58 THE PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. 



the numerous edible varieties growing in this country are mostl}' 

 ignored, excei3t by mycologists. The fungus popularly known as 

 •" blewits " or " bluecaps," however, is often offered for sale in 

 Nottingham market. We have at least eighty different kinds 

 of fungi perfectly safe and good to eat. Of these, forty kinds are 

 common and widely distributed, the most abundant and one of 

 the best being the " parasol mushroom " {Lepiota procera), one 

 of the toadstool type, having a slender stem five to eight inches 

 in length, and a flat brownish scaly cap six to nine inches across. 

 The gills are persistently white. The Morels {Morchella) are 

 amongst the best of edible fungi, and belong to a group of fungi 

 that appear in the spring, when other kinds of edible fungi are 

 absent. The species grow on the ground among grass, the stem 

 is stout, and the cap or spore-bearing portion is globose or conical 

 and marked on the outside with deep irregular depressions. In 

 the Southern Hemisphere the counterparts of our Morels are 

 parasites growing on trees. There is only one genus [Cyttaria), 

 and the species, so far as is known, only grow on the different 

 species of evergreen beech. These southern Morels are not 

 uncommon in Chili and in Tasmania, and were in both countries 

 eaten by the aborigines, as they are at present by their successors. 

 Several species of fungi are eaten by squirrels. Slugs and snails 

 are also partial to some kinds, the poisonous species of Russula 

 being especial favourites. 



Poisonous fungi do undoubtedly exist, but among the kinds 

 that are at all likely to be collected for food poisonous kinds are 

 not so common as generally supposed. Probably 90 per cent, 

 of the deaths caused by poisonous fungi, both in this country and 

 on the Continent, are due to eating the " death-cup " [Amanita 

 2)haUoides), or its near relation Amanita mappa. Why these 

 fungi should be collected for food is not quite clear. They 

 certainly do not in the least resemble any species usually con- 

 sidered as good for eating — least of all the common mushroom ; 

 perhaps it is on account of their neat appearance, and the 

 absence of anything suspicious in the way of smell or taste that 

 they tempt the uninitiated. 



In the majority of fungi the spores are diffused by wind, but 

 in the most highly organised group (Phalloideae) the spores are 

 distributed by insects, who, curiously enough, are attracted by 

 colour, scent, and nectar-like food, exactly as in the case of 



