in Greek and Latin Authors. 25 



Athenasus, however, has preserved to us a few quotations 

 relating to jxi)KrjTe<; from older authors, which I will notice 

 by and by. The Latin word fungus, which may be taken 

 to be the representative of the Greek /Avtcn$, u a fungus of any 

 kind," is by no means of common occurrence in Roman 

 authors. Virgil once uses the term, but not in reference to 

 the plant, but to the well-known growth on the wick of the 

 lamp, which was supposed to forbode rain ; and Aratus long 

 before had spoken of these fungoid excrescences, 'Kv^volo 

 /j.vk7]t€^. Ovid, in a little picture which he draws of the daily 

 work of a frugal peasant woman (" parca colona ") and her 

 hardy husband, represents the former sweeping out the 

 cottage, setting hens on eggs, and gathering green mallows 

 and white fungi : — 



*' Aut virides malvas aut fungos colligit albos." — Fast. iv. 697. 



Ovid has one more reference to fungi. With ourselves 

 the expression " mushroom origin or birth " is and has long 

 been proverbial to denote one of recent date, in allusion to the 

 rapidity with which these things spring up in our fields in 

 favourable weather ; with the people of Corinth, on the con- 

 trary, a mushroom origin went back to the earliest period — 



" Hie aevo veteres mortalia primo 

 Corpora vulgarunt pluvialibus edita fungis." — Met. vii. 392-3. 



" Here (in Corinth) the ancients record that in the first age 

 of the world mortal bodies were produced from fungi which 

 spring up after rains." Considering the licentious nature of 

 the people and the extent to which the worship of Aphrodite 

 prevailed in the city of Corinth, which in all probability was 

 introduced by the Phoenicians, is it possible that the Phallus 

 impudicus suggested the mythological tradition ? 



Horace, in a well-known line, refers once only to fungi : — 

 " Pratensibus optima fungis natura est ; aliis male creditur ; " 

 " Fungi which grow in meadows are the best ; it is not well to 

 trust others " (Sat. ii. 4. 20). He is evidently alluding to 

 those which grow in woods as those not to be trusted, being 

 probably poisonous. The meadow fungi may perhaps have 

 been the common mushroom (A. campestris) and the fairy-ring 

 champignon {A. oreades). 



There is no doubt that the common mushroom is eaten at 

 this day in Italy, and doubtless it was used by the ancient 

 Romans. It is a fallacy of the late Dr. Badham to suppose 

 that the A. campestris was prohibited by the market inspectors. 

 In an interesting paper on the edible fungi of Italy, read at 



