32 Rev. W. Houghton's Notices oj Fungi 



eat pears immediately after fungi. Vinegar being of a nature 

 contrary to them neutralizes their dangerous qualities. All 

 these products appear after showers" (xxii. 23). 



Pliny mentions three different kinds of fungi which he con- 

 siders to be the best for food ; but identification is difficult 

 owing to want of data. Those which Pliny calls " tutissimi 

 qui rubent callo minus dilutorubore quam boleti" may possibly 

 be Russula alutacea, as Lenz conjectures ; in Verona he says 

 this russula is still called fungo rossetto, and in Italy generally 

 rossola buona di gambo lungo, " the good long-stemmed red 

 fungus," which is still eaten in Italy ; but as Pliny gives us no 

 character except that of colour, which in the genus Russula is 

 very variable, it is evident we cannot say what the species is. 

 There is something more to guide us in Pliny's second-best 

 kind, viz. " the white fungi whose head-stems are similar in 

 form to the caps of the Flamens." Most of the forms of this 

 cap (apex) as shown on coins or bas-reliefs of the Roman 

 emperors are of a conical or cylindrical form, and remind one 

 of the cylindrical pileus of the very excellent Coprinus co- 

 matus before it expands and deliquesces ; at least I know of no 

 other edible fungus that so much resembles the figures of these 

 priestly caps. Badham says that C. comatus is " largely 

 eaten" about Lucca; but this species is not named by Vitta- 

 dini nor was it seen by Mr. Bicknell in the Italian markets. 

 The suillus which we find mentioned by Martial — 



" Sunt tibi boleti : fungos ego sumo suillos." — Ep. iii. 00 — 



in an epigram, in which he complains to Ponticus that when 

 invited to dinner there were not set before him the choicest 

 dainties, is generally supposed to be the Boletus edulis of 

 modern mycologists. Its present Italian name of porcino, 

 bole porcin, answers to the old Latin name of suillus, which 

 has something to do with " swine " *. Tradition has appa- 



* The suillus in all probability was so called because swine were fond 

 of it. Berkeley states that pigs devour both truffles and boleti as B. 

 edulis. Whether the modem English pig of the farmyard will eat boleti 

 I know not ; but by the semi-wild swine of the ancient Romans boleti 

 were probably eagerly devoured. Various boleti and agarics often bear 

 the impress of the teeth of small Rodentia, as the squirrel and the rab- 

 bit, which latter animal I know will eat the A. rubescens. Cats are 

 sometimes fond of fungi; I have a white Persian cat which I have 

 tried with the following species of edible fungi, all of which it eats with 

 evident relish : — Ayaricus pratensis (mushroom), A. metteus, A. persona- 

 tus, A. viryineus {HyffropJurrus), A. oreades, A. comatus, A. hutyracem, 

 Boletus edulis and scaler, Hydnum repandum. Some known unwholesome 

 and poisonous kinds, as A. semiglobatus, A. ceruginosus, A. muscarius, some 

 of the Cortinarii, Boletus luridus, Sec, the cat refuses. Another of my 



