82 A CATALOGUE OF ESCULENT BRITISH FUNGI. 



cion, quite erroneously, and many a good "picking" is lost in consequence. 

 The rules given in sundry cookery-books and rural handbooks are literally 

 nothing but rubbish, when they seek to teach people by " rule of thumb " how 

 to distinguish edible mushrooms from others. 



Pratelles ^-ill appear whei'ever horses, cattle, and sheep are pastured, from 

 the equator to the arctic circle, but they are most prolific in the warm tem- 

 perate zones. They depend on the presence of the animals mentioned, and it 

 seems as if the spores could not be fertilized witbout passing through the 

 economy of horses, cattle, or sheep, more particularly the first. The fact has 

 been well illustrated in Australia, New Zealand, and the South Sea. There, 

 before the coming of the white man and his domestic animals, Pratelles were 

 unknown, if the natives are to be credited ; while now they are very plentiful. 

 In New Zealand I have seen phenomenal crops ; paddocks gleaming white with 

 mushrooms, as if a snow-fall had occurred. Yet Maoris have assured me the 

 Pratelle was unknown to them in olden times, a statement worth attention, 

 siuce they are most minute observers of nature. I have further observed — at 

 the instance of a Yorkshire farmer — that fields where stallions or bulls have 

 been pastured are always the most prolific in Pratelles. 



Though of universal growth, Pratelles are not universally regarded with the 

 same favour as in England. In Italy, Hungary, and Iceland, the rustics are 

 prejudiced against them. Fungophobists have made much of the fact, and have 

 gone so far as to say that these mushrooms were actually deleterious when 

 growing in those countries — a notion as absurd as irrational. Many people have 

 borne evidence to the contrary from their own personal experience. It has been 

 abundantly proved that, in whatever quarter of tlic globe Pratelles may prow, 

 they are the same good, wholesome esculents. And looking at their wide distri- 

 bntion, and to the fact that one species of them can be easily raised artificially, 

 there is no doubt that they are at present the most valuable of food fungi ; 

 though they may have to yield in daintiness to some others, aud may ncu 

 always remain the only cultivable kind. — W. D. H. 



(59.) AaARICUS ARVENSIS ; Psalliota arvensis ; The Giaut 

 Pratellc. 



Ilahitat. Raised gi'onnd in pastures ; amid rank herbage in and 

 near copses. In groups. 



Season. July to October. Common. 



Pileus. Two to twelve inches across, or more, snow white, 

 perhaps becoming bnfRsh, at first floccose, then smooth ; in youth 

 globose, witli incurved margin invested with veil, then expanding, 

 convex, plane, even. 



Stem. Two to six inches high, white, stout, cylindrical, swollen 

 below. Ring bi-oad, thick, pendulous, double, exterior split and 

 radiate. 



Section. Flesh very thick, white, perhaps yellowing where 

 wounded. Stem stuffed, spongy. Gills at first pallid, then grey- 

 pink, then grey-brown, numerous, thin, attenuate before and 



