96 MUSHROOM CULTURE. 



cognise at a glance many of those esculent species, which 

 every spring and autumn fill our plantations and pastures 

 with plenteousness. Neither is this left to be a mere 

 matter of inference; it is corroborated in a singular 

 manner by what takes place at Rome ; there, whilst many 



Fig. 28. Agaricus campestris (the True Meadow Mushroom). Pastures, 

 autumn ; colour, white or pale brown ; gills, salmon, at length black ; 

 diameter, 3 to 6 inches. The spores are magnified 700 diameters. 



hundred baskets of what we call toadstools are carried 

 home for the table, almost the only one condemned to 

 be thrown into the Tiber, by the inspector of the fungus 

 market, is our own mushroom ; indeed, in such dread is 

 this held in the Papal States, that no one knowingly 



