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Sage 18o1 Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924080099363 BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. BY THE SAME AUTHOR. FUNGI: THEIR NATURE, INFLUENCES, USES, &c. Edited by the Rev. M. J. BERKELEY. With IJlustrations. Fourth Edition. Crown 8vo, 5s. INTRODUCTION TO FRESH WATER ALGZ, with an Enumeration of all the British Species. With Thirteen Plates. Crown 8vo, ss. LONDON : KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO., Lrp. BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI HOW TO DISTINGUISH AND HOW TO COOK THEM WITH COLOURED FIGURES OF UPWARDS OF FORTY SPECIES BY M. C. COOKE, M.A., LL.D., A.L.S. AUTHOR OF ‘‘ HANDBOOK OF BRITISH FUNGI ;” ‘‘ ILLUSTRATIONS OF BRITISH FUNGI ;” “‘ FUNGI, THEIR NATURE, USES,” ETC. LONDON KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO. Lrp. PATERNOSTER HOUSE, CHARING CROSS ROAD 1891 e PREFACE. FUNGUS eating is on the increase, thanks to Field clubs and their fungus forays, but the complaint has been heard for many years that no efficient hand- book for the guidance of young or inexperienced mycophagists could be found in the English language, One or two laudable attempts have been made, but they have left much to be desired, and for the past ten years my fungus eating friends have continued to urge me, as one of the oldest of fungus eaters, to give the results of my experience. Admirable as Dr Badham’s book was when published, and fully as it answered its purpose then, no one will contend that it is “up to date.” However, the world is large enough for both of us. The list given at the end will re- present all the kinds that I remember to have eaten, and as sixty-five will be considered sufficient to establish my claim to be a fungus eater, it may also be regarded as sufficient to exonerate me from any charge of presumption or inexperience. It has usually been the custom to include poisonous and edible fungi in one book, but from this custom I have diverged, for two or three reasons. It is not com- mendable to popularize knowledge of vegetable 6 PREFACE. poisons easy to procure. It is not advisable to mix the descriptions and figures of good and bad species without distinct labelling, as on a chemist’s bottle, of “ poison” across each noxious species. And it is zot desirable to increase the bulk and cost of a little book which was intended in furtherance of “ fungus eating.” Copious notes have been added on the preparation of the different species for the table, some old and some new, but all practical. By the aid of the descriptions in writing, as untechnical as possible, and the coloured figures, itis hoped that all reasonable care has been taken to prevent error, or danger, in eating mush- rooms or toadstools. If I have rendered the art of fungus eating easier or safer I shall have accomplished my object. M. C. COOKE. LoNnpDoN, 1891. CONTENTS. . FUNGUS EATING . EXPLANATORY . . THE COMMON MUSHROOM . THE MEADOW MUSHROOM . BROWN MUSHROOMS ‘ SHAGGY Caps . PARASOL MUSHROOMS . . ST GEORGE’S MUSHROOM . WARTED Caps . . Dusky Caps . FAIRY RING CHAMPIGNON . MILKY MUSHROOMS . HEDGEHOG MUSHROOMS . SWEET-BREAD MUSHROOMS . THE CHANTARELLE . THE EDIBLE BOLETUS . . OTHER BOLETI . . VEGETABLE BEEF STEAK . PurF BALLS . Burr CAPS AND IvoRY Caps . . OYSTER MUSHROOMS . FRAGRANT MUSHROOMS 102 107 114 121 126 133 138 145 8 CONTENTS. PAGE XXIII. MORELS . : ; : : . 51 XXIV. TRUFFLES , : 5 : . 161 XXV. HORN OF PLENTY } : A . 173 XXVI. Jews’ EARS F 3 : . 176 XXVII. THE RUSSULES . : ‘ : . 183 XXVIII. Stump MUSHROOMS). : : . 189 XXIX. THE SPARASSIS . : ‘ 3 . 193 XXX. FAIRY CLUBS OR CLAVARIA . F . 198 XXXI. MUSHROOM KETCHUP . ; . 201 XXXII. ABouT PoIsoNnouS FUNGI F ‘ . 206 XXXIII. DRIED MUSHROOMS. a A e “213 XXXIV. FunGUS HUNTING : : ; . 218 XXXV. List OF EDIBLE FUNGI , : 2265 EXPLANATION OF PLATES. 1 Fig. 1. ” ” 3 ” ” 4 2 29 5. ” ” 6. ” ” 7 ” oF 8. 3 ” 9. bb) 77 10 ” ” I ft 4 » %&I2. ? ” i3 ” ” 14 ” ” 15 5 » 16. ” ” I 7: » 18 0 ” 19. eed ” 20 7 ” 21. ” ” 22. 8 4423-4. ” ” 25. ” a. 26, ” ” 27. 9 » 28 AGARICUS (AMANITA) RUBESCENS. AGARICUS (AMANITA) VAGINATUS. . AGARICUS (CLITOPILUS) PRUNULUS. . CLAVARIA AMETHYSTINA. AGARICUS (LEPIOTA) PROCERUS. AGARICUS (LEPIOTA) EXCORIATUS. . AGARICUS (CLITOCYBE) FRAGRANS. AGARICUS (CLITOCYBE) ODORUS. AGARICUS (TRICHOLOMA) NUDUS. . AGARICUS (TRICHOLOMA) PERSONATUS. . AGARICUS (TRICHOLOMA) GAMBOSUS. AGARICUS (ARMILLARIA) MUCIDUS. . AGARICUS (COLLYBIA) FUSIPES. . AGARICUS (PLEUROTUS) OSTREATUS. . CLAVARIA VERMICULARIS. AGARICUS (PSALLIOTA) SYLVATICUS. AGARICUS (PSALLIOTA) ARVENSIS. . AGARICUS (PSALLIOTA) HC@MORRHOI- DARIUS. AGARICUS (PSALLIOTA) CAMPESTRIS. . AGARICUS (PSALLIOTA) ELVENSIS. COPRINUS COMATUS. COPRINUS ATRAMENTARIUS. CANTHARELLUS CIBARIUS. HYGROPHORUS VIRGINEUS. HYGROPHORUS PRATENSIS. MARASMIUS OREADES. . LACTARIUS VOLEMUS. . LACTARIUS SUBDULCIS. EXPLANATION OF PLATES. Plate 9 Fig. 30. 31. ‘LACTARIUS DELICIOSUS. ” ” Io 32: 33- 34. 35- 36. 37- 38. 39- 40. 41. 42. 43, 44. LACTARIUS MITISSIMUS. CLAVARIA RUGOSA. BOLETUS EDULIS. BOLETUS SCABER. TUBER ASTIVUM. HYDNUM REPANDUM. RUSSULA VESCA. FISTULINA HEPATICA. CRATERELLUS CORNUCOPIOIDES. MORCHELLA ESCULENTA. MORCHELLA SEMILIBERA. HELVELLA CRISPA. HELVELLA LACUNOSA. HELVELLA ELASTICA. BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. IL—FUNGUS EATING. FUNGUS eating is not a modern idiosyncrasy con- fined to a few enthusiasts, or limited to a few Western States of Europe. It is ancient in its origin, and of wide geographical distribution. If we seek for traces of the practice amongst ancient nations we shall be convinced of its antiquity. In some of the Talmudical treatises mention is made of fungi which were allowed as food. In one treatise it is asked, “With what blessing are fungi to be con- secrated before being eaten?” and, again, we are informed that if a person was under a vow not to eat of the fruits of the earth, this did not prevent him from eating fungi, as such things did not derive nourishment from the soil but from the viscid matter of trees. In another of the treatises it is said that “ The people went out into the fields, and gathered for themselves fungi and boleti.” And there are also Chaldee words which are equivalent to /funge and boleti. This carries the eating of fungi backwards se) BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. to some of the most ancient of civilized peoples. Amongst the old Greeks fungi were certainly eaten, for Athenzeus quotes various authors on the subject. He says there are not many kinds which are good to eat, and that the greater part of them produce a choky sensation. Another author says, “You will be choked, like those who waste away by eat- ing mushrooms,” showing that even then there were persons prejudiced against them. The Romans, too, indulged in the same habits, for there are various allusions in Latin authors to different kinds of fungi. Boleti were in special favour, and truffles next in esteem. One writer declares that the former were so exquisite that it was not safe to send them anywhere by messenger, for he would be sure to eat them by the way. You might send silver and gold, but not boleti. Argentum atque aurum facile est, laenamque togamque, Mittere : boletos mittere difficile est, We read that special vessels (4o/etavia) were used in which to cook the “boleti.” Martial represents one of these as complaining of a degraded use to which it had been applied. It was designed for cooking mushrooms. Alas! it now cooked cabbage sprouts. How often has it been stated, and repeated, that a dish of boleti concealed the poison which Locusta administered to Claudius? These boleti were not the same as now called by that name, but agarics, of FUNGUS EATING. II which Dr Badham declares that the “royal boletus ” served to Caesar was the Agaricus Cesarea, so called in honour of the event. Allusions to fungi in the ancient classics have been so admirably collated and detailed by the Rev. W. Houghton, that it is only necessary to allude to his treatise as the most complete and exhaustive on this subject in any European language. Nevertheless there are one or two quotations specially applicable to fungus eating to which reference may be made here. Celsus says, “If any one shall have eaten noxious fungi let him eat radishes with vinegar and water, or with salt and vinegar; these may be distinguished from the wholesome kinds by their ap- pearance, and can be rendered serviceable by a mode of cooking them.” Dioscorides alludes also to edible fungi, for he writes : “Some people say that the bark of the white and the black poplar, when cut into small pieces and scattered over dunged spaces, will produce edible fungi at all seasons.” Pliny has a great deal to say about fungi, and amongst his other observations he writes: “I will now make some general observations on the cooking of fungi, because this is the only food which dainty voluptuaries themselves prepare with their own hands, and thus, as it were, by anticipation feed on them, using amber knives and silver service. Those 1“Notices of Fungi in Greek and Latin Authors,” by Rev. W. Houghton, M.A., in Anu. Nat. Hist., Jan. 1885. T2 BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI, kinds which remain hard after cooking are injurious, while those which admit of being thoroughly well cooked, when eaten with saltpetre are harmless; they are rendered more safe still if they are cooked with meat, or with pear stalks; indeed, it is good to eat pears immediately after fungi. Vinegar being contrary to them neutralizes their dangerous qualities. All these products appear after showers.” Our purpose being served, by these quotations, to show that edible fungi were known to the ancients, we leave the rest of Mr Houghton’s excellent chapter untouched. Without waiting to demonstrate that in more recent times they are consumed throughout Europe to a far greater extent than in the British Isles, from Russia and Kamtchatka to Austria and Italy, in Germany, Belgium, France, Switzerland, and in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, we follow the practice to the United States of North America, where kinds are eaten, according to Dr Curtis, to which we take exception. He enumerates altogether one hundred and thirty excellent species. During the latter part of the great civil war, the people of the Southern States, being much pressed for food, found fungi of very great importance to them. In the Rocky Mountains other species come in for consump- tion. Finishing first with the Northern Hemisphere, we find fungus eating on the slopes of the Himalayas ; dried morels sold for food in the bazaars of North FUNGUS EATING. 13 Western India; special kinds of agaric, not unlike our own St George’s mushroom, universally con- sidered as a delicacy in Afghanistan; other species known and appreciated in the Punjab, and some others even in Southern India. It is stated in the Eadzn- burgh Review (April 1869), “We have been informed by a gentleman who has lived many years in India that the natives seem to eat fungi promiscuously, chopping up the different species together, without any ill effects.” In the Malay Peninsula, Penang, and the Straits settlements dried fungi are an article of commerce. Seven distinct species are recognised by natives, and eaten at Penang, whilst in China and Japan, especially in China, there is a considerable import trade of dried fungi for soup, as well as an artificial cultivation of similar species in the interior. A large kind of hedgehog mushroom (Hyduzum) is eaten fresh or dried in Japan, and is an article of internal trade. One of the dried species from South Eastern Asia grows on trees, and is not unlike Agari- cus ulmarius. In many parts of Asia the common mushroom is also found, according to the testimony of Europeans, and is eaten by the natives. Southwards, in the New World, fungi are eaten in various countries. In Tierra del Fuego they are for several months the staple food of the country. One of the tree morels (Cyttaria) is called ‘summer fruit,” and is very common on beech trees. It is eaten systematically. A native, when asked what 14 BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. they had to eat, replied, “ Plenty of fish and too much summer fruit.” Another species is found and eaten at Cape Horn. In Brazil some species of agaric, closely allied to the common mushroom, are eaten ; and it seems that fungus eating is not unknown in Chili and Peru. In Northern Africa some European and some in- digenous species are employed as food. Of fungus eating on the western coast we know little, but at the Cape of Good Hope “The Parasol” and the “Common Mushroom” are found and eaten. Some of the native tribes are also mycophagists. At Natal a delicious agaric, called “Umkowaan,” is highly ap- preciated. Throughout the whole of: South Africa fungus eating is in favour, not only of well-known European species, but of some only known as native. From New Zealand and Tahiti immense quantities of dried Jews’ ears are exported to China, but there is no evidence that they are consumed in their native countries. Nevertheless there are other edible fungi in New Zealand which are articles of common con- sumption. The European “mushroom” is found and appreciated throughout the Australian colonies, as well as several indigenous species. Having demonstrated that fungus eating is not a modern invention, or restricted to a few European localities, it may be asked, what reasons can be urged in its favour, and, in reply, we would suggest that it increases the variety of food resources, furnishes FUNGUS EATING. 15 delicate condiments for less highly flavoured dishes, and might afford a nitrogenous meat-substitute in families of very restricted resources. The chief re- quisite for ensuring these results is the wider diffusion of useful information. In illustration we will quote some pertinent remarks by Dr Curtis, applied by him to the United States, but capable of a wider applica- tion. “Hill and plain, mountain and valley, woods, fields, and pastures swarm with a profusion of good, nutritious fungi, which are allowed to decay where they spring up, because people do not know how, or are afraid, to use them. By those of us who know their use, their value was appreciated, as never before, during the late war, when other food, especially meat, was scarce and dear. Then such persons as I have heard express a preference for mushrooms over meat had generally no need to lack grateful food, as it was easily had for the gathering, and within easy distance of their homes, if living in the country. Such was not always the case, however. I remember once, during the gloomy period when there had been a protracted drought, and fleshy fungi were to be found only in damp, shaded woods, and but few even there, I was unable to find enough of any one species for a meal, so, gathering of every kind, I brought home thirteen different kinds, had them all cooked together in one grand fot pourri, and made an excellent supper.” This is further corroborated by an incident narrated by the Rev. M. J. Berkeley. “Our schoolmaster,” 16 BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. he says, “was a person of some scientific information. At atime when he could not afford to buy meat, he told me himself that he kept his family for several months upon different species of mushrooms. He was a person who was able to distinguish between that which was good and that which was bad, and he collected them himself.” If we have not made out a case for fungus eating, it is not from any lack of feeling in favour of it. From experience we have learnt that preaching is not half so successful as practice in carrying con- viction, and we doubt if we have not made more converts by prevailing upon them to eat of dishes set before them at our instigation, than by writing up their virtues in books. There is always a latent timidity, at least in most minds, of committing a mistake, and being poisoned; or else there is a scepticism that substitutes are never so good as originals. In this case the error consists in regard~- ing as substitutes for mushrooms viands which are not proposed as substitutes, but as supplementary. Fungus eaters do not appreciate the ordinary mush- room the less because they can eat of fifty other kinds “ without fear and trembling,” and without any question of competition being present in their minds. As in nature there is endless variety in form and colour, so in fungi there is great variety in flavour, instead of a uniform sameness. Let those who doubt read on, and profit by the succeeding chapters. EXPLANATORY. L7 ' IL_EXPLANATORY. NOTWITHSTANDING all the efforts which have been made during the past twenty years to diffuse informa- tion concerning the use of fungi as food, there still remains a vast amount of prejudice to overcome, and the necessity for the diffusion of knowledge is almost. as great as ever. In the time of our grandfathers it was almost universally believed that our islands pro- duced but one kind of fungus which was edible, and that was denominated the “mushroom ;” all the rest. were classed together as dangerous, and were only known as “toadstools.” That this was a popular error has now come to be acknowledged, but hardly to the extent of admitting that we have not less than eighty different species which may be cooked and sent to table. A courageous lady of our acquain-. tance confesses to having cooked and eaten as many as sixty without the slightest accident or inconvenience. As may be expected, these are not all equally good, possessing a variety of flavour, and a difference of texture; and as tastes differ, so there will be a diversity of opinion as to relative merits, but, it being admitted that all are edible, it must be left to indivi- dual tastes to select those which please. them best. Neither must it be expected that all aré equally available for the same purposes, or are capable of B y? 18 BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. being prepared in the same manner. There is as much art in cooking a fungus as in selecting one for that purpose, although it is an art which, in both cases, may be readily acquired. If popular prejudice has, on the one hand, limited the number of edible species to its lowest quantity, it has, on the other hand, proportionately increased the number of dangerous species to an alarming extent. It was undoubtedly the prevailing opinion, not many years ago, that every fungus was poisonous which was not a veritable “mushroom.” The lowest estimate we can give of the number of species of gill-bearing fungi, of the mushroom type, which have been found in the British Islands, is eleven hundred, and yet of these there are comparatively few which are known to be positively dangerous. It is true that those which are known are, for the most part, very virulent, yet the number cannot be demonstrated to reach one hundred. There are others, of course, which are tasteless, insipid, bitter, or unpleasant, and unfit for food, although not absolutely poisonous; but the most alarming estimates have no foundation in fact. It must always be remembered that a fungus which may be perfectly harmless if cooked and eaten whilst fresh would just as probably be deleterious if gathered and kept for a day or two, without cooking. Chemi- cal changes take place so rapidly that they cannot be cooked too soon, and not even the common mush- room should be kept longer than possible. It would EXPLANATORY. 