270 THE RING OF NATURE 



name more famous to the cosmopolitan gourmet 

 than that of ' mushroom.' Another favourite that 

 is slowly extending its appeal is the edible 

 chantarelle. There are two chantarelles, Can- 

 tharellus cibarius and C. aurantiacus, of which 

 the former is certainly edible and the latter 

 doubtful. When fully open they are like 

 umbrellas blown inside-out, and the gills, not 

 content with joining the stem inside the crown as 

 in the mushroom, run down the stalk. The colour 

 of the edible species is egg-yellow, that of the 

 other commonly orange. The gills of the right 

 kind are swollen like veins, not so numerous as in 

 aurantiacus and meandering. In a few hours 

 after being picked this fungus develops a scent 

 like that of apricots. Cibarius grows mostly 

 under beech trees, aurantiacus mostly under pine. 



Quite a different kind of edible fungus is the 

 beef-steak. It juts from the trunk of an oak, 

 looking something like an ox tongue, with pinkish 

 under-side furnished with pin-holes instead of 

 gills for the carriage of the spores. When broken 

 open it is seen to be full of a red juice like the 

 gravy of raw beef. Another of these polyspore 

 fungi, of which the Italians in London gather vast 

 quantities in Epping Forest, is the edible boletus, 

 a fungus with a cap of brown velvet and the under- 

 side yellow like a very porous sponge cake. But 

 besides B. edulis there are poisonous species, 

 piper atus, sathanas, and others. They are mostly 

 known by their swollen stems, their generally 



