i 9 4 ABOUT FUNGI. [CHAP. 



hundredweights of rich wholesome diet rotting under 

 trees; woods teeming with food, and not one hand 

 to gather it ; and this perhaps in the midst of potato- 

 blight, poverty, and all manner of privations, and 

 public prayers against imminent famine. I have 

 indeed grieved, when I consider the straitened con- 

 dition of the lower orders, this year to see pounds 

 innumerable of extempore beefsteaks growing on our 

 oaks in the shape of Fistulina hepatica ; Agaricus 

 fusipes, to pickle, in clusters under them ; Puff-balls, 

 which some of our friends have not inaptly compared 

 to sweetbread, for the rich delicacy of their unas- 

 sisted flavour ; Hydna, as good as oysters, which 

 they somewhat resemble in taste; Agaricus deliciosus, 

 reminding us of tender lamb-kidney ; the beautiful 

 yellow Chantarelle, growing by the bushel, and no 

 basket but our own to pick up a few specimens on 

 our way ; the sweet nutty Boletus, in vain calling 

 himself edulis, when there was none to believe him ; 

 the dainty Orcella, the Agaricus heterophyllus, which 

 tastes like the crawfish, when grilled; the red and 

 green species of Agaricus, cooked in any way, and 

 equally good in all." 



Here is an opening for the epicure, here is a chance 

 for the badly fed ! Is not that paragraph sufficient 

 justification for the labours and studies of fungolo- 

 gists ? Tons of food wasted yearly through igno- 

 rance, whilst hundreds of people are starving in our 

 midst. Would it not be a good thing if, in our Train- 

 ing Colleges, our future schoolmasters were taught 

 to discriminate between the good and the noxious 

 fungi, that those who received appointments to 