19 be a good cardinal maxim always to “cook without delay.” Like the caution on the physic bottle, “before taken to be well shaken,” it is homely but wholesome. The question is often propounded, Is there no general rule by which good or harmless fungi can be distinguished from those which are deleterious? Many attempts have been made to answer this question, but none of them are satisfactory, except the negative one, to the effect that no rule can be laid down which shall be of universal application in the discrimination of dangerous fungi. The only safeguard is to become acquainted, by means of well-defined features, with some of the best of the esculent species, and by no means to experiment with those which are unknown. It is true that this process will entail the trouble of learning something, but better far to acquire the necessary elementary information than run the risk of mishap. We have always protested against foolish risks, and cautioned would-be fungus eaters against cooking and eating any kinds which they do not know unmistakably. There is no difficulty in recognising all the best kinds by means of ordinary intelligence and care, and, when once known, so as to be distinguished from others somewhat like them, or from all the rest, then there is no fear of error. Good fungi have usually a pleasant mushroomy odour, a smell of new meal, a faint scent resembling anise, or no particular odour at all. Then, again, a fragment 20 BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. broken off from the freshly-gathered fungus, if tasted, should possess an agreeable nutty flavour, with no acridity, sharpness, or tingling upon the tongue. And, further, it is a most suspicious indication of bad qualities if a fungus when broken, cut, or bruised speedily turns of a deep blue or greenish colour. Avoid, therefore, al] fungi with a disagreeable odour, a pungency of flavour, and a tendency to become blue when bruised. In order to facilitate our progress hereafter, and to prevent repetition, it will be advisable at once to explain the general features of a gill-bearing fungus, of the mushroom type, with as little technicality as possible. When these few simple terms are thoroughly comprehended they can be alluded to without explanation. Annexed is the outline of a section cut through a fungus of the above kind, from top to bottom. It will often be found very useful and instructive to cut down such fungi as may be met with, and compare the one with the other, care- ~ fully noting the minute differences. In the woodcut a is the péleus, or cap, and 6 the stem which supports it. The under side of the pileus, or cap, is occupied by a series of parallel plates, or gills, c, which radiate. from the stem to the margin of the cap. A little way down the stem is an indication, d, of the annulus, or ring, which adheres to and surrounds the stem. Some species have no ring, so that it is always of importance to ascertain at once if the individual EXPLANATORY. 2I under examination has a ring or not. ‘The stem is sometimes solid throughout, and sometimes hollow in the centre ; and in a few cases is so short'as to be scarcely visible. There is sometimes a loose, or fixed, volva, or sheath, at the base of the stem, but it is only present in one or two species which are edible, and is not shown in the woodcut. In passing, it may be remarked that, although the greater number of fleshy fungi have the radiating plates, or gills, on the under side of the pileus, or cap, yet there are some in which the gills are replaced by tubes or pores, or else by acute spines or teeth. The gill-plates are variable in colour in different species, and it is important that this colour should 22 BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. always be observed. Having found your mushroom or toadstool, cut off the stem as close as possible to the gills, then place the pileus, with the gills down- wards, on a piece of paper, and let them remain for a few hours, or throughout the night. When re- moved, a very fine dust will be observed to have been thrown down on the paper from the gills. This dust consists of the spores (or seeds) of the fungus, which were produced on the naked gills, and have fallen when mature. This deposit of spores will either be white, salmon-coloured, brown, or tawny, dark brown, or black. In the common mushroom, for instance, they are of a dark purple brown. A great number of species which have purple brown spores are edible, whilst it is very rare indeed for a species with salmon-coloured spores to be worth eat- ing, and some are poisonous. The colour of the gills, and of the spores, are of considerable importance, and must be taken into account in determining a fungus. When collecting fungi it is advisable to take into account where they were found growing, whether in woods, or in open lawns and pastures, because those which are found in woods are not found in the “open,” and vice versé. Again, those which habitually grow on rotting stumps and decayed trees, are to be rarely found elsewhere. Very few good edible species are to be found growing on trees. There is an erroneous opinion extant, especially in rural districts, that all fungi which are good to eat EXPLANATORY. 23 grow on the ground in open places, and that if the cuticle or skin of the pileus cannot be peeled off easily it is-unfit for food. Many excellent species will be found growing in woods, and the peeling of the cuticle is no general test. Instances have been observed and recorded in which the same fungus, cooked and served at the same table, has been eaten and enjoyed without inconvenience by the majority of persons present, whereas one individual has been affected injuriously, and exhibited symptoms of fungus poisoning. We are personally acquainted with one man who can never eat a fragment of the ordinary mushroom, either by itself, or as a condiment, without suffering very severely in consequence. Such cases may be exceptional, but the good or bad qualities of the mushroom must not be determined by exceptional cases. Even cultivated mushrooms have been known to possess evil qualities when grown under peculiar conditions, or when they have become infested with a minute parasite. All fungi to be eaten should be well grown, clean, and fresh, and also cooked in such a manner as to be digestible, and not spoilt in the kitchen. These preliminary observations will enable us now to proceed with the details of species to be recommended, on the faith of a long personal ex- perience. 24 BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. IIL—THE COMMON MUSHROOM. IN most countries, and in past times as’ well as the present, the common mushroom (Agaricus campestris) has been held to occupy the place of honour amongst edible fungi. In Europe, Asia, America, and Australia it is equally esteemed, as it is, fortunately, thus widely distributed over the world, and readily recognized by natives or migrants, without fear or accident. That there are others equally good, and to some tastes better, is not yet an article of general faith, and so the “mushroom ” continues to hold its reputation of pre-eminence. The roughest rustic, and the plainest of cooks, equally deem themselves capable of decid- ing between a “mushroom” and a “toadstool,” and, truth to tell, seldom make any mistake. Whether it be necessary or not, it is expedient that we give a brief outline of its principal features for the discrim- ination of this fungus as found growing wild. The cultivated varieties differ a little in appearance, but are usually safe. The mushroom is found growing amongst short grass in parks, lawns, and open places, and seldom exceeds three or four inches in diameter of the pileus, or cap, and often less. The stem is scarcely so long as the diameter of the pileus, and is proportionately thick. The upper part of the stem is encircled by THE COMMON MUSHROOM. 25 a collar or ring, like a frill, the outer edge of which is at first united to the edge of the pileus, covering the gills, and only breaks away as the pileus expands, and then falls down to form the collar round the stem. This ring is rather thin, and easily torn, so that some- times it is brushed away, or falls, leaving behind only a thin line, or scar, to show where it has been. The whole pileus and stem is of a creamy whiteness at first, but becomes a little darker with age. To the finger the texture of the surface resembles that of a soft kid glove, and the outer skin may be peeled off from the margin upwards, nearly to the top, in flakes. If this fungus is cut through the middle of the pileus and downwards through the stem, the flesh of the cap will be seen to be thick, and white, sometimes turning a little browner when cut. To the taste it somewhat resembles a filbert, tinged with a characteristic mush- room flavour. The gill-plates, radiating from the stem, do not grow to it, but are free from the stem, and of a delicate pink colour, which they retain for some time, changing at length, with age, to dark purple brown. This is an excellent character to be observed and borne in mind, that the pink gills of the young mushrooms become dark purple brown. There are “toadstools” (for so we may call them) which have the gills pink, not changing to dark brown, and some of these are dangerous. All good mushrooms (of this species) should have the gills at first pzz%, nearly white when in the “button” state, and at length dark purple 26 BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. brown, and the spores which cover the gills are of the same colour. When the stem is cut off, and the cap laid gills downwards on a sheet of white paper for a few hours, or all night, the spores will fall on the paper in lines, and will appear almost black. It is a popular error that mushrooms grow to their full size during a single night, and that they dissolve and vanish after the sun shines uponthem. They are rapid in growth, and rapid in decay; but the same mushroom may be watched growing and expanding for two or three days, and then gradually decaying away. Much depends on the dampness or dryness of the season. In some seasons they are exceedingly plentiful, whilst at other times they are comparatively rare. This also is believed to depend chiefly on climatic conditions. It is not unusual for cultivated mushrooms to become attacked by a parasitic mould which renders them unfit for food. This misfortune rarely happens to the wild form, until it is in process of decay. Stables, outhouses, and cellars may be utilised for the cultivation of mushrooms, and by ordinary care success is almost certain. They may be grown also in boxes and placed almost anywhere, so long as the temperature and humidity is attended to. The French are fond of growing them in cellars and caves, The catacombs of Paris are noted for their produc- tion of mushrooms in immense quantities. From the Méry caves as many as 3000 pounds are sometimes THE COMMON MUSHROOM. 27 sent to market daily. In this country cave culture seems to be almost, if not quite, unknown. Bricks of mushroom spawn may be purchased of almost any seedsman, and if manure can be obtained, domestic cultivation might be much more common than it iss We have heard of a crop being grown in a hatbox, and we have seen them flourishing under the shelves in a greenhouse. Of course, some per- sons are far more successful than others, as is the case with flowering plants. Experience teaches wisdom. The following method of cultivation has ‘been re- commended, and is often quoted :—“ Collect a suffi- cient 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 capable 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 28 BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. 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 with the spade. If the temperature of the house is kept about 60° or 65°, mushrooms may be expected in six weeks. It is not well to water the beds much, particularly when bearing.” But nearly every good cultivator has his own method, or modification, and is prepared to believe chiefly in himself. . If there are different methods of cultivation, so there are different methods also of cooking mush- rooms, the two old popular methods of grilling, or stewing, notwithstanding. Open grilling, or frying, _is by no means to be recommended for any fungi, especially those of delicate flavour.. The best plan is to lay them, when prepared, in a plate, or shallow dish, and cover them with another, and then place them in an oven, so that they are cooked gradually, and all the aroma and delicate flavour retained, all necessary adjuncts, such as butter, salt, pepper, or gravy having been added. When fried or grilled, whilst exposed, much of the aroma and flavour dis- appears up the chimney. A modification of the above method may thus be formulated :—Having picked a number of freshly-gathered mushrooms, cut them in pieces, wash in cold water, and dry them in a cloth. Put them in a pan, with butter, parsley, salt, and pepper; cover closely, and place them over THE COMMON MUSHROOM. 29 a brisk fire. When ready, add cream and yolk of egg to bind them together. Some persons prefer, after cutting, to soak them in oil for one or two hours, add a piece of garlic instead of parsley, and cook as before. When ready, chopped parsley and lemon juice may be added. Stewed mushrooms may be prepared by selecting the yqunger specimens, which are not fully expanded ; wash in cold water, and dry with a cloth; chop quite finely, put them in a stewpan with a little butter and pepper; let them stand over a brisk fire, and when the butter is melted, squeeze in lemon juice, and add jelly broth, according to quantity; stew until reduced to the consistency of pea soup, and serve with meat, fish, or poached eggs. A correspondent has kindly placed at our disposal a curious old formula copied from an old common- place book of the early part of the seventeenth century. It is very interesting on account of its antiquity, and as such is worthy of a place in the present work. “TO DRESS A DISH OF FUNGEE.” _“Take them fresh gathered and put them betweene two dishes, and sett them on a Chaifing Dish of Coles, and there lett them Stewe, but put nothing to them in the first Stewing for they will Yeald Liquor enough of them selves, and When all the Water is 30 BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. stewed out of them, power that Liquor Cleane from them and put a good quantitye of Sallitt Oyle unto them and Stewe them therein. Wringe in the joyce of one or two Leamons, or else putt in some Vinniger and put in a little Nuttmegg and two or three Blades of Mace. “Tf your Lord or Lady Loves not Oyle, Stewe them with a Little Sweete Butter and a little White Wine.” Approved methods of cooking mushrooms are known to every experienced cook, and need not be repeated; most persons believe them good almost any way. Inthe same manner mushroom catsup— or, as locally called, “mushroom ketchup ”—may be readily manufactured. Unfortunately, very much of that decoction which is sold under the name of “ cat- sup” is of questionable origin, and often innocent of mushrooms. Those who desire to possess good “catsup” should make it for themselves, as the process is easy. To know whether “catsup” is- genuine, or only imitation, it is only necessary to submit a drop to the microscope, and search for the spores of the mushroom, which remain intact, 7 present, and in considerable number. Probably the result will not be satisfactory when compared side by side with the home made article. THE MEADOW MUSHROOM. 31 IV.—THE MEADOW MUSHROOM. NEXT in importance to the common mushroom, and often confounded with it, is the meadow mushroom (Agaricus arvensis), sometimes called, by way of distinction, the horse mushroom, a name most common in rural districts. Country people generally discriminate between these two species, and hold that whilst it is larger, and more imposing, the horse mushroom is not so good to eat, but that it is stronger and better for making ketchup than the genuine mushroom. There are some persons who contend that, for all purposes, the fuller flavour of the meadow mushroom makes it preferable to the smaller species found in parks and lawns, or by the roadside. The distinctions between them, beside the places in which they grow, are that the cap of the horse mushroom, when expanded, is sometimes as large as a dessert plate, often six inches, and quite smooth, having the texture of a good kid glove. They are more gregarious in habit, sometimes forming large rings; or parts of rings, and the gills are zof at first pink, but dirty white. When cut or bruised the flesh turns yellowish brown, more or less deep, and in age the gills are almost black. This is the kind most commonly exposed for sale at greengrocers’ shops in London and its vicinity, and undoubtedly is the 32 BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. fungus with which the ordinary Cockney is most practically acquainted. It certainly has a stronger odour than the true mushroom, and a stronger flavour, especially when raw. We have often found it very agreeable to gather and eat fresh young specimens of the mushroom, whilst the gills are still pink. Not only agreeable, but useful, for when abroad on a day’s excursion, one or two of these raw specimens are an excellent substitute for sandwiches, as they satisfy hunger, are nutritive and digestible, and very pleasant and grateful to the palate. Young specimens of the -horse mushroom may be eaten in the same manner, butin this state they are not so agreeable. Either of them may be sliced and placed inside a sandwich, as a sort of condiment, with good results. Persoon says that the horse mushroom is superior to the common mushroom in smell, taste, and digestibility, for which reasons it is generally preferred in France. Allusion has already been made to the large size of this species. An instance has been recorded of a specimen weighing five pounds and six ounces and measuring forty-three inches in circumference. Withering, the botanist, mentions another which weighed fourteen pounds. We have had no experience of specimens exceeding ten or twelve inches in diameter, although we have been told that they will attain as much as twenty or twenty-four inches, but. of this we must beg to remain sceptical. There is something so characteristic in this, as well THE MEADOW MUSHROOM. 33 as the common mushroom, that we cannot help feeling surprise that anyone, with an ordinary amount of common-sense, should confound them with anything else. There is no other species found at the same season of the year and in the same localities with which it could be confused. In most cases of fungus poisoning which have come under notice there must have been recklessness or profound ignorance, for the fungi eaten, wherever identified, bear no resemblance to the common or the meadow mushroom. A cartoon was issued in one of the public journals a few years ago, in which a buxom damsel was represented as returning from collecting fungi, and meeting the Squire, who was in the act of cautioning her as to the result of her proceedings. “You can’t be too parti- cular—dangerous things, mushrooms.” To which the damsel replies, “ It doesn’t much matter ; they’re only for my mother-in-law.” Cautions are proverbially useless now as well as in older times, when every little wood or coppice was adorned with a notice- board, on which was written, ‘“ Man-traps and spring- guns set here.” There is a large variety (called vi//aticus) of the meadow mushroom, which also attains ten or twelve inches in diameter, and is quite as good an article of food, but unfortunately it is rare. The principal difference resides in the surface of the cap or pileus, which is much darker, and broken up into a great number of flat scales; these are darker still, and lie Cc 34 BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. so flat as to appear to be glued down to the surface. This variety is mentioned here on account of the difference in its appearance, which would ensure its rejection by a careful person as not agreeing with our description of “a smooth, whitish cap, like a kid glove.” The stem is often two inches thick, or even more, but short in proportion, and nearly solid. It is so rare a form that even those persons who are addicted to the study of fungi from year to year have most of them never seen it. It is needless to refer to similar rare varieties in a chapter of this kind, which is not intended for the professional fungus hunter, to whom alone they have any interest. For some obscure reason this kind of mushroom has sometimes been called the St George’s mushroom, and by this name it is believed to be known in Hungary, where the inhabitants regard it as the special gift of St George. But there is another, and quite a different mushroom, commonly found in this country in spring, to which the name “St George’s mush- room” is applied with more reason, since it makes its appearance about the time of St George’s Day. To this genuine, St George we shall have to refer again in detail, and only allude to it here in order to protest against the horse mushroom being dedicated to the saint. Several different kinds of fungi have had the credit of forming “fairy-rings” on the grass in meadows, and the horse mushroom is one of these, from its habit \ THE MEADOW MUSHROOM. 35 of often growing in rings, but it is not the real Fairy Ring champignon. In all matters of cooking the same processes may be used indiscriminately for the common mushroom and the horse mushroom. In addition to the recom- mendations in the chapter devoted to the common mushroom, we may give a few others for the sake of variety. The novelty of potted mushrooms may be secured by selecting small open specimens, which should be trimmed of their stems, and rubbed ; a quart of these with three ounces of butter, two teaspoonfuls of salt, half a teaspoonful of a mixture of cayenne pepper and ground mace, or grated nutmeg, should be stewed for ten or fifteen minutes, or until the mushrooms are tender. Take them out and drain them on a sloping dish, and when cold press them into small pots, and pour clarified butter over them, in which state they will keep for a week or two. If required to be kept longer writing paper must be cut to the size and laid over the butter, and melted suet poured over it. In this manner they may be kept several weeks in a cool dry place. Pickled mushrooms are a favourite with some persons, although others may object to them on the ground that they lose so much of their flavour in the process as to be scarcely recognisable. It is usual to select those which are called “button mushrooms ” in which the edge of the cap is not parted from the stem, but retains still its globose shape. The stems are 36 BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. cut off short, so that the fungus resembles a little white ball, perhaps not more than an inch in diameter. They should be rubbed quite clean, and laid in salt. and water for forty-eight hours. Sufficient vinegar should be boiled with black pepper and mace, with a clove or two, and then stood aside till quite cold. The mushrooms should be packed closely in wide- mouthed bottles, a little pepper sprinkled over them, and then covered with the vinegar, and corked close. In this manner they should keep for years. There is an old-fashioned method which is simple and excellent for the large horse mushroom. It consists in peeling off the cuticle of the cap, and then cutting the stem close to the gills. Lay them with the gills upwards in a shallow dish, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and place a lump of butter in the centre of each. Cover close and place in an oven. Or, in default of this, cook in an enamelled frying pan, keeping them still covered until done. When ready serve on toast. Stuffed mushrooms are recommended by a French author to be thus prepared. Take mushrooms of a medium size, and prepare for them at the same time the following stuffing. A piece of butter, grated bacon, some bread crumbs, sweet herbs, garlic, accord-- ing to taste, salt, coarse pepper, and the least morsel of spice ; when these are all well mixed, turn over the mushrooms with the gills upwards, clear away the stems and fill the hollow with this stuffing ; then wrap BROWN MUSHROOMS. 37 each in paper, and cook them in a pan, adding a spoonful of oil as occasion may require. If preferred, a few slices of fowl or game may be added. Doubtless it would not be difficult to collect together one hundred recipes for cooking mushrooms, but this is not our present duty. We have furnished sufficient for ordinary use, and feminine ingenuity may suggest others. It cannot be too often repeated that the fresher the mushrooms are at the time of cooking the better will be the result. A connoisseur will detect, almost at once, the difference between the flavour of the common and the horse mushroom. And so with all other species; no two of them are precisely the same, so that, when other species are recommended, it must not be presumed that, when cooked, they will be precisely like the mushroom, because they will be precisely different. V.—BROWN MUSHROOMS. UNDER the title of “Brown Mushrooms” we must have a few words to say on two or three kinds, which resemble in many points the ordinary mushroom, are equally excellent, but are unfortunately by no means common. SCALY BROWN MUSHROOM (Agaricus Elvensis).— We have never had the good fortune to meet with 38 BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. this kind of mushroom more than three or four times ; and then it was collected under the drip of large oak trees in pastures. It was first of all found in this country, but has since been met with in France. For size it exceeds the common mushroom, but is scarcely so large as the horse mushroom, and usually grows gregariously, a number together, though not forming aring. It differs from both the above in being much darker coloured, almost purplish brown, with the top of the cap, or pileus, broken up into large brown scales, which are somewhat conical towards the margin. This scaly cap gives it a most remarkable appearance, but the odour is,so “mushroomy” that it would at once be supposed to be a near relation of the mushroom, notwithstanding the great difference in appearance. The gills at first are of a brownish flesh colour, becoming dark purplish brown, like those of the mushroom, with age. The ring around the stem is large, warted on the under side, but soon hanging down like a turn-down collar. When cut through the cap the thick, firm flesh will be found of a dirty white, but not changing colour, or very slightly, on exposure to the air. When fully ex- panded the cup is generally five or six inches in diameter, and the stem is proportionately robust. The flavour, when cooked, has been strongly com: mended by all who have experienced it. Some have gone so far as to declare it superior to the finest mushroom ever eaten, and all have confessed it in BROWN MUSHROOMS. 39 every way equal to the best. It has not, like many edible species, a flavour peculiar to itself, but entirely of the mushroom kind, resembling the cultivated varieties rather than the wild ones, and not so strongly flavoured as the horse mushroom. The mode of cooking is precisely that of ordinary mush- rooms, but we decidedly prefer them grilled or fried with butter, and served on toast. We have only found them in the latter part of August and begin- ning of September, and never singly but always in sufficient number to furnish half a dozen persons with a satisfactory breakfast. Although we never have failed to search the same spot, year by year, at the same period, we have been disappointed, in some seasons, in finding no trace of them; but in succeed- ing years they have appeared again. BLEEDING BROWN MUSHROOM (Agaricus hemorr- hoidartus).—Although this fungus is often found at the foot of oaks, yet we have never met with it in open pastures, but always in woods, chiefly by the side of roads, and paths, running through woods, and never more than two or three together, often solitary. In appearance it differs from the above, in that the colour is almost that of the ground on which it grows, so that it may be passed over as a lump of soil, when not fully expanded. The colour may be described as wholly of a dirty brown, something like brick earth, or clayey soil, and the pileus is not so distinctly scaly as the foregoing, the scales being smaller, and more 40 BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. closely pressed to the flesh. It cannot by any means be termed attractive, especially as it turns darker, and lurid, wherever pressed or bruised, and when cut or broken becomes of a dull blood-red. We have seldom seen it exceed four or five inches in diameter, and often less. The stem is generally a little swollen at the base, and of a dirty light brown colour, as well as the large pendulous ring. The gills are at first flesh-coloured, with a rosy tinge, but at length become of a dark purple umber, scarcely different from that of the common mushroom. We have no knowledge of any species with which this could possibly be confounded, if the change of colour to lurid red when cut or bruised is borne in mind. It is true that there are others with a tinge of red on the stem, but none in which it takes the appearance of bleeding when wounded. It may be taken for granted that this also is a rare species, or at any rate a sporadic and local one, and if it were not so re- markable, and such excellent eating, would scarcely warrant a notice. Nothing can be added of methods of preparing this species for the table at all different from those in vogue for the common mushroom. We do not recognize anything peculiar in its flavour, which could distinguish it from the mushroom. It is not so juicy or delicate flavoured as the scaly brown mushroom, but, for all that, it is entirely of the mushroom type, and even a connoisseur would fail to BROWN MUSHROOMS. 41 distinguish them. There is a variety of the common mushroom described by Berkeley, under the name of rufescens, which is said to grow in pastures, the flesh of which turns a bright red when bruised. The gills of this variety are described as quite white when young. We have never seen anything like this, and suspect that it may have been some accidental variety, or at any rate such a rare occurrence that it has never appeared again. Woop MUSHROOM (Agaricus silvaticus).—This is by no means uncommon in woods, but scattered and solitary, or seldom more than two or three together. It is hardly like the ordinary mushroom in appear- ance, and hence is often a puzzle to young fungus hunters. The stem is thin and lanky, usually a little thickened at the base, and, when cut, it exhibits a hollow, like a tube, down the centre. The pileus is brown and fibrous, or covered with little darker scales, and the flesh is thinner than in any of the species we have as yet enumerated. The most common size is for the pileus to-be about three inches across, and the stem five or six inches high, and scarcely half an inch thick, except at the base. The ring round the stem is thin, like a membrane, becoming dark brown, and situated at a considerable distance down the stem, so that it is at length but little above the middle, between the under side of the cap and the ground. The gills are thin and crowded, and have rather a reddish tinge at first, but very soon turn 42 BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. brown, and are ultimately as dark as in the horse mushroom. The stem is always whitish, or yellowish white, except when stained with the spores. Un- luckily insects are fond of it, and the pileus and top of the stem, when mature, are generally “mag- goty.” This is but little inferior to the mushroom in its edible qualities, although we can scarcely consider it equal to that, or either of the above named. It is deficient in aroma, and not so delicate in flavour, and as the pileus is thin, there is very little flesh when cooked ; but it may be accepted as a substitute for the mushroom, and may be mixed with other species in the preparation of “ketchup.” There are no special methods of cooking it, except, it may be said scarcely to merit stewing, and to be unfit for pickling. This concludes what we may term the ¢vwe mush- room group of edible species, in which the flavour is all similar but differing chiefly in delicacy or intensity. There are therefore five species worthy of recom- mendation, namely, the common mushroom, growing in parks, pastures, or lawns; the horse mushroom, found usually in meadows or damp pastures; the scaly brown mushroom, growing in company under the drip of oak trees; the bleeding mushroom found by roadsides in woods; and the wood mushroom not uncommon under trees in woods. To all these we may add the cultivated varieties of the common BROWN MUSHROOMS. 43 mushroom, which are raised artificially from mush- room spawn. In all these the spores are small, elliptical, and of a very dark brown, almost black colour ; indeed they seem to be black when thrown down upon white paper, but decidedly brown when viewed by transmitted light under the microscope. When alluding to some of the modes of cooking, as applied to the common mushroom, we omitted men- tion of one which will commend itself to all whose stomachs will bear rich food, without fear of bilious results. It consists in cleaning and slicing up the mushrooms, and boiling, or stewing them very gently in milk—just enough to cover them. When suffici- ently stewed add salt and spice, a lump of butter, and thicken with good thick cream; stir them well to- gether and serve. Wherever the richness of the dish is no obstacle, this will be found an improvement on the old method of stewing in water, and thickening with flour, or even to stewing in gravy or stock. Let no one blame the mushrooms in the event of this dish disagreeing with them, since it must be evident _ that it would be a rash venture with a delicate ,Stomach. 44 BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. VI.—SHAGGY CAPS. A DECEASED friend always characterised the fungus about which we are now to write as “the fungus of civilization,” and the reason alleged for this cogno- men was that it was always to be found near human dwellings. There is no doubt of the fact that the fungus known by the scientific name of Coprznus comatus commonly makes its appearance, in the metropolitan area, on waste places and clearings which are being operated upon by the house-builder, so that it is in such spots that we invariably go in search of it for domestic purposes. There is no universal common name for this characteristic fungus, although it has by some been called the “Maned Agaric” and the “Shaggy Caps.” Perhaps the latter is as good an appellation as we could find, as will be manifest from the description. It is rarely found growing singly, but usually in clusters, bursting through the ground like the dirty white tops of pigeon’s eggs ; but the cap or pileus is from the first elongated and cylindrical, and not egg- shaped or oval. When fully grown it will measure fully six inches from the ground to its apex, and often nine or ten inches. The cap itself seldom exceeds four or five inches, in shape almost like an extinguisher, with a rounded top, or rather an inverted SHAGGY CAPS. 45 tumbler, the diameter being less than half the height. The stem is long, erect, and a little taper- ing towards the top, nearly smooth, and quite white, from half an inch thick. The cap is dirty white, with a tinge of ochre on the top, covered with shaggy threads, which hang together like dependent scales, fringing also the edge of the cap. When cut down the centre the gill plates will be seen to be very broad and lanceolate, tapering to each extremity, reaching to the stem, but not attached to it. At first they are white, but soon, become darker, with a lilac tint, towards the edge, and finally pass from a dingy purple to black. It is not unusual for the gills, when changing, to have a rosy tinge. There is one peculiarity which distinguishes this (and all species of Coprinus) from the true Agarics, and that consists in the gills, after full maturity, melting away into a black inky fluid, and falling in drops to the ground. After being some time gathered, even if immature, instead of drying up, the whole mass, excepting the stem, deliquesces, passing into a dark slimy mass. In this condition it has by no means a prepossessing appearance. Whilst fresh and firm it is neat, if not attractive, although usually fragments of the soil attach themselves to the pileus, reminding one of a dirty street Arab, to which it has some analogy. The spores are large, many times larger than those of the cornmon mushroom, and very black. At the first there is a loose membranous collar, or ring, 46 BRITISH ‘EDIBLE FUNGI. around the stem, but this soon disappears. It seems impossible for any person, in full possession of their senses, to confound this with any other known species, or if so, with one closely related to it, and equally harmless. We have many a time and oft been cautioned by the natives whilst collecting these fungi that they were only “nasty toadstools,” and some have gone so far as to declare them “rank p’ison,” although, in point of fact, they are far more uni- versally wholesome than the ordinary mushroom, and have never been known to cause the slightest inconvenience. For cooking. purposes these fungi should be gathered before the gills turn black, although when quite black they may be converted into good “ cat- sup.” The caps being so commonly sandy, or sprinkled with fragments of soil, should be washed. and then wiped dry, which process will remove most of the scaly threads. The cuticle will not peel off as in the mushroom. In flavour, when cooked in any way, it much resembles the mushroom, to which it is quite equal, if not superior. In one particular it possesses an advantage, since it is clearly more digestible, and less likely to disagree with persons of delicate constitutions. The old caution should not need repetition—always to cook all fungi as soon as possible after they are gathered, for then they are in their greatest perfection, Amongst the rural popula- tion there is a strong prejudice against this species SHAGGY CAPS, 47 which, in common with another to be presently referred to, are, almost more than any others, desig- nated “ toadstools” by way of contempt. There is another fungus, closely related to the above, and resembling it in many particulars, which is equally edible, and nearly equal to it in flavour. The “Inky Mushroom” (Coprinus atramentarius) re- ceived that name because, when it becomes old, the gills melt away into a thick, black, inky fluid, which may be used as ink. In this respect it-resembles the “Shaggy Caps” above described, only that perhaps it deliquesces rather more readily. It grows in dense clusters, mostly about old stumps, or from buried decayed wood, or, not unfrequently, by waysides, in gardens, and on lawns, without any suspicion of dead wood ; but it never grows on dung or manure. The cap is grey or slaty-colour, smooth and shining, often compressed laterally, and grooved. The top is generally rather dawny, sprinkled at first with small scales, and the margin rather lobed or scalloped. The gills are much the same as in the previous species, which it equals in size. Perhaps more than any other this is the victim of spiteful molestation by small boys and uneducated peasantry, for every exposed cluster is sure to be kicked about and de- stroyed almost as soon as it appears above ground. The reason for this may be found in the popular belief that it is a poisonous toadstool, and certainly when in the stage of decay it is not in the least 48 BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. inviting. Even when young the livid grey colour is not attractive, and the patches of dirt adhering to the cap help to render it only the more forbidding. The edible qualities of this mushroom are by no means to be despised, especially when young, before — the gills have changed colour; and after the latter have turned quite black, but the dripping stage has not commenced, either by themselves or mixed with others they will yield an excellent “catsup.” Like the preceding, they are preferable stewed, or added to soups. It has already been mentioned that the black fluid, caused by the melting of the gills, may be used as ink, when mixed with gum water, so as to ensure permanency. A curious proposal was made some years ago to utilize this ink for printing bank notes, and other documents subject to forgery. The advan- tage being that at any period of time, by moistening the letters, the large spores would appear quite distinctly under the microscope, and the genuine ink at once determined. Ordinary ink, having no such origin, would present no such appearance. To verify this, it is only necessary to write a word or two, by dipping a pen in the fluid dripping from the gills of a decaying Coprinus, allowing it to dry, and remain dry for a few days, then damp it, and either remove the ink by means of a clean camel-hair pencil to a glass slide, or examine zm sztw, with the microscope, and a quarter inch objective’ Should such a sugges- PARASOL MUSHROOMS. 49 tion as this ever prove to be practicable, the “inky fungi” would secure a market-value beyond that which would accrue from their use as food. Hitherto, no successful effort has been made in the direction of cultivation of these species, because there has been no demand for them; should such a demand arise, some sort of cultivation is not impossible. VIL—PARASOL MUSHROOMS. ALMOST the greatest, if not the greatest, favourite with fungus eaters is the “Parasol mushroom” (Agaricus procerus). It is certainly graceful and elegant in appearance, dry and clean to the touch, easily recognized, and, more than all, delicious at the table. Surely all the attributes are combined, and yet how few, except regular fungus eaters, know the “Parasol.” It has a soft, spreading, regular cap, from three to seven inches broad, with a large boss or nipple standing up in the centre, of a dark brown colour, and broad, reddish brown scales disposed somewhat regularly over the rest of the surface, on a whitish, silky, fibrous substratum. The margin fringed with the ends of the threads. The stem slender, erect and graceful, from eight to ten inches in length, and not more than half-an-inch in thick- ness, swollen at the bottom into a distinct bulb, but D 50 BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. with no sheath. The lower part of the stem varie- gated with small closely pressed scales, and the upper part adorned with a large conspicuous collar or frill. This collar is apt to become loosened from its attachment to the stem, and movable. The top of the stem deeply sunk into the cap; the white gills numerous, stopping short before reaching the stem, so as to leave a naked space or groove around it; smell and taste pleasant ; such is the general appear- ance of this favourite mushroom, which occurs on the ground, or amongst dead leaves, under trees amongst grass, in the open, or on hedge banks, in late summer or early autumn. Each individual grows by itself, and not in clusters, but several are often found in the neighbourhood of each other. There is a companion species, which much re- sembles it (Agaricus rachodes), indeed, so much so that some persons consider them only varieties. It has been remarked that in some localities only vachodes is found, and in others only procerus. It is only necessary to point out the differences, for in other points they will be found to agree. When young the cap is more globose; the scales on the mature cap are more persistent; the stem is free from the snake-like markings at the base, and the bulb at the base has a more distinct margin. There is also a tendency in the flesh to become reddish or brownish when cut or bruised. At one time, and not so many years ago, this species was held to be PARASOL MUSHROOMS. 51 suspicious, and some taught that it was unwholesome, but this was undoubtedly a mere guess from the change of colour when broken. Practically there is no difference in their edible ‘qualities, and we have eaten both of them many times and oft. Similar stations and the same season of the year produce both. Another but more slender species is common in some localities, and not found at all in others (Agaricus gracilentus). \t grows amongst grass by the roadside, but is thinner in the flesh, and not so much commended. There is a slight resemblance to the Parasol, but it is smaller, and the scales on the cap are much smaller and less conspicuous, the stem is thinner and almost white, with but a slight swell- ing at the base. There is no conspicuous brown apex to the cap, which is less pointed, and less fibrous in the cuticle and margin. The entire stature is about six inches, but the erect stem is scarcely thicker than a pipe stem. It is to be found about the same period of the year as the above, but would hardly be sought after provided the larger species could be obtained. If it were not comparatively rare the fawn-coloured Parasol would compete with the true Parasol, in culinary value. But this (Agaricus excoriatus) is the rarest of ‘the four species, and least like a. parasol in shape. The cap is not more than 2} inches broad and of a general fawn colour. The cuticle is smooth 52 BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. and thin, breaking up into irregular patches which adhere to the cap. Beneath this broken cuticle the surface is white and silky. The stem is about two inches long, scarcely thickened at the base and dirty white; near the top is a broad collar, which readily separates and becomes movable. The whole substance is soft and spongy, with very little odour. It will be observed that it differs in general appear- ance from the other three kinds in having large ir- regular patches of the cuticle on the cap instead of scales, and in a shorter, and proportionately shorter stem. At first sight it would hardly seem to be related to them. This is, quite a summer species, making its appearance about May or June, but not after the end of August. Sometimes it is not recog- nized for years. There are several other species of less note which agree with the above in having a ring, and the white gills scarcely reaching the stem, but their determina- tion had better be left to the professed mycologist as they are not of sufficient importance to be con- sidered as regular edible species, and they require good figures for their accurate identification. It is better to limit the number of kinds to be recom- mended than to risk any chance of confusion or ‘ mistaken identity. We would lose no opportunity of cautioning those who have no general notion of fungi against making experiments in eating kinds of which they have no knowledge, or entertain any doubt. PARASOL MUSHROOMS. 53 The Parasol mushroom is known and appreciated throughout Europé, and is doubtless one of the first class for the table, with the great advantage that only dense stupidity could confound it with any suspicious species. Dr Bull says of it, “there can be no question but that, when young and quickly grown, it is a delicious fungus. It has a high and delicate flavour without the heavy richness which belongs to the ordinary field mushroom.” He adds that he had prevailed on many persons to try it, all, without exception have liked it, and about one third of the number have thought it quite equal and some have proclaimed it superior to the mushroom itself. BROILED PARASOL MUSHROOM.—Remove the scales and stalks, and broil lightly over a clear fire on both sides for a few minutes; arrange them on a dish, over fresh made well-divided toast ; sprinkle with pepper and salt, and put a small piece of butter on each; set before a brisk fire to melt the butter, and serve quickly. BAKED PARASOL MUSHROOM.—Remove the scales and stalks, and place the caps in layers in a dish ; put a little butter on each, and season with pepper and salt. Cover lightly and bake for twenty minutes or half an hour, according to the number in the dish. Put them on hot toast in a hot dish. Pour the hot sauce over them and serve quickly. STEWED PARASOL MUSHROOM.—Remove the stalks and scales from young specimens, and throw 54 BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. each one as you do so into a basin of fresh water, slightly acidulated with the juice of a lemon or a little good vinegar. When all are prepared remove them from the water, and put them into a stewpan with a very small piece of fresh butter, sprinkle with white pepper and salt, and add a little lemon juice. Cover up closely, and stew for half-an-hour. Then add a spoonful of flour with sufficient cream, or cream and milk, until the same has the thickness of cream. Season to taste, and stew again gently until all are perfectly tender. Remove all the butter from the surface and serve in a hot dish, garnished with slices of lemon. A little mace, nutmeg, or catsup, may be added, if preferred, but some think that the spice spoils the flavour. PARASOL SAUCE.—Chop up about half a pint of these agarics, pepper and salt, and add an ounce of butter rolled in flour. Put in a stewpan over a slow fire for a few minutes; add half a pint of milk, or better still, cream, and boil gently, stirring all the time until it is sufficiently thick and smooth. Pour round boiled fowls or rabbits, or any light fricassee. Beef or veal stock may be used when a brown sauce is required; and some think a little mace or nutmeg, or a few drops of Indian Soy, or a little Harvey sauce, a good addition. The brown sauce is excellent for steaks, cutlets, game, or any kind of ragout. SCALLOPED PARASOL MUSHROOM.—Mince young PARASOL MUSHROOMS. 55 fresh agarics, season with pepper, salt, and a little lemon juice, add a little butter, and stew in a warm oven for ten minutes, then put them in the scallop tin, layer by layer, with fresh bread crumbs moistened with milk, cream, or good gravy; bake for five minutes, and brown well before a quick fire. PROCERUS PIE.—Cut the fresh agarics in small pieces, and cover the bottom of a pie dish. Pepper, salt, and place on them small shreds of fresh bacon, then put a layer of mashed potatoes, and so fill the dish layer by layer, with a cover of mashed potatoes for the crust. Bake well for half-an-hour, and brown before a quick fire. PROCERUS OMELETTE—Mince some young fresh agarics; season with pepper and salt; add butter and set them in the oven whilst you whisk well the whites and yolks of half a dozen eggs; then put two ounces of butter into the frying pan, and heat until it begins to brown; having again well whisked up the eggs, with three tablespoonfuls of the prepared agarics and a little milk, pour it lightly into the boiling butter ; stir one way, and fry on one side only for five or six minutes; drain it from the fat; roll it up and serve quickly on a hot well covered dish. POTTED PROCERUS.—Remove the scales and stalks from young fresh specimens ; sprinkle with pepper and salt, and set aside for three or four hours, then place them in a stewpan with the liquor that will have exuded, and stew until dry; next fry in 56 BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. butter for a few minutes; put them into small jars, and when cold pour in as much butter melted as will just cover them ; when again cold pour on a little melted suet and tie down with bladder. When required for use soak them for two or three hours in a little warm milk and water, and stew with milk, cream, or stock, and use in any way that may be required. ESSENCE OF PROCERUS.—Sprinkle young but full grown agarics with salt, and let them stand for six hours. Then beat them well up, and the next day strain off the liquor, and boil very slowly until it is reduced to one half the quantity. This will not keep long, but if one eighth part of good French brandy, or half its quantity of any wine, be added, and bottled carefully, it will then keep for any reasonable time. PROCERUS KETCHUP.—Take full grown, but not worm-eaten agarics, and place them layer by. layer in a deep pan, sprinkling each layer as it is put in with a little salt. The next day stir them well up several times, so as to mash and extract the juice. On the third day strain off the liquor, measure and boil for ten minutes, then to every pint of the liquor add half an ounce of black pepper, a quarter of an ounce of bruised ginger, a blade of mace, a clove or two, and a teaspoonful of mustard seed. Boil again for half an hour, put in two or three bay leaves, and set aside till quite cold. Pass through a strainer and ST GEORGES MUSHROOM. 57 bottle ; cork well and dip the ends in resin ; a very little Chili vinegar is an improvement, and some add a glass of port wine, or strong ale, to every bottle. The majority of the above are from the “ Wool- hope Club” receipts. VITIIL—ST GEORGE’S MUSHROOM. THE only really good spring mushroom, except the Morels is the St George’s mushroom (Agaricus gambosus), presumably so called because it makes its first appearance about St George's day. There is a legend accounting for the name, which is current in Hungary, that it was a gift from St George. Readers may please themselves which account they choose to adopt. Some confusion has also prevailed as to the scientific name which Dr Badham gave as Agaricus prunulus, and some others have called Agaricus Georgit, whereas the veritable prunulus and also the true Georgi? are different species. In France it is called mouceron or mousseron on account of its growing amongst moss, and from this it has been stated that our name “ mushroom,” applied generally to another species, has been derived. The St George’s mushroom is a pasture-loving species, and is zof found in woods. In ordinary cir- 58 BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. cumstances the cap is about three inches in diameter, but it will reach four or five, and Dr Badham states that he has found it six inches across, and weighing between four and five ounces. He adds that he col- lected one spring at Keston, in Kent, from ten to twelve pounds in a single ring, and in the one field from twenty to twenty-five pounds. From this it will be seen that it is a gregarious species, many speci- mens being found growing in company, in the form of rings, or parts of rings, in the same manner as the fairy- ring champignon. In some parts a prejudice exists amongst the farmers against them, on the supposi- tion that they injure the grass crops, and for that reason they are kicked over and destroyed. PL. 36 H VW. TRUFFLES. 161 XXIV.—TRUFFLES. IF any fungi merit the title of aristocratic it must be truffles, whether considered in relation to their market value or the uses to which they are applied. The poor man may enjoy his “ vegetable beefsteak ” or his “vegetable sweetbread,” and even indulge in “procerus pie” or stewed “hedgehog,” but he is innocent of the flavour of truffles, and does not regale himself with pate de fois gras. In former times the hunting for truffles was a branch of industry practised in Sussex and Kent, but in these degenerate days truffle-hunting is almost unknown, and native truffles rarely seen. Possibly as many truffles as ever lie concealed beneath the surface of the Downs, but to collect them is an occupation which does not pay, and our supplies are derived from France. The French truffle has the credit of possessing a superior flavour, and can be supplied at a lower price. At any rate there are people to be found who prefer, or seem to prefer, anything of foreign origin to a like article of native produce. Truffles are subterranean fungi which grow and perfect themselves beneath the surface of the soil, and give no indication of their whereabouts. They have the appearance of irregular, black, warty no- L 162 BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. dules, sometimes nearly as large as the fist, at others not exceeding that of a walnut. The interior is pallid and mottled, the darker spots indicating cavities filled with the blackish spores. Hunting for mushrooms is comparatively easy, for the object of search is visible when present, but truffles might be plentiful, two or three inches beneath the surface, and not be visible, or give any sign of their presence. The only method available in such cases is to find some animal which instinct or appetite might prompt to scent out the buried treasure, and mark its hiding- place. Two kinds of animals have been trained for this purpose—truffle dogs in our own country and truffle pigs in France. In both cases the odour of the truffle is sufficient for the keen scent of the animals, whilst the human hunter profits by the produce. These are the instructions—“ You must have a sow, of five months old, a good walker, with her mouth strapped up, and for her efforts recom- pense her with acorns; but as pigs are not easily led, are stubborn, and go astray, and dig after a thousand other things, there is but little to be done with them. Dogs are better; of these select a small poodle.” Another writer says of truffle hunting in France: “A sow is employed to search for the truffles. At the distance of twenty feet she scents the truffles and makes‘rapidly for the foot of the oak where she finds them, and digs into the earth with her snout. She would soon root up and eat her treasure were she TRUFFLES. 163 not turned aside by the light stroke of the stick on her nose, and given an acorn or a dry chestnut, which is her reward.” A writer on dogs has given the following interest- ing account of the truffle dog, now almost a rarity. He says that “The truffle dog isa small poodle (nearly a pure poodle) weighing about fifteen pounds. He is white, or black and white, or black, with the black mouth and under lip of his race. He is a sharp, intelligent, quaint companion, and has the homing faculty of a pigeon. When sold to a new master he has been known to find his way home for sixty miles, and to have travelled the greater part of the way by night. They are mute in their quest, and should be thoroughly broken from all game. These are essential qualities in a dog whose owner frequently hunts truffles at night,—in the shrubberies of mansions protected by keepers and watchmen, who regard him with suspicion. In order to dis- tinguish a black dog on these occasions the hunter furnishes this animal with a white shirt, and occasion- ally also hunts him in a line. They are rather longer on the leg than the true poodle, but they have ex- quisite noses, and hunt close to the ground. On the scent of a truffle (especially in the morning or evening, when it gives out most smell) they show all the keenness of a spaniel, working their short cropped tails, and feathering along the surface of the ground for from twenty to fifty yards. Arrived at the spot 164 BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. where the fungus lies buried some two or three inches beneath the surface, they dig like a terrier at a rat’s hole ; and the best of them, if left alone, will disinter the fungus, and carry it to his master. It is not usual, however, to allow the dog to exhaust himself in this way, and the owner forks up the truffle, and gives the dog his usual reward—a piece of bread or cheese ; for this he looks, from long habit, with the keen glance of a Spanish gipsy. The truffle hunter is set up in business when he possesses a good dog; all he requires besides will be a short staff, about thirty inches long, shod with a strong iron point, and at the other end furnished with a two-fanged iron hook. With this implement he can dig the largest truffle, or draw aside the briers or boughs in copse wood to give his dog free scope to use his nose. He travels usually thirty or forty miles on his hunting expeditions, and with this (to use a business term) inexpensive plant, keeps a wife and children easily. We know personally one blue grizzled dog, of the old truffle breed, which supports a family of ten children. The truffle dog is a delicate animal to rear, and a choice feeder. Being continually propagated from one stock he has become peculiarly susceptible of all dog diseases, and when that fatal year comes round which desolates the kennel in his quarter, many truffle hunters are left destitute of dogs, and conse- quently short of bread ; for they will not believe (as we believe) that any dog with a keen nose and lively TRUFFLES. 165 temper may be taught to hunt and find truffles. The education of the dog commences when he is about three months old. At first he is taught to fetch a truffle, and when he does this well and cheerfully, his master places it on the ground, and slightly covers it with earth, selecting one of peculiar fragrance for the purpose. As the dog becomes more expert and keen for the amusement, he buries the truffle deeper, and rewards him according to his progress. He then takes him where he knows truffles to be abundant, or where they have been previously found by a well ‘broken animal, and marked. Thus he gradually learns his trade, and becomes (as his forefathers have been for many generations) the bread winner for his master and his master’s family; unless he is so fortunate as to become attaché to some lordly mansion, or possibly to a royal palace, in which case he is a fortunate dog indeed.” In 1860 it is recorded that a truffle was found in Germany which weighed one pound seven ounces, whilst Wallroth writes of them as having been found formerly weighing two pounds each. Experiments in truffle cultivation have often been made in France. In the South they are said to be raised by watering the soil with water in which the skins of truffles have been rubbed. In Vaucleuse crops have been raised in a meadow manured with truffle parings; and there also seedling oaks have been reared for the production of truffles at their 166 BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. roots, under the name of oak truffles. M. de Gasparin visited and reported upon one of these truffle grounds, “Encouraged,” he says, “by the high price of truffles, the proprietor of a somewhat stubborn soil determined to convert it into a truffle ground. The land was sown with the acorns of the common oak and of the evergreen oak. In the fourth year three truffles were found, and in about four years more upwards of thirty pounds were collected.” When he visited the plantation upwards of two pounds of truffles were gathered in a very poor part of the plantation within an hour. All the truffles were taken at.the base of the evergreen oaks, but other plantations in Vaucleuse produce them at the foot of the common oak. It has been remarked that the truffles produced about the roots of the common oak are larger and more irregular in form than those of the evergreen oak, which are nearly always spherical. The truffles are gathered at two periods of the year. In May white truffles are found which never blacken, and have no odour; these are dried, and sold for seasoning. The black truffles are dug up a month before, and a month after Christmas, when they have become hard and acquired all their per- fume. The English truffle is called Tuber wst’vum, and one of its peculiarities is that the large spores, which are oval, and nearly black, have an outer transparent TRUFFLES. 167 coat which is divided into deep pentagonal cells, like honeycomb. The French truffle, on the contrary (Zuber melanosporum), has brown oval spores covered with rigid spines. Any fragment of either species may at any time be determined by the microscope, so that it can always be decided whether the truffle be the English or the French species. Although the latter have a rather disagreeable odour, the flavour is said to be so much superior that the French has superseded the English truffle in our own markets. The French truffle above alluded to is the Perigord truffle. Of all British mycologists the one who paid most attention to, and was the greatest authority upon truffles, was the late Mr C. E. Broome, and from a communication of his we have gleaned the following notes. Four species are named as exclusively in use in France. Tuber melanosporum, T. brumale, T. aestivum, and T. mesentericum, of which two, or per- haps three, occur in Great Britain. Tuber aestivum is apparently the only species to be met with in a recent state in our shops. 7. mesentericum may at times occur, but it has not yet been noticed there. T. brumale has hitherto been found in England of too small a size to be worth sending to market. In Italy there are other kinds, one of which, 7. mag- natum, commands a higher price than any other; and in the southern parts of Italy, Sicily, Syria, and Africa, 168 BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. another species, Terfezia leonis, is of common use as an article of food. The soils in which edible truffles are found in France are always calcareous, or calcareous clays. T. mesentericum occurs, however, in ferruginous sands, as is also the case with another species, Hydnotrya Tulasnez, which, or a closely allied kind, is largely eaten in Bohemia, under the name of Czerwena Tartoffle. Some persons have supposed that these fungi are parasitic on the roots of trees. This the Tulasnes deny, and so also does Mr Broome. Some trees appear, however, to be more favourable to the production of truffles than others. Oak and hornbeam are especially mentioned, but, besides these, chestnut, birch, box, and hazel are alluded to. Old truffle hunters in this country usually obtained them chiefly under beech, and in mixed plantations of fir and beech. It would seem that three or four months suffice for their de- velopment. They are said to be about as large as grains of millet in the beginning of October, and must acquire their full size before the end of December. Many attempts have been made to subject these fungi to a regular system of culture, but hitherto almost without success. Borch and Bornholz state that a compost was prepared of pure mould and vegetable soil, mixed with dry leaves and sawdust, in which, when properly moistened, mature truffles TRUFFLES, 169 were placed in winter, either whole or in fragments, and that after the lapse of some time small truffles were found in the compost. The most successful plan consisted in sowing acorns over a considerable extent of land of a calcareous nature, and when the young oaks had attained the age of ten or twelve years, truffles were found in the intervals between the trees. This process was carried on in the neighbourhood of Loudun, where truffle beds had formerly existed, but where they had long ceased to be productive. In this case no attempt was made to produce truffles by placing ripe specimens in the earth, but they sprang up of themselves, from spores probably contained in the soil. The young trees were left rather wide apart and were cut for the first time about the twelfth year from the sowing, and afterwards at intervals of from seven to nine years. Truffles were thus obtained for a period of from twenty-five to thirty years, after which the plantations ceased to be productive, owing, it was said, to the ground being too much shaded by the branches of the young trees, a remedy for which might have been found by thinning out the trees ; but this would not be adopted till all the barren tracts had been planted. The Messrs Tulasne think that truffle cultivation in gardens can never be so successful as this so called indirect culture, but they think that a satisfactory result might be obtained in suitable soils by planting fragments of mature truffles in wooded localities, 170 BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. taking care that the other conditions of the spots selected should be analogous to those of the regular truffle grounds; and they recommended a judicious thinning of the trees and clearing the surface from brushwood, &c., which prevents at once the bene- ficial effects of rain and of the direct sun’s rays. It is added that this species of industry has added much to the value of certain districts of Loudun and Civray, which were previously comparatively worth- less, and has enriched many of the proprietors who now make periodical sowings of acorns, thus bringing in a certain portion of wood as truffle grounds each year. Mr Broome was informed by one of the truffle hunters that whenever a plantation of beech, or beech and fir, was made on the chalk districts of Salisbury Plain, after the lapse of a few years truffles were pro- duced, and that these plantations continued pro- ductive for a period of from ten to fifteen years, after which they ceased to be so. Should horticulturists be tempted to try their skill in the artificial production of these fungi, they should bear in mind the conditions most suitable to their nature. They might succeed, for instance, in produc- ing them in filbert-plantations, or in gardens thickly set with fruit trees; and they should plant mature specimens in well trenched ground, on a calcareous substratum, and be careful not to stir the soil to any depth till the autumn or winter of the following year, TRUFFLES. ryt in order not ‘to disturb the mycelium; and it would be well perhaps, in case they find a successful result, not to take too largely of the crop the first year or two, but to give them time to establish themselves thoroughly in the locality. It would seem, however, that when once established, deep stirrings of the soil would tend rather to encourage than to check their increase, as giving the mycelium a lighter soil in which to vegetate, and preventing the growth of roots of surrounding trées, &c. Imported truffles, in addition to those which are received in the fresh state, are either in dried slices, which are in least esteem, or the whole or segments of the fresh truffles preserved in oil, and sold in bottles. A spiny spored truffle is also recorded as British (Tuber brumale), and it is found in some parts of France, but does not appear to be held in great esteem. In England it only makes its appearance occasionally, and as a rarity. The red truffle of Bath (Melanogaster vartegatus) is almost traditional as a truffle substitute. It is said that formerly it was sold as a truffle in the markets of Bath, but we can find no trace of it in such a capacity now. It is still a British species, and al- though it is a subterranean species, it is not a true truffle. The spores in truffles are produced within broad membranous sacs or asci, and are therefore what is termed ascigerous, and allies of the great 172 BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. group of Spheria. The red truffle has naked spores, produced in cavities of the fungus, free, and not en- closed in asci. These latter are therefore allied to the puff balls, and are in fact subterranean puff balls. They are of a brownish colour, irregularly globose, small and smooth, found usually in the ground at the foot of beeches, in the south of England. The naked spores are small and dark coloured. No one in this generation appears to have any knowledge of the Melanogaster, either as a “red truffle” or as an esculent. Truffles are such an old and aristocratic delicacy that it must be expected to learn that the methods of preparing them for the table are exceedingly numerous. The Rev. M. J. Berkeley used to affirm that the very best plan, according to his experience, was to bury the entire truffle in hot-wood ashes, on an old fashioned hearth, and roast them thoroughly, When ready for the table they could be divested of their skins and all the ashes adhering to them. But there are far more elaborate methods, as we shall presently show. For a ragoft the tubers should be well washed, and afterwards soaked in oil, then cut in slices about a quarter of an inch in thickness, place in a stewpan, with oil or butter, salt, pepper, anda little white wine. When cooked bind the whole together with the yolk of eggs. Prepared after the Italian manner, middle-sized HORN OF PLENTY. 173 truffles are selected, cut in fine slices, and placed in a stewpan with oil, salt, pepper, parsley, shallots, and chopped garlic. Let them cook gently over a slow fire, and serve with the juice of lemon. The Piedmontese method varies in soaking them first in oil, then slice them thin, and put them in a stewpan with salt, oil, and pepper, grating over them some Parmesan cheese ; then the stewpan should be placed over the hot cinders for a quarter of an hour. Other and simpler methods have also been recommended—such as wrapping each truffle in buttered paper, and cooking them by steam. Also take the truffles when cleaned and sprinkle them with salt and pepper, then wrap each in several folds of paper, garnished with rashers of bacon. They should be cooked a full hour, then denuded of their paper envelope, wiped, and served hot. XXV.—HORN OF PLENTY. ANOTHER prejudice was killed when we first essayed to cook and eat that rather unpromising looking fungus which we call the “Horn of Plenty.” In appearance it is not unlike the conventional figure of the Cornucopia drawn in books, and although for many years acquainted with it, having flattened and dried it scores of times, it never occurred to us to eat 174 BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. it, until a suggestion of its being edible met our eyes in a foreign book. Up to then we should have thought as much of stewing our slippers as Craterellus cornu- copioides. When dried it resembles strips of “‘ upper leather,” and, atits best, scarce more inviting than the thumb of a driving glove. Appearances in this case were thoroughly deceptive, and we hasten to make amends. This fungus is plentiful on the ground in autumn, in Epping Forest and the New Forest, but its structure and scientific position is wholly different from any others which find a place in this volume. There are no gills, or pores, or spines, and the surface which bears the spores is almost smooth. However, let us attempt its description. In shape it is a long inverted cone, or trumpet, about three inches high, two or three, or more, generally growing together, with the thin end in the ground. At the top it is about two inches broad, and hollow down to the bottom, the substance not being thicker than’ the “upper leather” of a boot. The top edge is bent over all round something like the end of a trumpet, only more so, but it is flexuous, and lobed or split. In colour the exposed surface at the mouth, which is the inner surface of the horn, is a dingy brown, with darker streaks. Outside it is almost black, with a frosty bloom over it, like the “bloom” ona fresh plum. This is the surface which bears the spores ; it is not quite even, but with little shallow depressions, HORN OF PLENTY. 175 especially in the upper part. Very gradually attenu- ated downwards, it is scarcely a quarter of an inch broad at the base, seldom quite straight, but curved and bent, sometimes distorted. The fanciful might call them “fairy trumpets,” or “horns of plenty” for the good folk. Growing on the ground, almost buried in grass or dead leaves, they are hardly conspicuous, but as a great number are usually found growing together, it is not difficult, when once found, to secure sufficient for a dish. There is no odour that is appreciable, and what the taste may be in the fresh state we have never ascertained. Hitherto we have never departed from our first method of cooking, which was simple and satisfac- tory. The.“horns” were sliced down the middle from top to bottom, and carefully washed. On account of their shape this preliminary is essential, because the form favours the deposit of sand and other substances at the bottom of the tube, and because it obviates the risk of snail, slug, or earwig making it a hiding-place. When washed and dried, the pieces are placed in a stewpan with salt and pepper, and a little water, or, better still, gravy or stock, but we have been content with water, then stewed gently till soft, thickened with a little flour, or with the addition of chopped parsley, if desirable, and served. The aroma is quite mushroomy during the process, and the ‘result so satisfactory that we have never missed an opportunity of gathering them 176 BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. since. An inveterate fungus eater, who was with us on one occasion when we collected a supply, took the hint for himself and imitated at a distance, with what suecess may be gathered from the fact that now he thinks nothing of a walk of six or eight miles with the prospect before him of a dish of Crateredlus. XXVI.--JEW’S EARS. THIS name has been applied to several different fungi having some fancied resemblance to ears. In some parts of England the large “ground cups” or Peztze, and particularly. Pezzza venosa, are called Jew’s ear, but the one which has the sanction of age and universality is the Hzrneola, the Jew’s ear of elder stumps not uncommon in this country. It has never been regarded here as an edible fungus, but, in some parts of the world, it has no small reputation in that sense. The scientific name is Azrneola auricula- Judag, which is written down here to show that the cognomen of Jew’s ear is present even in the botani- cal name, and is corroboration of its accurate use in connection with the /7/zrneo/a. It is rather a gelatin- ous, flabby-looking, thin, expanded cup, or saucer- like fungus of a brownish colour when fresh, smooth in the inside and veined or plaited, so as to have some resemblance to a human ear. Outside it is JEW’S EARS. 177 shortly velvety and greyish olive. In size it varies considerably from one to three inches, and is attached by a. point at the back, out of the centre, often nearly on one side. When dry it becomes hard and horny, shrinking considerably in the process. In past times it had its medicinal uses, and, on that account, is included in most of the old herbals, but the reputation of all virtue has left it long ago, and now that all its occupation is gone, it is regarded simply as a curi- osity. Not so, however, in South-Eastern Asia where it still finds favour for the compounding of those gelatinous dishes of which the Chinese are so fond. Not only is it largely imported, with other species, but one of these is artificially cultivated to supply the demand. “Mu-esh” is found spontaneously growing on the bark of wild cherry in Central China. It is a species of Jew’s ear (Hivneola polytricha), and is also cultivated at Yun-Yang, whence it is exported to all parts of China, being esteemed as an article of food. It is of great commercial importance, the quantity annually produced being very large. Small trees of the China oak (Quercus sinensis) are cut down and cut into poles about six to ten feet long, and three to six inches in diameter, and left to rot on the ground for a year. In the following spring, when the wood has become more or less rotten, the poles are erected into shed-like structures, and these stud the sides of the hills in places. The “ mu-esh” comes M I 78 BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. spontaneously on the bark, and in about two years has grown all over it. After two years the poles become quite. rotten and no more mu-esh is pro- duced. The original source of the Pacific Jew’s ear was the small islands of the Pacific and New Zealand, but it is to be found in Australia, New Guinea, and many other places. The seat of the trade is New Zealand, for which the only market is China. It is largely used by the Chinese in soups with farinaceous seeds, and also as a medicine, being highly esteemed. The Chinese have long been in the habit of using another species of this same genus that is indigenous in North China, and also in importing what has been called another species, but really appears to be the same, from other Isles of the Pacific, so that the use of this kind of fungus as an article of food is not new to them. At first, and for a considerable time, the New Zealand fungus was exported only in small quantities, The demand rapidly increasing, and the article plentiful, and obtained at little cost, save the labour of gathering and drying it, its export rapidly increased. The price paid to collectors for it was originally small, only one penny per pound, at which figure it remained for some time. It became nominally two pence half penny in some places, which sum is often paid in barter. It is said to be sold in China at JEW’S EARS. 179 the shops after the rate of tenpence ‘per pound, or more, retail. The declared value in the customs returns has ranged from 433 to 453 per ton, which, doubtless, is under the real value. From 1872 to 1883, or during twelve years, the exports from New Zealand were no less than 1858 tons, valued at £79,752, and in one year, that of 1882, the declared value of the exports was 415,581. A recent chemical analysis of this fungus in its air- dried condition has shown that it is singularly poor in albuminoid, or muscle-forming substances, and differs remarkably in this respect from the numerous edible fungi previously examined. The chief constituent of what are called the digestible carbohydrates (yo per cent. of which are present) isa gum-like body allied to bassorin. It swells up greatly in water, and is soluble in dilute warm solutions of caustic alkalis. Its solu- tions gelatinize in cooling. This is the mucilaginous property for which it may be assumed that it is chiefly valued, and which always has a fascination with the Chinese. A parcel of the dried fungus was sent to the International Exhibition of 1862 from Singapore, as an article of food, but without any definite information. It was the European, and not the Australasian species, but whence derived it is impossible to say ; doubtless it had been imported into Singapore for sale to the Chinese. The other “Jew’s ears,” above alluded to, known as 180 BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. such locally, and with little authority, are of very different structure, however similar they may be in appearance. But it requires a strong imagination to assimilate the appearances. The typical form of the species of Peg?za is that of a cup, so that these are sometimes called “Earth Cups” if they are in the habit of growing on the ground. It is the inner sur- face of these cups which is fertile and bears the spores, enclosed in long, delicate cylindrical tubes or sacs, termed asci, each of which contains normally eight spores. It is essential to point out this differ- ence in structure, which is more like that of the morels, than that of either the agarics or even the veritable Jew’s ears. The most promising of these cups, from a gastro- nomic point of view, is the “veined cup” (Pezzza venosa) which has a strong and rather nitrous odour as it grows old, or begins to dry ; the cups themselves are about two inches in diameter, whitish and mealy on the outside and veined or puckered at the base, the inner surface is of a dark, rather purplish brown. When mature they expand and flatten out a little, but split from the edge downwards in doing so, and then the under surface is but little seen. The thick- ness of the cup is not greater than the length of one of these printing letters, so that an entire cup is not more than a mouthful, and as the species is not par- ticularly common, it has not much merit as a food product. The disadvantage in nearly all the species JEW’S EARS. 181 of Peziza is that they are comparatively small, taking the thickness of the flesh into account, and would scarcely have encouraged us to include them in this work at all, except in connection with the Hzrueola, and then perhaps rather as “ curiosities of food ” than as likely to become staple articles. The “bladdery cups” (Peztza vesiculosa) are more generally common on the ground, rich soil, rubbish, and manure heaps. The cup is at first globose, dirty white, about an inch across or more, and granularly mealy, then it has a small jagged opening, and at length it is expanded like a cup, but the edge is usually a little turned in, until it is quite old. When fully opened it will attain two or three inches, and the interior is smooth pale brown. This is a widely dispersed species, being found all over Europe, in North America, and in Australia and New Zealand. In comparison with the last species we consider this inferior for eating, and taking into account the trouble of collecting and cleaning, it is hardly worth the pains. We have had this sent to us also under the name of Jew’s ears, which probably is locally applied indiscriminately to any ear-shaped fungus. The orange cups (Pesiza aurantza) is widely known, because of the bright orange colour of the inside of the cups, so that it is a most beautiful and con- spicuous object. The cups are often three inches, or more, when fully expanded, and a number of them will be often found growing together in damp places, 182 BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. It is whitish on the outside, and thinner in substance than the “bladdery cups,” certainly more attractive. This, again, is found all over Europe, in India, across to the United States, and in the southern hemisphere. At times sufficient may be collected for a good dish, and we have seen them placed ‘as decorations on the dinner table instead of flowers, with a very pretty effect. Some may think the result more satisfactory than cooking and eating them. In the latter condi- tion they are delicate, but without much flavour. There are several other kinds of “cups” which could be eaten, and indeed we doubt if any of the species are unwholesome. Not one has yet had the reputation of being poisonous, or even suspicious or disagreeable. They usually flourish in the autumn, when agarics are plentiful, and no one would be at the trouble of hunting all day for a few cups of Peziza, when the basket could be filled with agarics in half an hour. Whenever it has been our fortune to try them, chiefly out of curiosity, their preparation has been confined to simple stewing; but unless carefully washed beforehand, they are liable to grittiness, which is rather unpleasant to most people. THE RUSSULES, 183 XXVII—THE RUSSULES. IT is very difficult to describe the russules with sufficient precision to enable anyone who is not a mycologist to distinguish them well enough to eat them. Those who are well acquainted with fungi, and have plates to guide them, will sometimes hesitate, and when the question is one of food or poison, there should be no hesitation. There are bright red russules which will produce serious internal disturbance, and induce dangerous symp- toms, even if nothing more, and there are others of the same colour which are recommended as edible. The differences are those which a practised eye would detect, but not such as an ordinary fungus eater would recognize ; hence very little can be attempted with them in a work of this kind, which is designed for general use. It may be premised that in the true agarics the long gills traversing the under side of the cap from the stem to the circumference alternate with shorter ones placed between them, whereas in the russules there are, in most cases, only long gills radiating from the stem, without short ones proceeding from the margin inwards, and alternating with them, or, if short gills are present, they join the long gills, or 184 BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. grow to them at their inner extremity. This seems in itself a minute and technical distinction, but practically it produces a recognizable difference of appearance in the gills. Another feature in the russules is that they never possess a collar, or ring, round the stem, and the latter is soft, without any rigid outside coating analogous to bark. Finally, the spores are globose, mostly rough, and either white or pale ochre. Experience may soon enable a person to distinguish between a russule and an agaric, but a mere verbal description will hardly accomplish the feat. In despite of the initial difficulty, we must attempt some account of two or three species, even at the risk of appealing only to those who are able to distinguish a russule at once. One of the most commendable species is the sea-green russule (Russula virescens) which generally grows beside paths in woods in the summer or early autumn, but is nowhere common. The cap is at first convex, with the margin curved inwards, from three to four inches in diameter. The cuticle is whitish, covered with an opaque coating resembling meal, which gradually cracks and breaks up, as the cap expands, into a covering of irregular small angular spots or patches, the thickness of which varies according to the thickness of the original mealy coating ; the cracks between the spots show the white cuticle, but the little patches are sea-green or yellowish green, or ochre, communicating to the THE RUSSULES. 185 cap a mealy or mouldy appearance. The stem is short and thick, sometimes contorted by its efforts to push up the cap through a resisting soil, fleshy but fragile and white. The gills are white, very brittle, but usually simple, with here and there one which is forked towards the outer extremity. This is a very distinct fungus, easy of recognition, and gastro- nomically one of the best. The Italians recommend cooking it on the gridiron, but Dr Badham says that the peasants about Milan are in the habit of putting it over wood embers to toast, eating it afterwards with a little salt, in which way it has a savoury smell and a taste like that of acrab. Although it is said to dry well, it is not one of the best of species for that purpose. With no perceptible odour when fresh, it acquires one in drying, which we confess is rather strong, but we fail to recognize in it any resemblance to salt meat. Another mild and agreeable.species is the pinkish russule (Russula vesca) which has a firm convex cap, soon flattened and at length depressed, often veined and streaked. The colour varies, as it does in most of the species, in intensity, but it is generally of a fleshy pink, darkened in the centre, and occasionally suffused with a flush of lilac. The diameter is commonly about three inches, with a firm, solid stem, rather peculiarly reticulated and normally white, occasionally dashed or patched with pink. The gills are white, many of them forked, rather close to- 186 BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. gether, reaching to;and touching the stem. It occurs mostly in open places in woods. One feature in this tussule is the firmness of the cap and stem, and another the peculiar pink of the cap, which is darkest, or rather is replaced by a darker colour in the centre, spreading in streaks all around. The peacock russule (Russula cyanoxantha) is in many respects similar to the last, but the cap is shaded with light blue, or peacock blue, and pink or yellow. It might almost be called rainbow russule, with its variable prismatic colouration. In size it is almost the same as the foregoing, but there is more blue or purple in the colour, and the disc or centre of the cap grows pale and yellowish. The stem is quite smooth, even, and white, about two or three inches long ; the gills are broad and rounded behind, many of them forked. The whole substance, and especially the stem, is not so firm as in R&R. vesca. The flesh is white beneath the separable cuticle, whereas in that species it is reddish. The margin of the cap in both species is even, that is, without parallel lines. There is great resemblance between them as esculents, and they grow in similar localities. Perhaps it would be rather difficult for the novice to distinguish one from the other. It would be useless to add other species less easy of recognition, but equally wholesome, amongst those which have white gills and spores, But there are some in which the gills are more or less yellow, THE RUSSULES. 187 equally good, two of which may be added, and if confounded with each other no harm will be done. The common russule (Russula integra) is found in woods throughout summer and autumn. It is mild to the taste, but one of the most variable’in colour. The cap is commonly ruddy, sometimes shaded with blue or brown or olive. The cap is fleshy and convex, then becoming flattened and depressed, rather fragile when mature, and covered with a viscid cuticle, which soon loses colour. The margin is indented all round with parallel depressed lines or shallow furrows, with small tubercles in the space between them, but chiefly when in the mature condi- tion. The cap is three or four inches broad, and the flesh white. The stem is commonly stout, short at first, then club shaped, or swollen in the middle, white and spongy. The gills are nearly free from the stem, very broad, not crowded, connected by veins at the base, at first whitish, then yellowish, powdered with the ochraceous spores. The other species (Aussula alutacea) is chiefly found in beech woods, and is about the same size as the foregoing; the cap is red or dark purple, becoming pale, especially in the centre, and is also covered with a viscid cuticle. The stem is stout and solid, about two inches long, and equal throughout, even and white, often variegated with red. The gills are at first free from the stem, thick, and very broad, connected by veins at the base, all of them being 188 BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. equal in length, at first pale yellow, then bright ochre but zo¢ powdery with the spores. Taste mild and pleasant, with a tendency to become acrid when old. Except in one or two species the russules are deficient in any perceptible odour ; as a rule the gills are tender and fragile, and the stem spongy. Most of them are rather sticky on the cap when moist, and they are not expanded long before they begin to decay. As esculents we have never regarded them with any especial favour, if we except the sea-green russule, and certainly there is nothing to induce a beginner in the art of fungus hunting to risk a mistake. Dr Badham neverthless says that one of the species (apparently the one called by us peacock russule) is an excellent fungus, and he adds that Roques introduced it into the houses of many of his friends, some of whom preferred it to the common mushroom, “an opinion shared by several of our own friends on this side the Channel.” The russules are tender fungi and require very little cooking, but we do not recommend stewing, as they are rather watery, and not strong in flavour, Baking in a covered dish with the usual con- diments is the only method we have resorted to, and the best we can suggest. Finally, we caution strongly against experiments with any of the bright scarlet or crimson coloured species, unless deter- mined to be harmless by a competent authority. STUMP MUSHROOMS. 189 XXVIIIL—STUMP MUSHROOMS. THE most common and the most universally eaten on the Continent of all the stump mushrooms is the one which has no favour in this country. In Vienna it is called the stump mushroom and is exposed for sale everywhere. It is always in demand, and yet we con- sider it tough, bitter, and not at all pleasant. Perhaps it is because we use it differently, for there they only employ it as a kind of condiment, adding a little to all their soups, stews, and made dishes. So common is this fungus with us in the autumn that Agaricus melleus is a bye-word and a nuisance. If we could only eat it and recommend it, perhaps we should reduce the number perceptibly, but now it turns up everywhere. No fungus is perhaps more variable in appearance, and it takes a long time to be sure of it under its many phases. It may be premised that it is more or less confined to rotten stumps, and even when it seems to be growing out of the grass it may be concluded that there is some bit of rotten wood buried beneath where it springs. As a rule it forms dense clusters, almost covering the old stump from which it grows. The cap is of a honey-coloured brown, about two inches across, sometimes twice as large, occasionally larger, with a darker centre, more or less scaly or fibrous. The stem is rather long, it may be six Igo BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. inches, paler than the cap and fibrous, with a large spreading ring near the top. The gills are dirty white, and soon discoloured and stained or spotted with dull red. The spores are white, and so profuse that grass, wood, dead leaves, or whatever lies beneath the fungus soon become covered with a coating of the snow-white spores. This is a feature which cannot fail to be observed. The whole of the fungus is of a rather dry consistence, not viscid, but sometimes so soaked with moisture after rain, that it is scarcely distinguishable. And this is the ubiquitous medleus, the honey-coloured stump mushroom, common every- where, and almost everywhere in profusion, but no one holds it in respect, In this instance “ familiarity breeds contempt;” even slugs and maggots do not appear to hold it in much esteem. All books on edible fungi that have been written include this species, but it would not have found a place here if such had not been its antecedents, for, although per- fectly harmless, it is not such a dainty morsel as one would recommend to his friends. One of our fungus eating coadjutors always speaks of it as an “awful fraud,” and therefore we may be excused for omitting any instructions in its preparation for the table. Although the “melleus” is not to our liking, there is another species, confined apparently to old beech trees and stumps, for which we have better words to write. The slimy beech caps (Agaricus mucidus) are usually plentiful wherever there are old beeches, STUMP MUSHROOMS. I9gt but not elsewhere. They spring in tufts from. the bark, and being of an ivory whiteness when the slime is washed away, are conspicuous objects. The cap is usually one or two inches in diameter, but we have seen specimens five or six inches. It is entirely covered, when growing, with a coat of slime, and then is often of a smoky colour, but in Epping Forest and Burnham beeches it is more often ivory white. The stem is rather long and slender, with a broad ring in the upper portion, and usually thickened at the base. The gills are very broad and distant apart ; these and of course the spores also are quite white. The most remarkable feature in this species is the covering of slime, like diluted gelatine, with which the entire fungus is invested, and on this account many persons are prejudiced against it, notwithstanding its elegant and graceful form. Having once tasted it, properly cooked, all such prejudice vanishes. The flesh of the cap is thin, and the whole fungus small, but it is a delicacy not to be despised. The only method we have adopted with them is to cut off the stems, and place the caps on sippets of toast, with a little pepper and salt, and a small piece of butter on each, cover with an inverted basin, and cook them for ten minutes in an oven. When ready they are very tender and digestible, and of delicate flavour. Preferable to some palates to the stronger and more pronounced flavour of the common mush- room. 192 BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. Another stump mushroom is found in clusters about the base of old trees and stumps with a coarser appearance and of a larger size. It is uniformly of a reddish brown colour, at times and especially when saturated with moisture as dark as a chestnut. The usual diameter of the cap is two or three inches, smooth, and often cracking when dry. The stem is long and spindle-shaped, six or eight inches, tapering very much at the base, fluted, twisted, and contorted in a variety of ways. The gills are broad and whitish at first, but soon become spotted, and at length almost of the colour of the pileus, but the spores are white. It is known as the spindle-stemmed mushroom (Agaricus fusifes), and is not by any means un- common in the late autumn until after the frosts have set in. No one, be he ever such an enthusiast, would claim for this agaric an ‘attractive or pleasing appear- ance, and yet it has long had a reputation as an esculent. As for ourselves, we have preferred giving the precedence to other species which are found at’ the same period of the year, and, generally, it is our impression that it is much more neglected than it would otherwise be ifit had not so many rivals. Dr Badham calls it “an excellent fungus,’ and says it may be stewed or dressed in the same manner as the common mushroom, but the most approved method is to select young specimens only, and pickle the caps for winter use. A rough and ready method is, Cut off the stems and wash the caps, so as to remove any THE SPARASSIS. 193 trace of sand, and lay them on a soft cloth to dry. Put them when so prepared in wide mouthed bottles, with a blade of mace, a teaspoonful of peppercorns, and a teaspoonful of mustard seed in each. Then cover with the strongest white pickling vinegar boiling hot. When quite cold they should be closely corked or tied down, but they will not keep for more than three months. XXIX.—THE SPARASSIS. AMONGST little known British fungi there are many which are so small that the majority of the natives might reasonably be excused for never having observed them, or, even if pointed out to them, for not manifesting any particular interest in them. It can hardly be expected that those who are not personally devoted to the study of fungi, or who are not sufficiently advanced in their love of Nature to take interest in all the manifestations of her variety and power, should trouble themselves about some curious fungus no larger than a pea, or even as minute as a grain of mustard seed. But, when the. object in question is as large as a man’s head it becomes more astonishing that it should be wholly unknown to the average sportsman, or holiday maker, and that it has N 194 BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. not acquired for itself even a popular name. Some excuse may be made when the object is so exceedingly rare as only to be seen a few times in the course of a generation; but when it is believed to make its appearance almost annually, in some place or other, not wholly unfrequented, there is more ground for surprise. The fungus now in question appeals not only to the curious and the scientific, but also to the stomach of the lover of good things, as much as would a fine bunch of asparagus, and yet it is comparatively unknown. Mr Worthington Smith records the dimensions of a specimen found at the base of Scotch firs in Kent a few years ago. It took two men to carry the box in which it was packed, and the box afterwards became a spacious rabbit hutch. The sparassis was very compact, solid, and heavy, it measured three feet and a half in circumference, stood ten inches high above the ground, with a solid heavy base of mycelium for six inches beneath the surface. It was divided and carried by two persons to Loughton, in two fish baskets, one basket being sufficiently heavy for one person to carry with con- venience. This was no microscopical object which could be readily overlooked. During one day of a foray in Hampshire two or three specimens were found the size of a child’s head, but these were considered small. Twice in one season we have Ynet with them nine inches in diameter. THE SPARASSIS. 195 Supposing that these details may have aroused sufficient interest to desire further information, we will attempt a description of its appearance. The general outline of form is usually more or less globose, and the colour either a creamy white or a pale ruddy yellow, ot of the lemon yellow tint, but ochraceous yellow, seeming almost white when growing on the ground. The base consists of a thick rooting stem, the greater part sunk in the ground, arising from a profusion of threadlike mycelium. Upwards the stem is many times divided into numerous branches, which are not visible from the outside. The outer aspect is almost brainlike, consisting of flat laminz, curled and folded, intricately combined, and twisted, so as to form a dense mass of sinuous folds or plates, the upper portion producing spores on all sides. In decay the whole fungus softens, becomes brownish, and at length settles into a pulpy mass. The sparassis is either found at the base of trees or on heaths, amongst bracken and heather, some- thing like a large cauliflower denuded of its leaves, and lying upon the ground, no stem: being visible. It is often partially concealed, but it seems strange that an object so imposing should so seldom be found except by fungus hunters, and not at all until within the last half of this century. Of its esculent qualities the accounts are rather barren, except that they are of a high order, which 196 BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. is surprising, since a single specimen is often sufficient for several families. When raw the taste is pleasant, reminding one of a fresh filbert; when cooked, deli- cate and mild, but scarcely awakening any remin- iscences of ordinary mushrooms. The only suggestions for cooking with which we are acquainted are those given by Roques. The specimens should first be well washed in warm water to clear them from particles of sand or earth, and then drained. Cut into a convenient size, the seg- ments should be baked with butter, parsley, a little eschalot or a fragment of garlic, and seasoned with pepper and salt. When tender, cream and yolk of eggs may be added. During the baking it should be moistened occasionally with a few spoonfuls of broth ot gravy. In Austria it is simply fried with butter and sweet herbs, and this primitive plan we have followed for ourselves, whenever good fortune has brought a specimen in our way. Some years since we found one for two or three successive years at the base of the same old tree in Caen Wood, Highgate, and then it appeared no more. In this connection we may allude to the tremellas, which are not uncommon, but little sought after for the table. Our own experience has been but small, and that not very encouraging. The only species which gave satisfaction was the large pale tremella, which reminds one so strongly of sparassis. This (Tremella frondosa), in masses from six to nine inches THE SPARASSIS. 197 in diameter, we have found on one or two occasions on the decaying limbs of a tree, or at its base, but only this one individual tree. The description given above of the external appearance of the Sparasszs would apply equally well to this, except that the stem is entirely absent, the colour of a pinkish yellow, almost flesh-colour, and the texture much softer, and more clammy to the touch. We have not seen it for a quarter of acentury, and have but a faint recollection of our then experiences. All we remember was that it was always cooked when found, and eaten by the family with satisfaction, but in what manner it was prepared for the table is now forgotten. The unsatisfactory experiences relate to the com- moner leafy tremella, “constantly found on old trunks and branches (Tvemella foliacea). It is of a smoky brown colour, cold, clammy, and shaky in the hand, in tufts almost the size of the fist, almost of a jelly-like consistence, and by no means inviting. When stewed it resolves itself into a slimy mess which would be acceptible to the Chinese, but not in conformity with English tastes. It is perfectly wholesome, and a little effort might perhaps convert it into a respectable dish by some other process, Another tremella is to be met with every year on fallen branches and old trunks, which is recom- mended as edible, but our experiences with the leafy tremella encouraged no experiment. This (7remella mesenterica) is brain-like in its convolutions, gela- 198 BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. tinous in texture, averaging in size from that of a walnut to an apple. It is of a very bright orange-red colour, and sufficiently conspicuous, but without any decided odour. Asa specimen of a jelly-fungus it is undoubtedly beautiful, but for the table we fear its charms are ephemeral. These gelatinous fungi approximate perhaps to a vegetable gelatine, and some ingenious manipulator might succeed in producing from them some imita- tion of table jellies, but the quantity of raw material to be procured is small, and we fear that such energies would be wasted. Water enters so largely into their composition that drying converts them into little shrivelled, hard, horny fragments, like chips of scorched leather. XXX.—FAIRY CLUBS OR CLAVARIA. THE observant wanderer cannot but have seen amongst the grass in parks and on lawns some small white or yellow fungi of variable shape, from the simple “fairy club” to the branched and clus- tered “stag’s horn.” Commonly only two or three inches in length, and not thicker than a knitting needle, they are conspicuous only by their pure white- ness, or the brilliancy of their golden yellow. Edible FAIRY CLUBS OR CLAVARIA. 199 they undoubtedly are, perhaps all of them, but so small as to be of little esteem for the table. Some- times they occur in such plenty that sufficient for a dish may be collected, but it must be a labour of love. The scientific name is Clavarza, which has been freely translated as “fairy club,” but only a few of them have a club shape, most of the tufted species being very much branched, after the manner of stag’s horns. One species only attains a considerable size and preserves the club shape. Some call it the “ Hercules club,” and it will attain six or seven inches in length, with a diameter of an inch at the apex. In colour it is of a pale yellowish red, almost a ruddy flesh colour, of the tint sometimes called gilvous, solid, and whitish within, growing singly amongst grass ; attenuated gradually downwards, it resembles the conventional form which is given in pictures and statuary to the club of Hercules. But this Clavaria pistillarts is not by any means a common fungus, and the collector has to be content with the smaller species. One of the most common in pastures and on lawns is the branched Clavaria fastigiata, which is at times so common that a foot can scarcely be set on the ground without crushing it; so delicate and fragile as hardly to be disentangled from the grass without breaking. A snowy-white species, with the clubs simple and undivided, grows in similar places, but is often rather rare. This is Clavaria vermicularis, of which ten or 200 BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. twenty will form a tuft, and children in some places call them “fairy candles.” Much more attractive is a densely tufted and branched species, which we have always met with in woods, rising to three or four inches in height, and of a beautiful amethystine violet, hence it is called Clavaria amethystina. This colour is not common amongst fungi, but there is a variety of Agaricus laccatus which has a similar tint. More imposing than all are well grown tufts of Clavaria botrytes, sometimes forming a bunch as large as a man’s fist, with a very thick fleshy stem, as much as one inch thick, which divides upwards into innumerable branches, having the extreme tips tinged with red, whilst the bulk of the ‘fungus is of a creamy white. This is a widely diffused fungus, being found throughout Europe, into Asia, and is not uncommon in Australia. If it were not for the red tips it would resemble a cauliflower without the green leaves, and is considered as good, if not better. It would hardly avail much to give descriptions, in writing, of all the edible species, since they would be much more easily recognized from drawings, but there is one other common white species which is not unfrequent on hedge banks and grassy slopes. A great number are found growing near each other, but mostly singly, or one or two together. It is peculiar from its irregular club shape and very short wart-like branches and furrowed surface, which has procured for it the name of Clavaria rugosa. It is MUSHROOM KETCHUP. 201 from two to three inches in length, tapering down- wards to a very slender stem. As articles of food none but the largest are worthy of much consideration, except as curiosities. It re- quires some effort to collect sufficient for a dish, and when obtained and cooked in the most approved fashion, there is no great compensation in delicacy of flavour, aroma, or novelty of taste. Many agarics, to be found with less trouble at the same season, would give greater satisfaction. There is, however, one advantage which they possess, and no small one with timid people, that they are absolutely safe. XXXI—MUSHROOM KETCHUP. KETCHUP, or catsup, for the name is written both ways, is a sauce prepared from mushrooms, and was at one time believed to be obtained exclusively from the common mushroom and the meadow mushroom. In rural districts, where ketchup making is an annual autumnal event, the meadow mushroom is preferred as more highly flavoured. The combination sold in towns under the name of mushroom ketchup has in some instances been demonstrated to have been made without mushrooms at all. It is so easy to detect spurious mushroom ketchup that it is surprising it 220 BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. should be attempted. The dark colour of genuine ketchup is due to the dark spores of the mushroom, held in solution, but unchanged in form or colour. A drop of the fluid under the microscope can be challenged instantly as to whether it is mushroom ketchup or not. We need not enquire how the spurious concoction is made, as we have only to deal with the genuine. It is an error to suppose that good ketchup can only be made from the two mushrooms above named, for we should add also the wood mushroom (Agaricus syluaticus), the two species of Coprinus or deliques- cent mushrooms (Coprinus comatus and Coprinus atra- mentarzus), and the two species of viscid, Gomphidius (Gomphidius glutinosus and Gomphidius viscidus). The warted mushroom (Agaricus rubescens) and even the common velvety mushroom (Agaricus veluttnus) may be added to other species. All these are ketchup mushrooms of the first class, but the mushroom gatherers collect almost anything that looks promising, and the Rev. M. J. Berkeley has declared that the mixture of “all sorts” which he has seen consigned to the pot in ketchup manufactories would rather astonish an outsider. A very simple and effectual method of making this excellent sauce is to wipe the mushrooms and cut off the stems, laying the caps in a pan with the gills upwards, and sprinkling them with salt, taking care to exclude those which are maggoty. They MUSHROOM KETCHUP. 203 should lie three or four days, and then squeezed with the hand thoroughly so as to extract all the juice. Take one ounce of whole pepper, one ounce of well bruised ginger, and half an ounce of cloves for each pint of the liquor. Boil all together for fifteen or twenty minutes, and when cold, decant into clean bottles, either with or without straining, but, if strained, it is better to add a few peppercorns to each bottle. The corking must be good and well sealed to exclude the air. If at any time afterwards the ketchup shows any tendency to become ropy, it should be boiled again for a short time with a little more spice, when the ropiness will disappear, and it will be as good as ever. Mrs Hussey recommends a method of ketchup making which retains better the aroma and flavour, by not submitting it to boiling. The mushrooms, being first cleaned from all extraneous matter, and those being utterly rejected which border at all on decomposition, are sliced and salted, and the juice suffered to run off through a colander without squeez- ing. Itis then left for a few hours, and after being decanted carefully from any sediment, placed in small bottles, room being left for a little alcohol in which the proper spices have been previously steeped. Well stoppered, this is said to keep admirably. The orthodox process of domestic ketchup manu- facture is something like the following, modified sometimes to suit individual idiosyncrasies: Mush- 204 BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. room caps, denuded of the stems, are selected, full grown specimens being preferred, and these should be collected in dry weather, and not when the mush- rooms are saturated with moisture, in which latter case the ketchup turns musty and will not keep. A layer of mushroom caps are placed, gills upwards, ina deep pan, and sprinkled with salt, some say in the pro- portion of one ounce of salt to a gallon of mushrooms, and some recommend double that quantity. Then another and another layer of mushrooms are added alternately with salt, until the pan is filled. These are allowed to remain for five or six hours, or all night, and then all the caps are to be broken up and mixed together in a general mess by hand. The pan with its contents should be stood in a cool place for three days, occasionally stirring and mashing so that all the fragments may be well broken and mixed, so as to extract as much of the juice as possible. The liquor may now be poured off, without straining, and measured, so as to add for each quart of liquor a quarter of an ounce of cayenne, half an ounce of allspice, half an ounce of bruised ginger, and two blades of pounded mace. Some prefer to substi- tute for the cayenne and allspice an ounce of whole pepper and a few cloves. The liquor and the spice is now put into a stone jar, which is covered and plunged in a saucepan of boiling water, set over the fire, and kept boiling for three hours. The contents of the jar may now be turned into a clean saucepan, MUSHROOM KETCHUP. 205 and allowed to simmer for half an hour. The fluid should then be poured off into a clean jug, and allowed to stand in a cool place until next day. The liquor may then be strained into dry bottles, but the bottles must be clean and dry. Some add a tea- spoonful of brandy to each pint of ketchup. When bottled, each bottle should be corked and the top covered with resin or sealing-wax to exclude the air. The bottles should be examined from time to time, and, if any ropiness appears, it should be boiled again with a little more spice. The sediment or refuse of the straining, and all the fragments originally left, may be well squeezed, and the juice obtained boiled down with spice, in the same proportions as above, and will make a rather cloudy but good ketchup for immediate use, but it will not keep. Double ketchup is made by boiling down good ketchup to half the quantity, which, by evaporating the water, doubles its strength, Some housewives instead of adding brandy to the ketchup put a tea- spoonful of peppercorns in each pint and a half bottle before corking. For good results mixed fungi should not be used, beyond certain limits ; for instance, although Coprinus comatus and Coprinus atramentarzus, singly or to- gether, will produce a good ketchup, they should not be mixed with the common mushroom, the meadow mushroom, and the wood mushroom, all of which 206 BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. latter may be combined. Again, if the warted mush- room (Agaricus rubescens) be converted into ketchup, it should’ be kept pure and unmixed, because the resulting fluid will be pale and mild. The dusky mushroom (Agaricus nebularis) has never been recom- mended for ketchup, but there is no reason why it should not be successful, especially as a good supply of the fungus is probable wherever it is found at all. It will hardly be possible to make a large supply of ketchup from the fairy ring champignon (AZarasmzus oreades), because it is.so dry in substance that each individual will yield but a very small quantity, and, as the fungus itself is only a little one, an immense number must be collected to produce a batch. XXXIIL-—ABOUT POISONOUS FUNGI. SEVERAL reasons have influenced us in excluding descriptions of poisonous fungi from this volume. Firstly, because they would not assist in obtaining a knowledge of the edible species, and by error might be confused with them. Secondly, because the popularization of a knowledge of poisons, of any kind, is never desirable, being liable to do more harm than good. Finally, if these reasons have not sufficient weight, that the dimensions decided upon for this ABOUT POISONOUS FUNGI. 207 work, so as to ensure a popular price, would not permit of the introduction of noxious species, without a corresponding diminution in the number of edible species described and figured. It has always been supposed by the uninitiated that the number of noxious species as compared with the edible is enormous, and are by very far in the majority. Upon investigation this will be discovered to be an error. There are species undoubtedly virulent, which we cannot for a moment deny, but the number of these is much inferior to the number of those which are innocuous, whilst the experience of every year tends to the diminution of the suspected species, many of which have been suspected without any sufficient cause. Select any one hundred consecutive species from a list, and assume that a dozen of them are known to be esculent, hitherto it has been very much the practice to condemn the residual eighty- eight as noxious, which isa cardinal error. There may be a number of species so small that no one would ever enquire whether they were poisonous or not. There would also be a considerable number which might be termed botanical curiosities, species once seen and recorded, but never met with for a quarter of a century, or species so rare that only one or two are met with at intervals. Finally, there will always be a number known to possess some quality other than noxious, such as toughness, deficiency in flesh, &c., which forbids, and always would forbid, their being 208 BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. classed with edible fungi. Ultimately, the known deleterious species would be found diminished to five or six. Indeed we could point out more than a hundred consecutive species in almost any list which would not include a single poisonous species. Over and over again have we been urged to lay down some rules, or instructions, whereby poisonous may be distinguished from innocuous fungi. As often have we declared, as we do now, that such general instructions are impossible. No rules can be given whereby a poisonous can be distinguished from a harmless species, nothing except knowledge and experience. The poisonous species already known are known because they have a past hi8tory which has condemned them, and not from any evidence written upon them. The most experienced mycologist cannot tell by any character, feature, or behaviour, that this or that fungus is poisonous or the reverse. He only knows its antecedents and the company it keeps. A large order of flowering plants, such as the Solanace@, may be looked upon with suspicion, but the potato and tomato are not poisons. In the Agarics the subgenus Amanzta with warted caps have always been regarded with suspicion because of Agaricus muscarius and Agaricus phalloides; but two others of the same group, Agaricus rubescens and Agaricus strobiliformzs, are most excellent food. Amongst the Solet it has long been a standing in- struction to consider all the species unfit for food, ABOUT POISONOUS FUNGI. 209 the flesh of which turns blue when cut or wounded. Some of the most virulent turn deep blue when cut, but one or two harmless species turn blue likewise. Again, Boletus felleus has the repute of a poisonous species, but it does zof¢ turn blue when cut. Another bubble is burst, and so every attempt to give general instructions for the discrimination of poisonous and edible species ends in a failure when put to the test. Although we cannot give patent instructions: for general application, we can pronounce cautions, and we do not fail in these cautions from time to time. We caution everyone against experiment in eating fungi which are unknown to them, or not recom- mended by a competent authority. There are sufficient good and reliable species without making experiments, and, as the only safe guide is knowledge, we recommend everyone to know a few good species thoroughly well, to have them pointed out, to examine for themselves, and then they may always eat them without fear. It is as easy to learn to distinguish one edible species from another as it is to know a partridge from a sea-gull, and yet the latter process requires no man to be an ornithologist. We have already cautioned readers against agarics with pink or salmon coloured spores, and a caution of this kind may still be continued, even although two species are quite harmless and delicate eating. Further we may advise abstention from all bright red, scarlet, or crimson agarics or russules unless the Oo 210 BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. individual concerned has most undoubted authority, not merely descriptions in books upon which to rely. Mushrooms of all kinds pass so rapidly into decay, and consequently suffer rapid chemical change, so that even innocuous species should always be eaten as soon after they are gathered as conveniently may be. Not even the common mushroom is so delicate, or so excellent, at any other period as it is within an hour or two of its being gathered. Certainly no fungus should be cooked as food after it has exhibited any symptoms of decay. We have known individuals who can at no time eat the ordinary mushroom without inconvenience, and we remember one instance in which only a small fragment of mushroom, eaten accidentally, always pro- duced symptoms of poisoning. This case, and cases of a similar nature, are quite independent of the wholesome nature of the fungus. It is a constitu- tional idiosyncrasy in the individual which should not condemn the immediate cause. Cases of fungus poisoning are now much more under medical control than formerly, since the method of hypodermic injec- tion of antidotes has been practised, and we have the authority of a physician for stating that he has found it so effectual that he is always prepared to resort to it at once. Is it true that mushrooms which are under ordinary conditions perfectly good, such as the cultivated ABOUT POISONOUS FUNGI. 211 mushroom, acquire deleterious properties under certain other unknown conditions? To this we can only reply that it is not only possible, but that it has taken place. We do not pretend to fathom the cause, but can only recognise the fact. It is very rarely that such an experience is heard of, but having really occurred in the past, it is not impossible in the future. There is sometimes to be found in pastures scattered individuals of the ordinary mushroom with a dark brown cap, but in all other respects like the true mushroom. It has come to our knowledge more than once that this dark mushroom is not trustworthy, and should be avoided. What the connection may be between the dark cap and the deleterious property we are not prepared to determine. Adverting to recognisable features of a general character, we may be permitted to intimate that mushrooms which are mild and pleasant to the taste are so usually edible that we should not hesitate for ourselves to cook and eat any such which came in our way, without credentials. Further, we should always feel suspicious of a fungus with a biting, peppery, or acrid taste, and should not be disposed to eat it, unless its antecedents are in favour of its being perfectly harmless. There are fungi possessing peculiar rancid, nitrous, or foetid odours. As we know of none such that are edible, we invariably consider these suspicious, and recommend others to do the same. 212 BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. If not in themselves poisonous, there are conditions under which otherwise good species may cause incon- venience through bad cooking, by which means they may be rendered indigestible. It is quite possible for mushrooms to be condemned as heavy and indigestible ' when the fault does not rest with the fungus but with the cook. In the case of puff balls of all kinds, it is a special injunction that they should not be accepted as good for food after the internal flesh shows the least sulphury tinge. The flesh must always be of a con- tinuous, uninterrupted white. Undoubtedly fungi which are considered poisonous by us are eaten in Russia, but they have a method of soaking, or preserving, fungi in vinegar, which may serve to explain this anomaly, rather than by attribut- ing it to any climatic conditions. If the poison is of an alkaline nature there is no difficulty in believing that maceration in acid would counteract mischievous effects. There is much consolation for us who are addicted to fungus eating, on something like scientific prin- ciples, that when casualties do happen it is not upon us that they fall. If the records of fungus poisoning are studied, it will be found either that the victims were children, or that they were reckless and stupid, because in so many instances the result has accrued through accepting as mushrooms things which hardly remotely resembled them. Those who eat strange DRIED MUSHROOMS. 213 “toadstools” as the result of experience, and the use of their intellect and common sense, being also aware of the danger, consequently escape, and are safe. XXXITL—DRIED MUSHROOMS. FUNGI dried for winter use is a luxury more in vogue on the Continent than with us, and yet the material is as common, and it can only be the taste that is want- ing. If the mushroom flavour is desirable during a few autumnal months, why should it not be equally acceptable through the winter? Custom has a great deal to do with these things, and in the present case the custom might be accepted with advantage. The compound sold in some cases as “ Mushroom powder ” is no equivalent, but rather acts as a deterrent; but genuine mushroom powder is only one of the forms of dried fungi. Under the several species we have noti- fied those which are most suitable for the process of drying, and these may be collected here so as to exhibit at once what are the possible kitchen resources in the winter. It seems strange that at the very period of the year when soups and savoury dishes are most acceptable of all, that such delicate flavourings should be absent. No one who has been in Germany or Austria during winter can fail to have noted the 214 BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. contrast in this particular with home, and not have recognized the “ceps” and dried fungi of other kinds exposed for sale in every street. This reference reminds us that several kinds of Bolett are amongst the most common of the dried fungi. The stem is discarded, the pores cleared away from the under side of the cap, and then the white fleshy cap is cut in slices about the thickness of a penny piece, and thoroughly dried in the air. Cer- tainly Boletus edulis, Boletus scaber, and Boletus granulosus, all of which are described in this work, are common enough, and might be prepared in this manner. an Another fungus which is peculiarly suitable for drying is the fairy ring champignon (Marasmius oreades), ‘These can be strung in a line by passing a twine through a hole in the stems, and suspending them in the kitchen until quite dry. There is so little water in their composition that they will dry readily, without any tendency to decay, and the flavour is hardly to be equalled by any other. Chantarelles are another kind which are admirably adapted for drying in the same manner as the fore- going, from which they also differ in the kind of flavour which they impart. If the specimens are large they should be cut in half before drying: in order to facilitate the process. The hedgehog mushroom (Hyduum repandum) is also available for the same purpose, but these should DRIED MUSHROOMS. 215 be cut or sliced, as whole specimens, if large, are liable to decay if dried too slowly. It would be pre- ferable in all cases to slice them in the same manner as the Boletz. The St George’s mushroom (Agaricus gambosus) has been recommended for drying, but we have never tried it, since at the time of its appearance no other fungi are to be had, and it has never been our good fortune to have more at a time than we were glad to use for immediate consumption. Some mycologists have commended the two related species, the plum mushroom (Agaricus prunulus) and the orcella (Agaricus orcella), as excellent for drying, but these seem to have such a delicate flavour, only appreciable if cooked whilst fresh, that we have almost regarded it as a sin “to waste their sweetness in the kitchen air” by the evaporation of their aroma in drying. There are several other species of fleshy agarics which would dry very well, and answer the ordinary purpose of flavouring in winter, but they do not retain that delicacy which recommends them in the fresh state, and for such a purpose there are plenty of others. For instance, few would care to sacrifice such a breakfast delicacy as the parasol mushroom (Agaricus procerus) for the remote exigencies of a winter stew. Foremost amongst the best kinds for the flavour- ing of winter dishes are the morels. We have several 216 ; BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. different species, but none of them too common, and the small ones may be dried on strings, entire, the larger cut into segments. It is a curious circum- stance that the natives in the Vale of Cashmere and on the slopes of the Himalayas dry the morels on strings, in which form they are sold in the bazaars of North Western India as articles of food. One of the species is identical with one lately found in Scotland (Morchella deliciosa). They are dried in France and Italy, and we have purchased dried imported morels in Covent Garden market, but seldom seen fresh ones. An excellent substitute, similar in flavour, are the Flelvellas, which are more common with us, and at a later season of the year. The only two species large enough for drying (Helvella crispa and Helvella lacunosa) may be collected in such places as Epping Forest, during the autumn, and are perhaps more suitable for drying for winter use than for cooking when fresh. Often during an autumnal stroll one or two individuals will be found, and possibly no more, quite insufficient for a dish at the time, but they may be dried, and thus during a season quite a good supply may be obtained, one by one, or at most half a dozen at a time, and they will dry readily, anyhow, without any trouble, if left exposed to the air. Truffles will, we fear, never be burdensome from their profusion, but in case any one should desire to experiment on drying them, they should be cut in DRIED MUSHROOMS. 217 slices about as thick as a penny, and if laid flat, be often turned over whilst drying, or the under surface is liable to moisten and decay. Dried truffles are not comparable with fresh ones, and even those pre- served in oil are preferred by most persons, ourselves amongst the number. As a nation we are not great in truffle production, or in truffle eating, save in the guise of Strasburg pies. Having dried such fungi as are intended to be pre- served, thoroughly, they may be stored away in a dry place. Some have recommended wide mouthed bottles or jars, and others tin canisters or boxes, for holding the store, but our objection is to all hermeti- cally sealed vessels, because the slightest amount of moisture present is sufficient to induce incipient mouldiness and a musty taste. We prefer muslin bags, or anything of the kind which permits of the ingress of air, and these suspended in the kitchen, or in a very dry place, will prove effectual. Only let dust be excluded, and the fungi kept thoroughly dry, but not air tight, as the latter may result in fermenta- tion, or mouldiness, without any compensating advan- tage. When any of the dried mushrooms are intended to be used they should be soaked for an hour in warm water, and then drained before using. Some prefer soaking all night. If added to a stew or soup, they should be the last ingredient, ten or fifteen minutes is sufficient. It is a great mistake to keep them 218 BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. boiling over the fire for an hour or two, and diffusing all the volatile flavour and aroma in steam. We have already given instructions for the pre- paration of “mushroom powder” which needs not repetition. Our own experience of the best of this kind of preparation has not been satisfactory, but as others have spoken well of it, the fault may rest with ourselves. In the metropolis dried “ceps” and dried mush- rooms may be purchased at most of the shops for sale of German and Italian provisions, such as are found in the neighbourhood of Soho and Leicester Square. XXXIV.—FUNGUS HUNTING. FUNGUS eating of course implies fungus hunting, and as the articles to be consumed have first to be ob- tained, it is essential that all possible assistance should be given to attain this object. For this purpose it is essential that the inexperienced should know as well the times and seasons for certain species, and the most favourable localities, as to be able to discriminate them when found. Dealing as it does with a large number of different kinds of fungi, appearing consecutively through a period of some months, there must be some method in hunting FUNGUS HUNTING. 219 as well as in cooking, applicable to the different kinds individually. It goes without saying that some localities will be superior to others in their facilities for obtaining the raw material, but the worst localities will furnish a better result if worked in a systematic manner, and as the edible fungi under consideration are wild and spontaneous plants, dependent not only upon terrestrial but also atmo- spherical conditions, much time will be wasted, and disappointment caused, if only a hap-hazard kind of fungus hunting is resorted to. For instance, it will be useless to make an excursion in the early summer in the hope of finding kinds which do not make their appearance until autumn, and it will be equally un- availing to scour the woods in June for particular species, such as the fairy ring champignon, which does not grow in woods at all, but on open heaths, lawns, parks, and pastures. In all such matters there is no better guide than experience, but in default of experience, and to assist in its acquisition, a little may be communicated under the head of general instructions. Some excellent suggestions were made by Dr Bull in a volume of the Woolhope Transactions as to the period of the year in which the various edible fungi prevail. He writes—“In the end of April, or the beginning of May, the fungus season begins with the appearance of the true St George’s mushroom (Agaricus gambosus) growing in fairy rings, in pastures. These 220 BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. are quickly followed by the little fairy ring cham- pignon (Marasmius oreades), scattered specimens of the meadow mushroom, or horse mushroom (Agaricus arvensis), clusters of the maned agaric (Coprinus comatus), which in warm sunny seasons may be gathered all through the months of May, June, and July, and in the last month the edible boletus (Boletus edulis) will have put in its appearance. Then comes the great season of the common mush- room (Agaricus campestris), which may be allowed to reign supreme through July and August. From this time, through September and October, the great crop of fungi will appear. Besides those already named, there will abound the fine flavoured parasol agaric (Agaricus procerus), the rich red milk agaric (Lac- tartus deliciosus), the brown warty agaric (Agarzcus vubescens), the great puff ball (Lycoperdon giganteum), the vegetable beef steak (fastulina hepatica) on decay- ing oak trees, vegetable sweet-bread (Agaricus orcella), the plum mushroom (Agaricus prunulus), the pas- ture hygrophorus (Hygrophorus pratensis), and many others. The seasons will then be carried on by the hedgehog mushroom (Hydnum repandum), the small but abundant ivory caps (Hygrophorus virgineus), the blewits (Agaricus personatus), and the amethyst agaric (Agaricus nudus), until the frosts of November and December stop their growth.” It might have been added that even slight frosts do not materially affect the different species of Hygrophorus, which are about FUNGUS HUNTING. 221 the last to linger, in defiance of the coming winter, except perhaps the pasture Wygrophorus, which is not a late species. Under the different species we have given, together with the necessary descriptions for their identification, some intimation of their habitats. These will vary but little, although there will be some variation in the period of their advent, consequent upon the peculiarities of the season. Sometimes we have, as of late, a succession of seasons so unfavourable to the growth of fleshy fungi that they are compara- tively rare throughout the year. At other times continuous warm, moist weather ensures a plentiful supply of one species after another for many months. Hunting in woods for edible fungi should be undertaken later in the year than in the “open,” and then it will save time if a few generalities are kept in remembrance. Where the ground is covered with bracken, or overrun with brambles, or has a dense growth of underwood, labour will be in vain. A very few of the smaller agarics may occasionally be found sparingly amongst bracken and bramble, but as a rule the experienced hunter passes such spots, on the as- sumption that they are absolutely barren. Dense undergrowth is not quite so bad, but only a few specimens are to be seen. The sides of paths, or rides, on the contrary, will usually furnish something of use or interest. Aspect is another point for con- sideration ; a southern or western aspect is far prefer- 222 BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. able to an eastern or northern one. The cold north- ern side of a wood only affords a few of the hardiest species, but a warm moist slope, facing the south or the west, is usually a happy hunting ground. If the season is a very dry one the bottom of the slopes, and all damp spots should be explored. Cleared spots, where the undergrowth has been cut down, presents such a changed condition that it is useless to walk over it for two or three years after the clearing has taken place. The majority of our woods are mixed woods, but plantations of fir trees are useful in their way, although the fungi are confined to a few species. The fungi of fir woods will soon be recognised as different from those in mixed woods, whilst such things as yellow boleti and the red milk agaric (Lactarius delictosus) will only be found under fir trees. The tree-loving species are also a little eccentric in their habits. The slimy white species found so constantly on. beech trunks (Agaricus mucidus) will be seen scattered in clusters all over a dead beech trunk whilst still standing, but only sparingly when the trunk is prostrate. In some woods prostrate timber is not allowed to be on the ground long enough to produce a good crop of fungi, but, when permitted, the oyster mushroom (Agaricus ostreatus) will be found in large, dense clusters. We have never been successful in finding it elsewhere than on fallen timber, whereas the elm tree mushroom FUNGUS HUNTING. 223 (Agaricus ulmarius) flourishes high up on the rotting branches of standing elms, and we do not remember having collected it from a prostrate elm. When parks and pastures are explored no one would dream of undertaking it at times when continuous drought has turned the grass yellow, and hardened the ground so that fungi cannot penetrate above the surface. At all times care should be taken to look under the shadow of all the trees, and especially around the circle of drip from the outer branches. As a rule the number of species of all kinds found in open places is much less than of those occurring in woods, but this is compensated by the species being of a different kind. Low lying, damp meadows are unproductive, the preference being given to old parks and commons. It need scarcely to be suggested that quiet and secluded places are to be preferred, and not such as are infested by the British public for picnics, where the ground is trodden down, all toadstools kicked over and destroyed, with a legacy of luncheon papers, meat tins, and empty bottles to mark the track of the spoilers. In gathering fungi for domestic purposes some prefer an open basket, whilst others, with a strong regard for appearances, select in preference a tin vasculum, such as is used for collecting plants for botanical purposes. In either case it is quite un- necessary to carry more than is requisite. The stems can always be cut off close to the gills, and discarded, 224 BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. and then the caps may be packed close together in a comparatively small space, preference always being given to young, fresh looking individuals, rigidly excluding all which exhibit a tendency to decay, or are attacked by insects. It is of no consequence the mixing of several kinds together for the purpose of transit, but these should be separated afterwards, as we have no sympathy with the practice of combining two or three kinds together to furnish a dish for the table. Each kind should be tested on its own merits, and not combined into a sort of mushroom Irish stew. Again, we repeat that “the fresher the better” applies to all esculent fungi, and that the sooner they are cooked the better. Neither can we omit to caution the reckless against being reckless with articles of food. We have given as clear a definition as we could of each species, and have added figures of a large number, so that any one, with the exercise of moderate care and intelligence, may with certainty determine, without risk, the species we have named. If at any time there should be a doubt, let the benefit be given to the doubt, and either relinquish the dish or call in the assistance of some one more experienced to set the doubt at rest. Wedo not approve of experiments in fungus eating, and hence we have included none which we were not perfectly sure were entirely safe. It is an excellent plan to select a few species at first, and learn to know them well, before proceeding to others, unless the others are recom- LIST OF EDIBLE FUNGI. 225 mended and determined by some one of experience. There is no better method than to join in some fungus foray, which is usually conducted by some capable person, and endeavour to have the edible species pointed out, so that they may be examined and compared with descriptions and figures. In this way all hesitation is removed, and those particular species become as well known as the face of an old and familiar friend. XXXV.—LIST OF EDIBLE FUNGI. Dry and uninteresting as an inventory, or catalogue, will be a barren list of the fungi of Britain available for domestic purposes, and yet we are about to venture upon it as a direct means of proving that the subject has not been exhausted. Of course we do not expect any one to read it, but some infatuated individual may at some remote period be induced to consult it, perhaps with the charitable hope of finding it wrong, or making suggestions for its improvement. It must not be concluded that all are equally delicate, or appetizing ; it is sufficient for this purpose that the species is recognized as edible. Their respective merits must be determined by individual tastes. Some are prefixed by an asterisk (*) to indicate that P 226 BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI, we have eaten them ourselves and still survive to testify to the fact. The adoption of scientific names was a necessity in order to secure accuracy and promote recognition by those who prefer precision in matters of life and death. * Agaricus (Amanita) rubescens. F7zes. Agaricus (Amanita) strobiliformis. V?z. *Agaricus (Amanitopsis) vaginatus. Budd. *Agaricus (Lepiota) procerus. Scop. *Agaricus (Lepiota) rachodes. Vztt. | Agaricus (Lepiota) excoriatus. Scheff. Agaricus (Lepiota) gracilentus.