FUNGI ODOROUS AND ODIOUS. 33 



the most brilliant colours, as well as to supply the most 

 exquisite odours, and abundance of the most palatable 

 and nutritious food. " What geometry," asks Dr 

 Badham, " shall define their ever-varying shapes who 

 but a Venetian painter do justice to their colours ? As 

 to shapes, some are simple threads, like the byssus, 

 and never get beyond this ; some shoot out into 

 branches, like sea-weed ; some puff themselves out into 

 puff-balls ; some thrust their heads into mitres ; these 

 assume the shape of a cup, those* of a wine-funnel; 

 these are stilted on a high leg, and those have not a 

 leg to stand on ; some are shell-shaped, many bell- 

 shaped ; and some hang upon their stalks like a 

 lawyer's wig ; some assume the form of the horse's 

 foot, others of a goat's beard ; the Phallus impudicus is 

 the very thing he calls himself. As to their colours, 

 we find in one genus only species which correspond to 

 every hue ! " As to odours, while some smell like 

 cinnamon, some like ratafia, and some " like the bloom 

 of May," Dr Badham, enthusiastic though he be, can- 

 not discredit his nose, which is unmistakably and in- 

 stinctively turned away from fungous odours yielding 

 *' an insupportable stench/' " an intolerable foetor," 

 " the savour of a stale poultice," " a smell of tallow," 

 " the smell of putrid meat/' 



When our readers bear in mind that very many fungi 

 are violently poisonous, so that Dr Badham suffered 

 severely from merely tasting one of the spores of the 

 milky Agarics which he had collected, they may think 

 that there is ample justification of the popular aversion 

 to the whole fungus tribe. We presume to differ from 

 the popular verdict. As, in the interest of public ali- 

 mentation, we lately besought favour for hippophagy, 

 and declared that the dining on soup and stew made 

 from horse-flesh caused us no digestive remorse, we 

 have now entered on a course of practical mycology 

 by eating puff-balls Scottice, " deil's sneeshin" of 

 which our palate much approves, and against which our 



