as she abhors idleness, for tlie moment the business of life is finished for one thing, even in its dying \reakness, 

 its place is taken by another, and tliis goes on till the succession of active energies has produced a residuiun fit 

 to nourish the giants of vegetation over again. But IVatm-e does more than turn every tiling to account, slie 

 adorns and beautifies wlule so doing ; the dead leaf floating on the dirty pool becomes the seat of beautj-, tlie 

 golden Mitre with its pure glassy stem, embeUisliing those sombre hues, and reflecting briUiancy on the dull 

 4quid below, wlule abstracting the substance needful for its own nutriment, by the fibres wliich decompose 

 the defmict leaf into vegetable mould. 



Our little plant is not common, it is foimd attached to dead leaves, in bogs or shallow stagnant water, 

 or among deposits of decaj'ing fohage, when tlu'ouglily soaked with rain. The stems resemble undulating 

 pipes of delicate glass, are very fragile, and sustained erect hke masts by minute cottony fibres runnhig among 

 the leaves wliich form the raft ; there are frequently many together, but no two of precisely similar con- 

 figuration as regards the head, except that it is always hoUow, forming a chamber at the extremity of the 

 tubular stem ; for the most part it contracts at the lower part, like the head-circle of a coronet, and tightly 

 holds the inserted stem. There is, as Bulliard obsen'es, a general resemblance, on a very minute scale, to 

 the edible Morel, Morchella esculenta, which belongs to the tlurd tribe designated Mitrati, from Ilitra. 

 "The Mitre, properly so called, had below a flat border, wliich surrounded it, and covered a part of the 

 forehead, whence it was elevated in form of a cone and ended in a point." ^ Tliis is the original from wliich 

 oui- Bishop's Mitre has been modified, and is the model of the Mitrati ; it will be allowed that om' Fungus is 

 fairly enough styled Mitrula or diminutive Mitre, but must not be confomided with the Classic headgear 

 called Mltrella, wliich, Fosbroke says, was that very unclassical article a "mob-cap", the feminine form, 

 \ritli lower crown, and descending lappets capable of being united below the clun, of the Phrygian cap in wliich 

 Paris looks so picturesque ; om' labourers stiU wear it, though with a very different grace, and the Welch 

 Mitrula was donned by " Eebecca and her daughters," being the usual cap of their countrywomen. 



Tlie " bonnet rouge " carries us back involuntarily to that era of popular fiuy when it became so terrible 

 an ensign; it seems to us that men could have had no time for Agarics, when revolutionary commotion 

 surrounded them ; the mind is so engrossed by prominent objects of horror, that we can scarcely imagine a 

 back ground where iiuioceiit piu'suits could be carried on, and peaceful occupations pursued ; so however it 

 was ; the stormy tide raged round the opposing rocks, there was " distress and perplexity, the sea and the waves 

 roarmg," but those who kept themselves aloof in placid bays and recesses where the stiU waters rippled 

 quietly, carried on as usual their unpoHtical studies. " Le citoyen Paulet " collected funguses, and very 

 seldom kflled the dogs he crammed i^itli them, he only made them rather uncomfortable for a few hours 

 " etonues " as he expresses it, with the effect of the strange food administered. TVe are in truth ourselves 

 "etounes" to read that in 179-3, a book of tliis kind (Ti-aite des Champignons) could be published at 

 "I'lmprimerie Nationale executive du Louvre"; the next feehng is that the National executive is thereby 

 redeemed from a portion of om- disgust, all that they printed was not in blood. 



' Fosbroke, Ency. of Antiquities. 



