in Greek and Latin Authors. 29 



tainly the species intended. The famous or infamous case of 

 the death of the emperor Claudius by means of a dish of 

 boleti in which some poison had been placed by his wife 

 Agrippina was fresh in Pliny's time, and afforded material for 

 strong declamatory language. The excessive luxury of the 

 wealthy people of the Roman empire, especially their love of 

 eating and drinking the most rare and costly dainties *, helped 

 to bring fungi more and more forward as a possible incitement 

 to the appetite and a savoury article of diet ; but still people 

 had been both purposely and accidentally poisoned by fungi, 

 so they were regarded as " ancipites," questionable food 

 indeed. The most interesting bit of fungus-talk which Pliny 

 treats us to is the following : — 



" Among those things which are rashly eaten I shall rightly 

 place boleti) excellent food no doubt, but which have been 

 brought into reproach by an unparalleled instance ; for by 

 their means poison was administered to the emperor Tiberius 

 Claudius by his wife Agrippina, by which deed she inflicted 

 another poison on the world, and especially on herself, in the 

 person of her son Nero. Some of the poisonous kinds are 

 easily known by a dilute red colour (' diluto rubore'), a 

 loathsome aspect, and internally by a livid hue ; they have 

 gaping cracks (' rimosa s^tria ') and a pale lip round the margin. 

 But these characters are not seen in certain kinds which are 

 dry and like nitre, and which bear on their heads as it were 

 spots formed from their own coating ; for the earth first pro- 

 duces a wrapper (' volva ') and afterwards itself (i. e. the 

 boletus) within the volva, like the yolk in the egg; the young 

 boletus with its volva is very good for food. As the boletus 

 grows the volva is burst ; by and by its substance is borne on 

 the stem j there are seldom two heads on one stem. Their 

 origin is from mud and the acrid juices of moist earth, or 

 frequently from those of acorn-bearing trees ; at first it appears 

 as a kind of tenacious foam (' spuma lentior '), then as a mem- 

 branous body ; afterwards the young boletus appears, as we 

 have said. Noxious kinds must be entirely condemned ; for if 

 there be near them a hobnail (' caligaris clavus ') or a bit of 

 rusty iron or a piece of rotten cloth, forthwith the plant, as it 



* The Romans were not alone in their love of costly dainties; the 

 Greeks shared with them in this respect. Plutarch speaks of the absurdity 

 of indulging in meats and drinks simply because they are rare, costly, and 

 accessible only to tie rich, and instances among such articles of luxu- 

 rious diet "sow's udders, Italian mushrooms (fivKrjrcov 'ItciXikcov), Samifin 

 cakes, and snow from Egypt " (' De tuenda Sanitate prcecepta,' vol. i. 

 pt. 2, p. 491 : ed. VVyttenbach). From this passage it appears that edible 

 lungi were sometimes exported from Italy into Greece, which is very 

 probable, for Greece to this day is poor in fungi. 



