GENEEAL INTRODUCTION. 3 



a corruption of moussero7i, a name specifically applied by tlie 

 French. But it seems to be of older usage, and therefore the first 

 explanation is the more plausible. The name has always been 

 very loosely applied in England, centring most about the meadow 

 plant, that is here almost the only popular edible. "Mould" 

 conies from a Scandinavian word having the same signification. 

 The vile and pei"nicious nickname of " toadstool " has not the 

 derivation ordinarily supposed. It is the Saxon, or old English, 

 tod, meaning a bunch, cluster, or bush. The word is used by 

 Coleridge, — 



" The ivy tod is heavy with snow." 



The second syllable, stool, is readily supplied, the form of most 

 terrestrial Fungi suggesting it.^ Evidently the word was first 

 applied to those clusters of Fungi often seen on tree-roots and 

 elsewhere. The erroneous idea connecting toads with these plants 

 seems to be due to Spenser, or to some poet before him possibly. 

 Once received, it became converted into " paddickstool " in the 

 North, paddick being the name there given to the toad. 



Some of the botanical names of Fungi had a classical usage, 

 though their ancient signification was not the same as their present 

 application. Thus Galen speaks of " amanita," and Dioscorides o£ 

 " agaricon " ; but we do not know what they intended so to specify. 

 " Hydnum " is used by Theophrastus apparently to indicate 

 truffles ; and " tuber " seems to have meant puif -balls. " Boletus," 

 on which Martial wrote epigrams, was so well described by Pliny, 

 that we know the plant thus designated was that now called 

 Amanita Ctesarea. The name " boletus " has now a very different 

 use. To conclude, " Mycology," the study of Fungi, has been 

 formed from the Greek fjiVKrj<;, a word which is presumed to have 

 been applied to some kinds or kind of mushi'oom. 



' * Or it may have the signification in which gardeners apply it, meaning the 

 suckers and shoots about the root of a plant. 



