Ciorda speaks in high terms of Boletus fiavus, as well as of B. luteus ; they are, in Bohemia, boons 

 given to man mthout the " sweat of his brow," excellent diet, springing spontaneously in barren and 

 desolate places. We have never eaten the pretty yellow fungus now depicted, but should not hesitate to 

 make a dish of it if a sufficient quantity of the dainty could be procured here ; but, alas for us Southrons ! 

 it might be a bonne louche (many things are "little and good"), but never more than a " loiicJu'e" 

 could be collected in these localities ; the larger variety in some seasons is plentiful enough to supply the 

 cook, but it so early becomes the prey of insects that only in a juvenile state would it be proper for the 

 table. 



But utility, much as we praise when we discover it, is not all in all ; unless we declare to be useful, 

 everything that pleases the eye and charms the fancy ; and in that sense (in confidence) we do believe all 

 has utility, for if the bow-string of care were strained for ever without taking rest, it would — we know it 

 does — snap asunder. How many, worn into premature old^ age, into unbecile dotage, into raving insanity, 

 might have been healthy, flourishing, intelligent, if the external universe had diverted their minds from the 

 narrow cells of business ; if they could have seen the beauty of a landscape, without thinking of the value 

 of the estate, or have estimated the wondrous fabric a tree is, when they measuied its solid contents of 

 timber ! But, from digression, to return to Boletus elegans : apart from the sense of touch (fingers invo- 

 luntarily recoiling from slimy articles), this fungus recommends itself in various ways to our attention : by 

 its colour in particular, which, when the pileus emerges fi'om a bed of the gayest green moss, under the 

 dark sombre boughs of Scotch pines, catches the eye with most agreeable effect ; relieving the arid, barren 

 ground strewed with decaying cones and " needle-leaves ;" its fresh-growing beauty contrasting with 

 hoary decay, its colour with shadows, its soft rotund form with angles and asperities. Such golden spots 

 gem a hving landscape, but would be mere patches of colour in a painting. It is unfortunate that all the 

 gay colours of funguses are unavailable to the ai-tist : it is not merely a question of stature, but their simple 

 shape with unbroken contour, which renders them of no foreground utility ; they would resemble at best 

 scarlet or yellow pebbles. A much more minute growth, that of the Leprarias (members of the great 

 family Lichenes), no painter would consent to see expunged from Nature's picturesque stock of objects, for 

 nearly all the weather-stains of stones, and all the white and sulphur-coloured patches wliich relieve the 

 grey bark of trees — making lights to catch the light — are among them. 



