Bibliographical Notice. 379 
The great object of Dr. Valenti-Serini, which has instigated his 
labours and stimulated him to persevere in them, has been to avert 
the sufferings occasioned by using these deleterious cryptogams as 
articles of food. Although in our islands fungi are by no means so 
commonly and so indiscriminately eaten, it is reported that the 
Society of Arts is making efforts tv show that, with some exceptions 
which are easily identified, most of the fungi of England are safe 
articles of diet; so that it seems hkely their use may be extended. 
Those who may be induced to consult this excellent work of an 
Italian physician, of great and long-continued knowledge and ex- 
perience, will not be at all encouraged in this view with respect to 
fungi said to be sanctioned by the Society of Arts. Indeed it may 
be safely asserted that, except in the case of the well-known and 
very distinct species universally found to be edible and wholesome, 
they will receive at Dr. Valenti-Serini’s hands every kind of dis- 
couragement. 
This is not, perhaps, the proper place in which to dwell upon 
this momentous hygienic question ; nevertheless it seems desirable to 
state some of the results obtained by Italian botanists. Dr. Valenti- 
Serini goes so far as to say that such are the changes these plants 
undergo in their brief existence, and such the slight and fleeting 
nature of the peculiarities which distinguish one species from another, 
that it is often exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to discriminate 
the poisonous from the wholesome. And Dr. Garbiglietti states that 
circumstances influencing the vegetation (such as soil and season), he 
considers, may impart poisonous properties to fungi usually regarded 
as edible. This may in some measure account for the diversity of 
opinions held with regard to the qualities of one and the same spe- 
cies in different countries. Agaricus necator may be taken as one 
example. Dr. Valenti-Serini takes the names of necator and tor- 
minoswm as in themselves suspicious ; and Bulliard, Scheeffer, Roques, 
and Larber call it poisonous. Still Letteillier says he has eaten it 
without detriment ; and Venturi states that in his province of Brescia 
it is eaten; yet it must be confessed that it is there the custom to 
boil it in a large quantity of water, when it is quite innocent. It 
should be known that the boiling of poisonous species and other 
modes of cooking deprive them of their poisonous qualities, which 
are probably volatile. If, as the author conjectures, these essentially 
consist in the presence of prussic acid, the fugacious nature of the 
poison may be readily conceived. Boletus chryseuthereon, the sub- 
ject of plate 53, is declared by Cordier to be innocent; but both 
Roques and Paulet prohibit the use of it. 
Every fungus is produced from a spore, as every plant is derived 
from a seed. The aérial portion, which is commonly called the 
fungus, is not a plant, properly speaking, but a more or less com- 
pound fruit, formed of many parts. 
After a comprehensive and learned introduction, in which most 
questions of interest relating to fungi are briefly discussed, the au- 
thor passes to a description of the species and varieties which are 
