334 THE BOLETUS OF THE ROMANS. 



been partly buried in the ground so as to expose only the 

 larger end. It seems partial to solitude ; more than four or 

 five are seldom found in the same locality. Moreover, in 

 autumn it affects the same habitats as the Amanita, which 

 is unfortunate. 



It would seem that our imperial mushroom was specially 

 appreciated by the ancients, and it is said 

 that Nero pronounced it a dish fit for 

 the gods. In this circumstance origi- 

 nated the scientific name which has now 

 become popular, and which was first ap- 

 plied to it by the cryptogamist Fries, 

 Agaricus Ccesareus. 



FIG. 74. The Imperial 

 Mushroom. 



The Boletus of Pliny appears to have been our Agaricus, and 

 not one of our Boleti, which are easily recognised by the 

 numerous tubercular projections covering the under part of 

 the pileus. In proof of this I would point out that the 

 Roman naturalist, after speaking of the Bokti as genuine 

 delicacies, immediately inveighs against them as dangerously 

 poisonous. He relates that it was with one of these, or rather 

 with one of the false mushrooms so easily mistaken for the 

 true, that Agrippina poisoned the Emperor Claudius, to secure 

 the imperial crown for her son Nero.* 



The virtues of the mushrooms have been sung by Juvenal 

 and Martial. The latter accurately distinguishes the true 

 from the false, when reproaching Caecilianus with his gluttony. 

 * Pliny, " Hist. Nat.," xxii. 46. 



