1/6 Fungus Folk- Lore. [Sess. 



may yet supply ethnologists and archaeologists with material 

 for writing the unrecorded history of the various peoples of the 

 earth. 



Fungi have given rise to a not uninteresting, though com- 

 paratively small, contribution to folk-lore. The most common 

 form of fungi is the mushroom, in connection with which much 

 folk-lore is associated. Mushroom was formerly spelt " mush- 

 rump," and is said to be derived from the Welsh macs, a field, 

 and rhum, a knob or little head ; the French analogue, cliam- 

 2ngnon, being similarly compounded of champ, a field, and 

 -pignon, a little head. It is also said to be derived from 

 mousseron, the popular name in France of Agaricus prunulus, 

 because it grows in moss or grass. Dr Prior thinks that it 

 comes from the old French mousche, a fly — the fly-killing 

 Agaric being called mouscheron, from which our word mushroom 

 is derived. The proverbial expression, " to come up like a 

 mushroom," is as old as the days of Bacon. " Such as are up- 

 starts in state," he says, " are called in reproach mushrooms." 

 Lytton uses the word in a similar sense when he speaks of " a 

 certain mushroom usurper who had bought out this old, simple, 

 hospitable family." Dwight, an American theologian of last 

 century, says, " The origin of man, in the view of the atheist, is 

 the same with that of the mushroom " — expressing the popular 

 belief of the origin of the plant in his time. Gerarde calls 

 mushrooms " earthie excrescences"; and the Greeks called them 

 earth-born plants, under the belief that the seeds came direct 

 from the earth. In Worcestershire, mushrooms are called 

 Abrahams, j^robably from a band of licensed beggars so called, 

 in imitation of whom so many impostors sprang up that, like 

 mushrooms, it was difficult to distinguish the genuine from the 

 false. Country folks regard a plentiful crop of mushrooms as 

 indicative of rain ; and among mushroom-growers there is a 

 curious belief that they are more abundant when the moon is 

 waxing than when it wanes. 



The origin of the name Toadstool is self-evident. In Eng- 

 land generally toadstools are called Toads' hats or caps ; in 

 Scotland, Paddock or Puddock stools — 



" May sprout like simmer puddock-stools in f;leii or sliaw ; " — 

 in Lancashire, Toad-paddock ; in Berkshire, Toad's cheese ; in 



