251 



17 In the Roman Market Morehella esoulenta is said by Badham to fetch 

 4d to 5d per lb., but he had not seen it there, nor at Covent Garden, where he 

 also believed it to be sold. Truffles, however, which neither Badham nor Vattadmi 

 mention as being in Italy, I have often noticed, especially, 



18 Tuber cesfivum and another species called Tartufo biancho (white truffle), 

 the latter being 4fr. per lb. at Bologna, and described by the chef of the chief 

 hotel as very good, though despised in France; it is not the Tuber Album of 

 Sowerby but Tuber Magnatum, a truffle hitherto undiscovered m England. 



The above-mentioned eighteen Fungi are no doubt the principal edible species 

 of the Italian Kingdom, but a list of those commonly sold would comprise only the 

 the followin" eight : 1, Agaricus vaginatus ; 2, Agaricus Cssareus ; 3, Agancus 

 campestris; 4, Lactarius deliciosus ; 5, Boletus eduUs ; 6, Boletus scaber ; 

 7 Clavaria coralloides ; 8, Tuber sestivum. The impression derived from readmg 

 Badham's book, however, would be that the species sold were far more numerous. 

 Badham did good service in his day, but his enthusiasm sometimes coloured his 

 facts; and, as an instance of his carelessness and exaggeration, we may take his 

 account of the Pietra funghaia, which he declares comes next to the mushroom m 

 successful cultivation, and that it may be gathered six times a year from naked 

 stone- he has even misused the words "Pietra funghaia," which are the name of 

 the stone, and only indirectly of the fungus. Whenever his Treatise on Esculent 

 Funguses is re-edited, perhaps the oft repeated fable that Agaricus Personatus is 

 sold in Covent Garden, and that Lycoperdon Bovista is served on state occasions 

 at Freemason's Tavern, may disappear. 



It is true that the Italians are ahead of us in their appreciation of edible fungi, 

 but their market list is after all a modest one. At Bergamo they said they only 

 eat five species in autumn, and one or two in spring; and that would be a fair 

 number for the other cities ; the edible species unknown to us are also very few, 

 excepting Amanita Cssarea, and Clitocybe Marzuolus, the favourite at Florence ; 

 I cannot call to mind another. 



One word on the inspection of fungi, and I will not detain you longer. In the 

 different cities the supervision is of varying strictness ; at Bologna an excellent 

 printed paper, with both the vernacular and Latin names of the fungi, and various 

 columns of particulars and regulations is compulsorily exhibited by every seller. 

 At Venice all fungi must be taken to the office of the municipality, where they 

 are examined, and a written certificate is given for such as are passed, which must 

 be fastened conspicuously on the basket ; whereas at Milan they have adopted a 

 French sheet of vile illustrations and wooden painted models to guide their inspect- 

 ors, which may account for their circumstantial stories of poisoned households. 



I had hoped to have been able to have shown you the various lists and 

 authorisations, and I should have produced them only the cholera has stopped 

 the usual sale of fungi, and I regret to say that Amanita Cssarea, and other 

 specimens for which I wrote, are still retarded in transit by dread of Phylloxera, 

 or lost; therefore, as those illustrations which might have enlivened my remarks 

 are absent, I can only thank you all the more for your kind patience and indul- 

 gence in listening to me. 



