108 



CHAPTER XII. 



SOME OF THE MOST COMMON AND USEFUL EDIBLE FUNGI. 



" Whole hundredweights of rich, wholesome diet rotting under the 

 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." 



Dr<. Badham. 



VALUABLE as is the common mushroom, it is indispu- 

 table that not a few other kinds are also capable of af- 

 fording excellent food. Therefore, figures are given of 

 the most prevalent, useful, and easily recognised kinds of 

 edible fungi, as well as of the common mushrooms of our 

 gardens and markets. These figures have been admirably 

 drawn by Mr. W. G. Smith, and are accompanied by 

 what seemed the most satisfactory accounts of the 

 characters and properties that are obtainable. The spores 

 which accompany the figures are uniformly enlarged 

 seven hundred diameters. 



Marasmius oreades (Fairy-ring Champignon). 



Pileus smooth, fleshy, convex, subumbonate, generally 

 more or less compressed, tough, coriaceous, elastic, 

 wrinkled ; when water- soaked, brown ; when dry, of a 



