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is it not likely that such would be the case were the fungus tribe fit foi humai 

 food ? Can we suppose any prejudice arising from theh- leathery looks would not 

 evaporate like mists before the morniEg sun, were they really the nutritious and 

 delicious dainties they are described to be by their enthusiastic advocates. 



I think it may be observed that the general chai-acter which a man bears 

 is, on the whole, a true one. That big school, the world in which we live, con- 

 trives, in some way or other, to hit off pretty accurately our average merit 

 and take our measure, and though it may make a mistake now and then in 

 some particular instance, its general estimate is a fair one — and so with fun- 

 guses. There may be a too sweeping condemnation of all kinds of them, nay, 

 it may even be proveable that Agaricus campestris is not the best that grows, 

 and yet, after all, the prevalent distrust of the tribe is well founded. 



When e. g. some family in a parish is known to have been poisoned by 

 eating a wrong sort it is not surprising, nor can it be called stupid prejudice if 

 their neighbours are ever after rather shy of the article of food which produced 

 that result. But it will be said-that the mischief arose from ignorance— had 

 that family known the marks and distinctions between the wholesome and 

 poisonous kinds, this disaster would never have taken place. If ever there 

 ■was a case in which ignorance was bliss, surely this it is. A short time ago I 

 accompanied a scientific friend in a foray among the fungusses which we made 

 with a special view to the improvement of our intended repast, and was on that 

 occasion much struck by the elaborate precautions which seettied to be necessary 

 to observe in discriminating the good from the bad — it would almost seem that 

 nature had purposely contrived a labyrinth of ingenious stumbling blocks to 

 guard this mysterious product from the insatiable appetites of manldnd, and so 

 it came to pass that after all, my good friend— who really seemed well up in the 

 subject, and who found at every turn some well-known test of wholesomeness or 

 otherwise to guide him in the specimens we collected, wound up the day by 

 very nearly poisoning a member of my family — for he had, it appears, mistaken 

 Boletus flavus a violent poison, for the very similar but wholesome and excellent 

 Boletus ^u<c«s— the only difference being that the pores of the one are somewhat 

 smaller and less angular than those of the others. Surely in this instance, know- 

 ledge (and it was not in his case a little knowledge either) was a dangerous 

 thing. 



But still it may be said that there are species the characters of which 

 are sufiBciently well defined, and that from these at least the stigma ought to be 

 removed. But even so, I would submit one or two questions to those who 

 may be inclined to admit this. 



1st. Is is so clear that a fungus which agrees with one person may not be 

 very injurious to another. One man has — to use a vulgar expression, the 

 stomach of a horse — can I, an average mortal, calculate on possessing such a 

 treasure ? I saw with my own eyes my scientific friend eat and swallow an 

 entire Boletus flavus, raw, without any apparent bad effects either that evening 

 or the following day, whereas a small portion of the same kind, cooked too, 



