would fear to seek, but we caution liim not to take the word of any country man or woman, as to the 

 wholesomeness of the various articles. It is better to direct that all Funguses met with, shall be carefully 

 excavated and brought in, giving a shilling or two, according to quantity, and then to select for yourseK. 

 Thus many dainties may be procured wliich otherwise would spoil and be useless in the day, and there is no 

 %allage where some poor widow or other deser\ang object, may not earn in tliis manner dming the autumn, 

 a small fund to shield against the ' Union ' in winter. Many a dehcate lady may thus study these denizens 

 of spots she would fear to explore in person, for it is in out-of-the-way wild places, far from carriage tracks, 

 and often where large herds of cattle are pastured, that they chiefly abound. 



Plate XVII. Fig. 2. 



SCLERODERMA VULGARE, i^r. 



Com Dion Sclerodrmia. 



■'tes. 



Sfec. Char. Sclerodersia vulg.\re. Subsessile, irregular, peridium corky, liard, bursting indefinitely, filled 

 with blue-black pulp, spores at length brown. 

 Scleroderma vulgare, Fries, Berkeley. 

 Lycoperdon aurantiacum, Bulliard, Suicerby. 

 Tuber soliduni, Witherimj. 



Hall. Under oaks in pastures, not uueoumion. 



At first sight the Sclerodermas may be confused with the soft-skiimed Lyco]}erdons, but the touch will 

 prove the difference, and the colour of the contents is inky when cut across, even wliile quite young, whereas 

 the ripened pulp of the Lycoj^erdons is of an olive brown or green hue. The latter are edible in their early 

 stage, the Sclerodermas are never so ; they are said to have powerful medicinal, which (without intending it 

 impertinently) is only another name for poisonous quahties, if taken in sufficient quantity for food ; they 

 certainly provoke a propensity for pelting, few persons picking up, without afterwards disposing of them in 

 this manner. 



" My Phillis me with pelted puil-balls plies, 

 Then tripping to the woods the wanton flies." — Dryden. 



