Chap. 47.] TVHQl. 429 



use of them should be altogether rejected ; fur if by chance 

 they should happen to grow near a hob-nail,^'' a piece of rusty 

 iron, or a bit of rotten cloth, they will immediately imbibe all 

 these foreign emanations and flavours, and transform th<3m into 

 poison. Who, in fact, is able to distinguish them, except those 

 who dwell in the country, or the persons^^ that are in the habit 

 of gathering them ? There are other circumstances, too, which 

 render them noxious ; if they grow near the hole of a serpent, ^^ 

 for instance, or if they should happen to have been breathed 

 upon by one when just beginning to open ; being all the more 

 disposed to imbibe the venom from their natural affinity to 

 poisonous substances. 



It will therefore be as well to be on our guard during the 

 season at which the serpents have not as yet retired to their 

 holes for the winter. The best sign to know this by is a mul- 

 titude of herbs, of trees, and of shrubs, which remain green 

 from the time that these reptiles leave their holes till their re- 

 turn ; indeed, the ash alone will be quite sufficient for the 

 purpose, the leaves of it never coming out after the serpents 

 have made their appearance, or beginning to fall before they 

 have retired to their holes. The entire existence of the mush- 

 room , from its birth to its death, is never more than seven 

 days.^^ 



CHAP. 47. (23.) — fungi; signs by which the venomous kinds 



MAT BE KECOGNJZED : NINE EEMEDIES. 



Fungi are of a more humid nature than the last, and are di- 

 vided into numerous kinds, all of which are derived solely from 

 the pituitous humours ^* of trees. The safest are those, the 



30 "Clavus cahgaris." A nail of a caliga, or military boot. See B. 

 >ii. c. 44, and B. ix. c. 33. 



31 The peasants, Fee says, who are in the habit of gathering them, may 

 probably be better trusted than the most learned authors that have writteu 

 on the subject. He thinks it the best plan, however, to avoid all risks, 

 by confining ourselves to the use of the common field mushroom, the morel, 

 and one or two other well-known kinds. 



3- A prejudice entirely without foundation, Fee remarks. 



33 Fee says that from this it is evident that Pliny understands only the 

 Btalk mushrooms under the name of " boleti ;" the fungi which adhere to 

 trees living more years, many of them, than Pliny mentions days. 



3^ " Ex pituita." Fee thinks that under the name of " boleti," Pliny 

 means exclusively agarics or mushrooms of the division Amanites, which 

 coiitains both the best and the most noxious kinds — the oronge for in- 

 stance, and the false oronge. 



