576 



MUSHROOMS, OR ESCULENT FUNGI. 



perfection early in the season, but should not be gathered 

 soon after rain, or while wet with dew. If gathered when 

 dry, it may be preserved for several months. 



Use. The Morels are used, like the Truffle, as an ingre- 

 dient to heighten the flavor of ragouts, gravies, and other 

 rich dishes. They are used either fresh 

 or in a dried state. 



Cultivation. Its cultivation, if ever 

 attempted, has been carried on to a very 

 limited extent. Of its capability of sub- 

 mitting to culture there can be little 

 doubt. If the spawn were collected from 

 its natural habitats in June, and planted 

 in beds differently formed, but approxi- 

 mating as nearly as possible to its natural 

 conditions, a proper mode of cultivation 

 would assuredly be in time arrived at. 

 Persoon remarks that " it prefers a chalky or argillaceous 

 soil to one of a sandy nature, and that it not unfrequently 

 springs up where charcoal has been burned, or where cinders 

 have been thrown." 



"The great value of the Morel which is one of the 

 most expensive luxuries furnished by the Italian warehouses, 

 and which is by no means met with in the same abundance 

 as some others of the Fungi deserves to be better known 

 than it Is at present." The genus comprises a very few spe- 

 cies, and they are all edible. 





COMMON TRUFFLE. 



Tuber cibariutn. 



On the authority of our most distinguished mycologists, 

 the Common Truffle has not yet been discovered within the 



