29 



Several animals are said to be equally attracted by them. Wild 

 boars, roebucks, badgers, field mice, and squirrels have all been 

 said to have the good taste to appreciate this fungus, which is 

 said to be also sought after by cockchafers, slugs, centipedes, 

 millipedes, and the larvaj of the daddy-longlegs. The truffle has 

 also been credited with medicinal properties, but probably without 

 reason. One writer recommended the vapour of truffles soaked 

 in wine as a remedy for gouty limbs, and a French doctor, M. 

 Devergie, asserted that he had employed a decoction of truffles 

 in water as a "remedy for cholera, with most successful results, 

 but expei'ience does not seem to have confirmed these observations. 



I can only hastily run over a few other species which have 

 some claim to be looked upon as edible. I would mention Morchella 

 esculenta, Gyromitra esculenta, CanOiarellus ciharius, the Chantar- 

 elle of Freemasons' Hall, Fishdina hepatica, and Marasmius 

 Oreades, called by the French, Champignon, as if par excellence. 



I pass now from edible fungi to those which possess, or have 

 been credited with the possession of medicinal qualities, and 

 foremost among these is the so called Ergot of Rye. The history 

 of this plant is of the greatest interest to the Botanist. Until 

 quite a recent period its nature was entirely misunderstood. 

 Long after the commencement of this century Ergot was not 

 known to be a fungus at all, and the proof of its true nature is 

 one of the greatest triumphs of patient botanical research. It 

 used to be supposed that Ergot was a diseased state of the 

 grains of the Rye, and this is not to be wondered at, for any 

 one who has seen an ear of ergotized Rye would certainly ^wma 

 facie conclude that the Ergot was nothing but an enlarged, 

 blackened state of the grain. Its fungoid nature was at last 

 suspected, and it got the name of Ergotetia ahortifaciens from 

 its medical qualities, to which I shall presently allude. A few 

 years later the M.M. Tulasne, of Paris, established in the most 

 conclusive way, in a beautifully illustrated paper in the " Annales 

 des Sciences Naturelles " that Ergot is in fact the Sdcrotium or 

 mycelium of a Sphferiaceous fungus. For the information of 

 those who are not conversant with mycological terms, I may 

 say that the mycelium of a fungus is the vegetative part of the 

 plant, the spawn, as it is called, when speaking of the ]\Iushroom. 

 Spawn usually consists of a mass of delicate interlaced creejjing 



