igS BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. 



tinous in texture, averaging in size from that of a 

 walnut to an apple. It is of a very bright orange-red 

 colour, and sufficiently conspicuous, but without any 

 decided odour. As a specimen of a jelly-fungus it is 

 undoubtedly beautiful, but for the table we fear its 

 charms are ephemeral. 



These gelatinous fungi approximate perhaps to a 

 vegetable gelatine, and some ingenious manipulator 

 might succeed in producing from them some imita- 

 tion of table jellies, but the quantity of raw material 

 to be procured is small, and we fear that such 

 energies would be wasted. Water enters so largely 

 into their composition that drying converts them 

 into little shrivelled, hard, horny fragments, like 

 chips of scorched leather. 



XXX.— FAIRY CLUBS OR CLAVARIA. 



The observant wanderer cannot but have seen 

 amongst the grass in parks and on lawns some 

 small white or yellow fungi of variable shape, from 

 the simple " fairy club " to the branched and clus- 

 tered "stag's horn." Commonly only two or three 

 inches in length, and not thicker than a knitting 

 needle, they are conspicuous only by their pure white- 

 ness, or the brilliancy of their golden yellow. Edible 



