274 



FUNGI. 



my kind friend and instructor, Mr. Broome, one of the 

 leading fungologists of the present day, took me out to 

 search for plants of this order, one of which, the " Bath 

 Truffle," used to be sold for the same purposes as the real 

 Truffle in the market at Bath. 



We went to the beech grove where he had often found 

 specimens, and a dog trained to sent out the fungi 

 accompanied us. But, alas, either the False Truffles were 

 all gone, or the dog had lost his scent, for we moved the 

 dead leaves, and scratched the surface of the earth over a 

 large area, but no specimen rewarded our search. Mr. 

 Broome gave me a specimen of the plant in question 

 from his own herbarium (Melanogaster variegatus, Plate 

 XIX., Jig. 1). There are six groups of these subterran- 

 ean fungi according to Berkeley, but we have been 

 eminently unsuccessful in finding specimens. 



The next order is that of Phallus. It is characterized 

 by a perfect envelope, out of which the fruit-bearing part 

 rises, and in a short time melts away. In the Common 

 Phallus we have an envelope closely resembling that of 

 our first friends, the Fly and Phallus-like Agarics. The 

 young plant appears like a round puff-ball, but the 

 envelope bursts, a tall honey-combed column shoots up, 

 '•rowned by a cap in true Agaric style, which cap is at 

 first covered with an olive coloured hymenium, gelatinous 

 and moist, and which oozes away quickly, giving forth a 

 most offensive odour, and attracting swarms of flies to 

 the noxious feast. The plant has a dignified and impos- 

 ing appearance, and might well be accounted a desirable 

 ornament of woods and pleasure grounds, but for its 

 abominable and all-pervading odour. This procures for 



