THE MYSTERIOUS FUNGUS 269 



edible fungus, it is astonishing how rare is the 

 knowledge of the edible from the poisonous kinds. 

 In England, the choice of the cook falls on three 

 species of agaric, all of them with flesh-coloured 

 gills. Gills of any other hue, and especially white, 

 are accounted signs of virulent poison. On the 

 Continent, on the other hand, the white-gilled 

 fungi are esteemed edible, and those with coloured 

 gills regarded with suspicion until they have with 

 difficulty proved their worth. 



The Englishman could not make a safer extension 

 in mycophagy than by cooking a good large puff- 

 ball. There are puff-balls now in the Home 

 Close measuring thirty inches in girth, and out- 

 bulking though not out-weighing a good vege- 

 table marrow. The puff-ball is that brownish 

 bladder with a casual rip in it from which, when 

 you press it with the foot, brown smoke issues in 

 an apparently inexhaustible stream, every grain 

 of the smoke being a spore thus set free for 

 colonization wherever it may settle. No one 

 would dream of eating a puff-ball in that stage. 

 It must be taken young, when the whole big globe 

 cut across is composed of white flesh. Removing 

 the outer skin you cut the body into suitably sized 

 pieces, and put them in a covered pie-dish to stew 

 gently in the oven. 



There are many other even noisome-looking 

 toadstools, not merely good to eat, but surpass- 

 ing in delicacy of flavour the much-vaunted 

 mushroom. The fairy-ring champignon has a 



