34 Rev. W. Houghton's Notices of Fungi 



the table, it soon developed into something like a mania 

 among the rich ; a passion for truffles and boleti betokened no 

 good in the youth of those days. Hence Juvenal writes : — 



" Nee melius de se cuiquam sperare propinquo 

 Coneedet juvenis, qui radere tubera terras, 

 Boletum condire didicit." — Sat. xiv. 6-8. 



" Nor will that youth allow any relative to hope better of 

 him who has learnt to peel truffles and to pickle boleti." The 

 great esteem in which boleti were held is shown by Martial in 

 his ' Epigrams.' Special vessels for cooking boleti were in 

 use called boletaria, and should not be applied to baser pur- 

 poses ; hence one of these cooking utensils is represented as 

 bewailing its changed lot in the functions of the Roman 

 kitchen : — 



" Cum mini boleti dederint tarn nobile nomeu, 



Prototomis (pudet lieu) servio cauliculis." — Ep. xiv. 101. 



" Although boleti have given me so noble a name, I am 

 now used, I am ashamed to say, for Brussels sprouts." 



Again, it was safer to send a messenger with gold or silver 

 &c. than to send him with boleti, because he would probably 

 have them cooked and eat them on the way * : — 



" Argentina atque aurum facile est, lsenamque togamque 

 Mittere : boletos mittere difficile est." — Ep. xiii. 48. 



But to return to Pliny : of the Agaricum he says : — " The 

 acorn-producing trees of the Gallic provinces more particu- 

 larly produce agaricum ; it is a white fungus with strong 

 odour, useful as an antidote ; it grows on the tops of trees and 

 shines at night, by which fact its presence is known and it is 

 gathered" (xvi. 8). This is the Polyporus officinalis of which 

 Dioscorides speaks. I do not know whether luminosity has 

 been observed in this fungus ; but it is well known that 

 certain fungi, notably the Pleurotus olearius, which grows on 

 olive and other trees in the south of Europe, emits phospho- 

 rescent light, and perhaps Polyporus officinalis or the decayed 

 wood on which it grows may occasionally exhibit the same 

 phenomenon. The German tinder or amadou of commerce, 

 at present prepared from the pileus of Polyporus fomentarius , 

 was not unknown to the ancient Romans, though it is not 

 stated whether it was steeped in a solution of saltpetre as at 

 present. Pliny thus speaks of obtaining fire from wood : — 



* Or because the possessor of such delicacies would rather keep them 

 himself than send them to a friend. 



