76 OUR COLUMNS. April, 1892. 



delicacies, and 11 canDot be mistaken for anything else — a remark that applies to the large 

 piif£-ball, which, when it cuts white throughout, is one of the safest, most nutritious, and 

 most agreeable esculents in the whole family, and it is all the more valuable because one 

 of a good size will furnish a meal for a small family. The English truffle (equally good 

 with those imported) is found at Ampthill, Silsoe, and probably elsewhere in the county. 

 According to Uelisle Hay, no less than 81 out of the 244 Bedfordshire species are good 

 to eat, and only 17 are distinctly poisonous, the remainder being doubtful. I confess that 

 all the king's money would not temjDt me to eat some of those which are classed by 

 Delisle Hay among the edible sorts, but we may safely say that 25 per cent, of the 

 known Bedfordshire species are good, wholesome articles of diet — if only you can make 

 sura you have got them, and in most cases it needs all the skill of an expert to determine 

 that fact. For that, and other reasons, I am not sanguine that Fungi will ever become 

 a popular article of food. 



Of the few poisonous sorts the worst is Ag. phalloides, a large and handsome greenish- 

 yellow sjDCcies, w^hich is not unfrequent in and near copses. Ag. muscarius comes near 

 it, and is found in fir-woods. It is of the most beautiful crimson and vermilion hues, 

 with cream-coloured prismatic studs on the cap, of the purest white underneath, and 

 perfectly graceful in its outlines from bulb to cap. Ag . fascicular is is only too common. 

 It grows in dense tufts on stumps, and is tawny, passing into shades of sulphur at the 

 top, and greenish beneath. A glutinous A'erdegris-coloured specimen is often found and 

 has a bad reputation, but no one would care to eat such a repulsive object — a remark that 

 might apjDly to the carrion-like Phallus imj^udicus, were it not that people have been 

 foolish enough to try the experiment, with disastrous result. The tawny-coloured species 

 with milky sap, growing in fir woods, should be avoided, although two or three of them 

 rank among the first favourites with confirmed fungus-eaters. 



J. HAMSON. 



Wi\}zu to go in tf)e 5>olit)ap0? 



QUESTION to which an answer may fairly be invited from many of our sub- 

 scribers. Our next number will be published at the end of June. About that 

 time of year we begin to consult our Bradshaws and to pore over the Library 

 Baedekers ; we unfold the maps, cruise round all the coasts of Great Britain and France, 

 poke about in all manner of out-of-the-w^ay " resorts " at home and abroad, calculate 

 railway tickets " for a party of ten," write innumerable letters to unconscionable lodging- 

 house keepers, and generally wind up with a hopeless " Well, my dear, I really don't know 

 what to say. Everywhere, so far as I can see, it is awfully expensive to get there, certain 

 to be uncomfortable when we are there, and bound to end in our rushing off home again 

 before the holidays are half over." Now cannot we do something to help each other in 

 this particular ? If those who know from experience of nice and cheap tours, nice and 

 cheap places, nice and cheap and clean lodgings, would send us brief notes, to the point, 

 of such possibilities, would recommend a comfortable farmhouse for a family, or point out 

 how to get a pleasant and inexpensive mountaineering expedition, yachting cruise, or 

 fishing excursion, to those who have fewer encumbrances, the Editors would be only too 

 pleased to make room for such desirable information. 



