420 
THE ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND. 
THE ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND.* 
We believe there are very few persons but 
will acknowledge the hand of Providence in 
our late visitation, and hence must admit that, 
without His blessing on our labours, all at- 
tempts to provide a substitute or remedy for 
the failure of the potato crops will avail us 
nothing. The Almighty fiat, however, is not 
that we should remain idle ; but rather that 
we should use every means at our command 
to mitigate the scarcity with which, for some 
good and wise purpose, we have been so lately 
afflicted. 
To abandon, or even neglect, so invaluable 
a crop as the potato, simply because for the 
last two or three years they have in many 
parts of the country partially failed, would be 
next to madness ; for most certainly no ade- 
quate substitute for that vegetable is known, 
nor has any of the articles so recommended 
(by the many advisers upon the subject) the 
slightest pretensions to equality as an article of 
food. "We cannot, therefore, urge too strongly 
upon every farmer, gardener, and private 
gentleman, the necessity and the importance 
of cultivating, year after year, with especial 
care and perseverance, a good breadth of 
potato, notwithstanding all the discourage- 
ments with which it may be attended ; at the 
same time, however, we would have no one 
unmindful of any description of vegetable 
calculated to be useful as an article of food ; 
and, therefore, we hail with pleasure every 
attempt to render available, as sustenance, 
subjects that hitherto have been neglected or 
overlooked. 
The Esculent Fungi may be mentioned a3 
of that class, for, most assuredly, they have 
hitherto been unheeded in this country, al- 
though furnishing food to a very considerable 
extent in various parts of the continent. The 
volume before us comes very opportunely ; 
and upon this matter we will let the author 
speak for himself : — 
" No country is perhaps richer in esculent 
funguses than our own ; we have upwards 
of thirty species abounding in our woods. No 
markets might, therefore, be better supplied 
than the English, and yet England is the only 
country in Europe where this important and 
.savoury food is, from ignorance or prejudice, 
left to perish ungathered. In France, Ger- 
many, and Italy, funguses not only constitute 
for weeks together the sole diet of thousands, 
but the residue, either fresh, dried, or variously 
* A Treatise on the Esculent Funguses of England, 
containing an Account of their Classical History, Uses, 
Characters, Development, Structure, Nutritious Pro- 
perties, Modes of Cooking and Preserving, &c, by 
Charles David Badham, M.D. London : lieevc, Bro- 
thers, Kiug William-street, Strand, 1S47. 
preserved, in oil, vinegar, or brine, is sold by 
the poor, and forms a valuable source of in- 
come to many wdio have no other produce to 
bring into the market. Well then may we 
style them with Mons. Roques, ' the marina of 
the poor /'" — Introd. p. vii. 
In Italy these things are better managed. 
In the markets of Rome many thousand pounds 
weight are annually disposed of; and an in- 
come of many thousand pounds sterling is 
thus derived. 
"The following brief summary was drawn up 
by Professor Sanguinetti, the Official Inspector 
(Ispettore dei Funghi) at Rome : let it speak 
for itself : — ' For forty days during the 
autumn, and for about half that period every 
spring, large quantities of funguses, picked 
in the immediate vicinity of Rome, from 
Frascati, Rocca di Papa, Albano, beyond 
Monte Mario, towards Ostia and the neigh- 
bourhood of the sites of Veii and Gabii, are 
brought in at the different gates. In the year 
1837 the Government instituted the so-called 
Congregazione Speciale di Sanita, which 
among other duties was more particularly re- 
quired to take into serious consideration the 
commerce of funguses, from the unrestricted 
sale of which during some years past, cases of 
poisoning had not unfrequently occurred. The 
following decisions were arrived at by this 
body : — 
" '1st. — That for the future an " Inspector of Funguses," 
versed in botany, should be appointed to attend the 
market in place of the peasant, whose supposed prac- 
tical knowledge had hitherto been held as sufficient 
guarantee for the public safety. 
"'2d.— That all the Funguses brought into Eome by 
the different gates should be registered, under the 
surveillance of the principal Officer, in whose presence 
also the baskets were to be sealed up, and the whole 
for that day's consumption sent under escort to a 
central depot. 
'"3d. — That a certain spot should be fixed upon for 
the Fungus market, and that nobody under penalty 
of fine and imprisonment should hawk them about 
the streets. 
"'4th. — That at seven o'clock, a.m., precisely, the 
Inspector should pay his daily visit, and examine the 
whole, the contents of the baskets being previously 
emptied on the ground by the proprietors, who were 
then to receive, if the Funguses were approved of, 
a printed permission of sale from the police, and to 
pay for it an impost of one baioccho (a halfpenny) on 
every ten pounds. 
"'5th. — That quantities under ten pounds should 
not be taxed. 
"'Gth.— That the stale Funguses of the preceding 
day, as well as those that were mouldy, bruised, filled 
with maggots, or dangerous (muj/i, giia-sli, verminosi, 
velenosi), together with any specimen of the common 
mushroom (Agaricus campetstris) detected in any of 
the baskets, should be sent under escort and thrown 
into the Tiber. 
"'7th. — That the Inspector should be empowered to 
fine or imprison all those refractory to the above regu- 
lations ; and, finally, that he should furnish a weekly 
report to the Tribunal of Provisions (II Trxbuno.lt 
detie Grascie) of the proceeds of the sale.' 
