350 
MH GBEVILLE ON THE 
perfect ; in A. ca^area, it envelopes the whole plant when 
young, and the remains are always to be found at the base 
of the stem : in A. muscaria the gills are white^ in A. Cae- 
sar ea always yellow. 
This fungus was well known to the ancients, and highly 
esteemed by them. The Romans were particularly fond of 
it ; and Agrippina, when she sought to raise her son Nero 
to the throne, administered poison to her husband Clau- 
dius, by means of this delicacy. It is to this crime that 
Juvenal alludes in the following passages : 
Vilibus ancipites fungi ponentur amicis, 
Boletus domino ; sed qualem Claudius edit, 
Ante ilium uxoris, post quern nihil amplius edit. 
Sat, V. 146. 
— Minus ergo nocens erit Agrippinse 
Boletus ; si quidem unius prsecordia pressit 
Ille senis, tremulumque caput descendere jussit 
In coelum, et longam manantia labra salivam. 
Sat. VI. 620. 
Martial also did not allow so notorious a fact to escape 
him. Thus, 
Quid dignum tanto ventrique gulaeque precabor ? 
Boletum ut, qualem Claudius edit, edas. 
E'pig. 21. Lib. I. 
And in another of his epigrams. Lib. xiii., he shows in a 
strong light the value placed upon this article of luxury : 
Argentum atque aitrum facile est 
Lanamque togamque 
Mittere ; Boletos mittere difficile est. 
The name by which it was known to the ancients was 
Boletus, and Fungorum prmceps et dominits, Nero, for 
whose sake Claudius had been poisoned, had the impiety 
to call it the food of Gods, because Claudius was placed 
among the gods after his deatlL 
