108 BRITISH -EDIBLE FUNGI. 



criminate between the commoner kinds of the larger 

 fungi, if there were- only vernacular names for them 

 which could be readily remembered. It would be 

 worse than useless to invent a host of fancy names, 

 and associate them in books with the scientific names, 

 or even with prolix descriptions of the objects them- 

 selves, since but few would see or care to read the 

 books in which the new names are explained. One 

 remarkable instance of an effort of this kind is present 

 to our memory, but it only resulted in failure. A 

 better course to adopt, probably, would be to associate 

 characteristic names with good coloured portraits of 

 the objects, but, even in this case, the diffusion of 

 useful knowledge would be exceedingly limited ; only 

 a few of the most notable could be selected for 

 illustration, and some time would elapse before 

 practical results could be hoped for. 



Everyone who has been desirous of extending a 

 knowledge of fungi has felt this difficulty, and some- 

 times it has found expression. The writers of books 

 on this subject, as well as the readers, have been em- 

 barrassed, and the happy consummation remains as 

 distant as ever. In this chapter we have to encounter 

 one of these stumbling blocks, because there is no 

 real popular designation for the kind of fungi which 

 botanical people call Boleti, as distinguished from 

 those other fungi which they denominate Agarics, 

 such as the ordinary mushroom represents. It is an 

 undoubted fact that on the continent of Europe, 



