Stellar Universe.

A Series of Lectures. With Illustrations. By R. J. Mann.
12nio, OS.

The Artificial Production of Fish. *

By PiscARius. Third Edi/ion. \s.

The Antiquity of Man.

An Examination of Sir Charles Lyell's recent Work, By S. R. Pattison, F.G.S.
Second Edition. Svo, 1*.

Cotton, and the Want of it.

2 coloured plates by Fitch, 1*.

14 LOVELL REEVE AND CO.'s PUBLICATIONS.

NEW SERIES OF BRITISH NATURAL HISTORIES.
Britisli Flora.

By G. Benthaji. 12*.

British Fungology.

By the Rev. M. J. Berkeley. 2,0s.

British Ferns. -

By Sir W. Hooker. 42j.

British Field Plants,

(The Field Botanist's Companion.) By Thomas Moore. 21*.

British Land and Freshwater MollusTcs.

By LovELL Reeve, F.L.S. 10.s. 6^/.

British Mosses.

Bv the Rev. M. J. Berkeley. 21s.

SERIALS.

Portraits of Men of Eminence.

With Bios^raphical Memoirs. The Photographs by Ernest Edwards, B.A. Three
Portraits, with Memoirs in each Part.

2*. 6^. Mouthly.

Illustrated Handhoolc of the British Flora.

By G. Bentham, F.R.S., President of the Linnean Society. Wood Engravings,
with Dissections, of every Si)ecies, from original Drawings by W. Fitch.
2*. 6r/. Monthly.

Botanical Magazine.

New and Rare Plants. With Descriptions by Sir ^Y. Hooker, D.C.L., F.R.S.,
and 6 coloured plates, with Dissections, i)v W. Fitch.
3*. &d. Monthly.

Floral Magazine :

Kew Popular Garilen Flowers. With Descriptions by the Rev. H. H. Dombrain,
4 coloured plates by Andrews, and a Companion containing News and Original
Articles on Subjects connected with Floriculture.
2*. &d. Monthly.

Select Orchidaceous Plants.

By R. Warner, F.R.H.S.

Folio, 4 superbly coloni-ed plates, 10*. &d. Quarterly.

Conchologia Iconica.

By LovELL Reeve, F.L.S.

4to, 8 coloured plates, 10*. ^lonthly.

Geologist.

Illustrated Magazine of Geology, Paleontology, and Mineralogy.
Wood engravings, 1*. &d. Monthly.

LOVELL ilERVE AND CO.'s PUBLICATIONS. 15

Curtis* British Coleoptera.

5 coloured coppcr-platcs, 2*. 6rf. Monthly.

Curtis'' British Lepidoptera.

5 coloured copper-plates, 2s. 6d. Monthly.

Curtis' British Hijmenoptera.

5 coloured copper-plates, 2*. Orf. Monthly.

Curtis British Diptera.

5 coloured copper-plates, 2*. (Sd. Monthly.

Stereoscopic Magazine.

3 stereographs, with Descriptions, 2*. Cr/. Monthly.

RECENT WORKS.

Berheleys Mosses.

2i poloured plates, 21s.

Bentliams Flora Australieusis.

Vol. I.

Noad's Chemical Analysis.

Part ]., QiAMTATivE, Wood-Enj;ravings, 6«.

Captain Pints Gate of the Pacific.

8 Chromo-Litho^raphs, Maps, and Plans. 18s.

Reeve's British Land and Freshoater Molluslis.

"Wood Engravings. 10*. ^d,

Phipsons Phosphorescence.

Coloured Frontispiece and Wood Engravings, 5j.

Moore's Field Botanist's Companion,

24 coloured plates, 21*.

Professor Smyth's Three Cities in Russia.

2 vols.. Maps and Illustrations, 26*.

Shakespeare's Sonnets. Facsimile of the First Edition.

10*. Gd.

Howard's Nueva Quinologia.

.30 coloured plates, £6.

16 LOVELL REEVE AND Co/s PUBLICATIONS.

Hookers British Ferns.

fi6 coloured plates, 42i.

Hoolcers Garden Ferns.

64 colourcii plates, 42*.

Berkeley s Fmigology.

21 colcurel plates, 30*.

Captain Scott's Sketches in India.

100 photographs, with Descriptions, £3. 3.?.

Grisehach's Flora of the West Indies.

Parts I. to v., each 5*.

Harvey's Phycologia Australica.

Vols. I. to IV., each 30.?.

Patlisons Antiquity of Man.

\s.

Cotton, and the Want of it.

2 coloured plates, 1*.

FORTHCOMING WORKS.

Chemical Analysis, Qualitative and Quantitative.

^ By Dr. Henry M. Noad, F.R.S. [Part II., Quantitativk, in the Press.

Benthams Illustrated Ha^idbook of the British Flora.

" \_PiihIishing Jlonthly.

Curtis' British Fntomology in Orders.

Coi.EOPTERA. {Pnhlisliing Monthly.

Lepidoptera. ,,

Hymenoptera. ,,

DiPTERA. „

Hor(B Ferales.

By the late John M. Kemble, M.A. Edited by Dr. Latham aud A. W.
Franks. \_Nearhj ready.

Seemanns Flora Vitiensis.
Flora Australiensis :

A Description of the Plants of the Australian Territory. By George Bentham,
r.R.S., P.L.S., assisted by Ferdinand Mueller, M.D.,F.R.S. and L.S., Govern-
ment Botanist, Melbourne, Victoria. [_Fot. IT. in preparfifion.

: