343 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



them to be highly nutritive. Not only do savage tribes, like the Fucgians, 

 adopt particular species as their staple food during many months, but 

 civilized Europeans consume them largely when fresh, and preserve them 

 in casks for winter solace. Yet, even respecting these trifles and truffles, 

 there are singular national prejudices; and we, who never scruple to eat the 

 true mushroom, maybe surprised to learn that the Italians carefully exclude 

 this species from their markets ; while, on the contrary, with the exception 

 of the truffle and the morel, it is said to be almost the only one which is 

 allowed to be exposed for sale in Paris. Both there and at home these three 

 kinds of fungi are important articles of commerce. The extent to which 

 mushrooms are employed in the form of ketchup will be quite surprising to 

 those who have never given a thought to the subject. A single ketchup 

 merchant, in consequence of the enormous produce of mushrooms during 

 the present season, had no less than eight hundred gallons of this savory 

 sauce in stock; and the whole has been prepared from mushrooms collected 

 within a radius of some three or four miles. 



It would seem odd enough that any one should become enthusiastic about 

 funguses in relation to food; but they who wish to recreate themselves with 

 such enthusiasm should consult Dr. Badham on the " Esculent Funguses of 

 England " and his twenty plates of those which may be safely eaten. A 

 lady also displays a like furor for funguses; and there are no less than one 

 hundred and forty colored plates in Mrs. Hussey's " Illustrations of British 

 Mycology," besides some excellent receipts and a great variety of informa- 

 tion, the result of actual experiment. 



A curious origin is attributed to a species of agaric eaten at Naples (Aga- 

 ricus Neapolitans), A few years ago the nuns of a certain convent in 

 Naples were in the habit of throwing their coffee-grounds into the shady 

 corner of their garden after each day's meal. A new species of mushroom 

 was observed to shoot up from this substance while in a state of fermenta- 

 tion. Having been found excellent food, its cultivation has spread rapidly 

 over different parts of Italy, according to Quatrefages, who is our authority, 

 and it has since become customary to raise this esculent fungus in many 

 parts of Naples in an unvarnished flower-pot, which is constantly kept in 

 the shade, and in which coffee-grounds are collected. From this soil mush- 

 room-like funguses shoot up in about six months. This may be a mere state 

 of some common form of fungus. Another kind (Polyporus) is raised for 

 food in Italy from hazel-stumps, by partially cleaving them, and then sup- 

 plying them with a proper quantity of water. A certain species (Polyporus 

 tuberastcr) springs up in Italy from conglomerated masses of earth and 

 spawn, called Fungus-stone (Pietra Fungaja}, when placed in a conservatory. 



There ai - e also economical as well as edible uses for some species of fungi, 

 as for snuff, for German tinder, for dyes, for anaesthetic properties like those 

 of chloroform. Operations, indeed, have been successfully performed under 

 such influence. Some can be employed for intoxication, some to destroy 

 flies, and others make excellent razor-strops probably from containing 

 minute crystals hard enough to act upon the steel. The turners at Tunbridge 

 Wells can get a beautiful green tint from the spawn of one species. Medical 

 science likewise can find something in this order of plants. Ergoted grain, 

 which owes its origin to a fungus, is a most valuable medicine in the hands 

 of the regular practitioner, and most dangerous when abused. Domestic 

 affairs are indebted to fungi to some extent, since an important use is made 

 of a particular condition of certain species of mould in the preparation of 



