Order Hymenomtcetes. Tribe Pileati. 



Plate XXXVII. 



CANTHARELLUS CORNUCOPIOIDES, un..us. 



Cornucopia Chanterelle. 



Gen. Char. Pileus furnished below with dichotomous, radiating, branched, subparallel folds, not separable from 

 the flesh, sometimes anastomosing or obsolete. 



Sjiec. Char. Cantiiarellus coknucopioides. Caespitose. Pileus three inches or more broad, pervious, 

 trumpet-shaped, nigoso-squamulose, umber-black, somewhat lobed and split, tough, elastic, confluent with the stem. 

 Hymenium decurrent, cinereous, bluish or inclining to purple, either very slightly rugulose or wrinkled, not plicate. 

 The entire fungus carnoso-membranaceous, not Jleshi/. Spores white. Scent and flavour agreeable. 

 Craterellus coraucopioides, Fries. 

 Cantharellus cornucopioides, Berkeley, Eng. Flora vol. 

 Peziza cornucopioides, L'mtueus, Bulliarcl, Sowerby. 

 Elvella cornucopioides, Schaffer, Bulliard. 

 Merulius purpui'eus, TT'Uherbiff. 



Hab. On stumps of underwood. Autumn. 



" La Trombetta di morte " is a very peculiar and elegant fungus : it is only on account of the funereal 

 colour that so awful a name has been bestowed upon it : it does not appear to have any injurious qualities. 

 The texture is not such as lends itself tenderly to gastronomic exploits, being membranaceous like that of 

 the ash-leaved Lichen, Peltldea canina, neither fleshy nor juicy. The smell and taste are agreeable; so 

 much so, that one of our earliest converts to the wisdom of Mycology purchased half a bushel in Covent 

 Garden (we could never discover where they were collected, but suspect in Epping Forest) to convert into 

 ketchup. The experiment was cheap enough — only two shillings being the charge made for the poor 

 woodland denizens so ruthlessly torn from their habitat and crammed into a hamper. Ketchup, we need 

 scarcely say, they did not afford ; but it was a gsatification afterwards to find that the purveyor of the 

 article had not recommended them as being the Cantiiarellus cidarius, commonly eaten. 



Our " Cornucopia " is placed now under Fries's section Craterellus. We have explained this before, 

 as far as the common reader will be inclined to follow us, and we do not think we are competent to lead 

 beyond this point. If it is not for us to defend needless subdivisions in genera, it is still less becoming to 

 dissent from them ; and certain^ few are competent to follow out the details on which changes in nomen- 

 clature, &c., are formed. We have only to sit patiently at the feet of Gamaliel. 



