OF BRITISH FUNGI. 37 



We can speak from recent experience of the whole- 

 some qualities of this species. The whole substance is 

 less watery than the common mushroom, and if old 

 specimens are mixed in the dish, or any of them are 

 not cooked carefully and slowly for some time, the result 

 will prove very unsatisfactory, for they will become as 

 tough as leather ; but a dish of young individuals will 

 make a most excellent stew, with the usual accompani- 

 ment of sweet herbs, pepper, and salt. 



Another fungus (-4. geotrupus) is often found in 

 considerable quantities, growing in rings, in the neigh- 

 bourhood of fir-trees, having a convex funnel-shaped 

 pileus, which is either white or tan-coloured. It has a 

 solid, compact stem, decreasing in size towards the 

 pileus. The gills are of the colour of the pileus, 

 crowded, and running down the stem, and have at 

 first the odour of garlic, which afterwards resembles 

 more that of bitter almonds. This species, especially 

 one of its varieties, is considered excellent, equal to 

 many, and superior to most, of our edible fungi. All 

 the species nearly allied to it are harmless, so that there 

 is no danger in their being confounded. 



Although it is sometimes confidently aifirmed that 

 no species of fungus is good for food which grows in 

 clusters or on old stumps, both these conditions are 

 combined in a very common species (A.fusipes), which 

 flourishes often in dense tufts in such localities, and is, 

 moreover, very good to pickle, unless we can conceive 

 that excellent authorities are either deceiving or 

 deceived. This species has the pileus of a reddish- 



