BOOK XXII. xLvi. 94-XLvii. 97 



rusty iron, or a rotten rag vvas near when the mush- 

 room started to grow, it at once absorbs and turns into 

 poison all the moisture and flavour from this foreign 

 substance. Who can be trusted to have detected the 

 affected specimens except countryfolk and those who 

 actually gather thcm ? Other infections even these 

 cannot detect ; for instance, if the hole of a serpent 

 has been near the mushroom, or should a serpent 

 have breathed on it as it first opened, its kinship 

 to poisons makes it capable of absorbing the venom. 

 So it would be well not to eat mushrooms until the 

 serpent has begun to hibernate. Indications of this 

 will be given by the many plants, trees, and shrubs, 

 that are always green from the time that the serpent 

 comes out from his hole to the time that he buries 

 himself in it ; or even the ash tree will serve, whose 

 leaves do not grow after, nor fall before, the hiber- 

 nating period." And of mushrooms indeed the whole 

 hfe from beginning to end is not more than seven 

 days. 



XLVII. The texture of fungi is rather flabby, and Tree-jungi. 

 there are several kinds of them, all derived only 

 from the gum that exudes from trees. The safest 

 have firm red flesh less pale than that of the mush- 

 room ; next comes the white kind, the stalk of which 

 is distinguished by its ending in a kind of flamen's 

 cap ; a third kind, hog fungi, are very well adapted 

 for poisoning. Recently they have carried off whole 

 households and all the guests at banquets ; Annaeus 

 Serenus, for instance, Captain of Nero's Guards, 

 with the tribunes and centurions. What great 

 pleasure can there be in such a risky food ? Some 

 have classified fungi according to the kind of tree on 

 which they grow, one class including those growing on 



361 



