™“~ 
194 ABOUT FUNGI. [CHAP. 
hundredweights of rich wholesome diet rotting under 
trees; woods teeming with food, and not one hand 
to gather it; and this perhaps in the midst of potato- 
blight, poverty, and all manner of privations, and 
public prayers against imminent famine. I have 
indeed grieved, when I consider the straitened con- 
dition of the lower orders, this year to see pounds 
innumerable of extempore beefsteaks growing on our 
oaks in the shape of Fistulina hepatica; Agaricus 
Susipes, to pickle, in clusters under them; Puff-balls, 
which some of our friends have not inaptly compared 
to sweetbread, for the rich delicacy of their unas- 
sisted flavour; Aydua, as good as oysters, which 
they somewhat resemble in taste; Agaricus deliciosus, 
reminding us of tender lamb-kidney; the beautiful 
yellow Chantarelle, growing by the bushel, and no 
basket but our own to pick up a few specimens on 
our way; the sweet nutty Soletus, in vain calling 
himself edudis, when there was none to believe him ; 
the dainty Orcella, the Agaricus heterophyllus, which 
tastes like the crawfish, when grilled; the red and 
green species of Agaricus, cooked in any way, and 
equally good in all.” 
Here is an opening for the epicure, here is a chance 
for the badly fed! Is not that paragraph sufficient 
justification for the labours and studies of fungolo- 
gists? Tons of food wasted yearly through igno- 
rance, whilst hundreds of people are starving in our 
midst. Would it not bea good thing if, in our Train- 
ing Colleges, our future schoolmasters were taught 
to discriminate between the good and the noxious 
fungi, that those who received appointments to 
