154 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



of our present design to give special instructions in the art of 

 cooking mushrooms, for there is an art in it which makes all the 

 difference. Frankly, the ordinary domestic cook, without experi- 

 ence, never succeeds well, even with the common mushroom ; it 

 requires a kitchen genius to present them at their best. It has 

 been said that " Mushrooms are the gift of Nature, whilst a good 

 cook is the gift of God." 



The edible qualities of various Agarics are well known to the 

 common people on the continent of Europe. They eat them 

 freely, and make money by their sale, whilst in Great Britain, 

 scientific men have ventured to a large extent to explore the field 

 and forest in search of additions to the table list. On the conti- 

 nent, eaten fresh, dried, preserved in oil or vinegar or salt, fungi 

 constitute, for weeks together, the food of many people ; and in 

 Rome there is an inspector of fungi, who daily examines the 

 supplies which come in from the country, and condemns all that 

 are unsound or unsafe to be thrown away. Curiously enough, the 

 law points out by name our favorite Agaricus campestris, as 

 poisonous, and orders it to be thrown into the Tiber. Here again 

 the question of locality occurs, suggesting that climatic, or some 

 other unknown cause, may make a radical change in the fungi, as 

 in the case before mentioned, in which a variety whose poisonous 

 quality here is well settled, is eaten with impunity in Russia, and 

 this opens up a wide field for scientific investigation. 



It is commonly supposed that fungi are the consequence of 

 decay, and we do find the greatest number of them on decaying 

 substances ; but we find them also on glass, flints, metals, in 

 poisonous solutions, and in pure and undecomposed water. 



An instance is given of a blacksmith who threw aside a piece 

 of iron at night, fresh forged, and in the morning found it 

 covered with an Ethalium two feet in length. Gun-barrels and 

 sword-scabbards left in damp, close rooms have been covered with 

 a h\v\e mould in a few days. The rapidity with which many if 

 not all fungi grow baflfles calculation ; the great Pnffball, Lyco- 

 perdon giganteum will grow as large as a peck measure in forty- 

 eight hours, and specimens of Agaricus campestris have developed 

 from the button (which is a bud the size of a pea), to a mushroom 

 as large as a coffee saucer, in a night; but it must not be supposed 

 that all this incx'ease of size in a single night is actual growth. 

 Agarics are many weeks forming under the surface of the ground ; 



