1882-1883.] i89 



There is no magic method of saving the trouble of learning. 

 However, if on tasting a fungus it burns the tongue, it is pro- 

 bably not good for food ; but if it has a pleasant smell like 

 fruit, spice, or new flour, it is worth a trial. A little prudence 

 and moderation should be observed in eating fungi. Only 

 young, fresh, and sound specimens should be gathered for the 

 table. Instances were mentioned of persons who, by ignorance 

 or thoughtlessness, had been injured or poisoned by unwhole- 

 some fungi, and attention was drawn to Ivlr. Worthington 

 Smith's accurately drawn and coloured sheets, one giving the 

 dangerous sorts, and the other the common edible kinds, with 

 which as a guide it would be scarcely possible to make a mis- 

 take. In Italy, where the common mushroom is as abundant 

 as in England, it is despised and seldom offered for sale. One 

 little fungus is celebrated in fairy lore ; it forms the peculiar 

 circles of green grass in old pastures known as fairy rings. The 

 legend of the two serving girls of Tavistock was related as an 

 example of the stories connected with fungi. The shining 

 brown toadstool {Boletus edulis) has the under side of the cap 

 perforated, as if with pinholes, instead of gills ; it is very com- 

 mon, and is excellent eating ; it is sold in company with peaches 

 at every street corner in Rome. In Lorraine it is known as 

 the Polish mushroom, because Poles first showed it could be 

 eaten without risk of death. The dry rots which reduce the 

 structures upon which they establish themselves to dust, and 

 against whose ravages no thoroughly effective remedy has yet 

 been found, were illustrated by two species recently collected. 

 The fairy butter, like a rich orange jelly, is common on whins 

 and sticks in woods ; it is called Tremella intestma^ from its 

 resemblance to the human mesentery. The purposes for which 

 these exceedingly numerous and so universally distributed 

 plants were created are not all known to us, but He who makes 

 nothing in vain intends them to serve important ends in the 

 economy of nature. We can, at least, see them reducing de- 

 caying substances to a state fitted to minister to the needs of 

 next year's vegetation. * 



