122 
THE ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND. 
become stringy, and the potatoes are hydrated 
by the rain, they appear thus opportunely to 
eke out the scantiness of autumnal larders in 
the south, and give a fresh zest to the daily 
repast. "Well may their sudden apparition 
surprise us, for not ten days since the waters 
were all out, and only three or four nights 
back peals of thunder rattled against the 
casements and kept the most determined 
sleepers in awful vigil ; and now, behold the 
meadows by natural magic studded with 
countless fairy rings of every diameter, 
formed of such species as grow upon the 
ground, while the chestnut and the oak are 
teeming with a new class of fruits that had 
no previous blossoming, many of which have 
already attained their full growth. We recol- 
lect with gratitude the objects of a pursuit, 
which has accidentally brought us to such an 
acquaintance with the diversities of Italian 
scenery, as we never should have experienced 
without it. In fishing it is not the fish we 
catch which alone repays us for our toil ; it 
is the wandering as the rivulet wanders, ' at 
its own sweet will,' the exercise and the 
appetite consequent upon it, the prize in 
natural history, the reciting aloud, or reflect- 
ing as we walk, and when it is pleasantly 
warm the 'molles sub arbore somni,' which 
console us for the lack of sport ; on the same 
principle mushroom-hunting may be recom- 
mended to the young naturalist, not only for 
the beauty of the objects which he is sure to 
come upon (if he do but hunt at the right 
season), but also because in that most beau- 
tiful of months, whether at home or abroad, 
it brings the wanderer out of beaten paths to 
fall in with many striking views which he 
would not otherwise have explored. The ex- 
tremely limited time during which funguses 
are to be found, their fragility, their infinite 
diversity, their ephemeral existence, these, 
too, add to the interest of an autumnal walk 
in quest of them. At Lucca, leaving idleness 
and indigestion in bed, just as the sun was 
beginning to shoot his first rays on the white 
convents, and the spires of the village churches 
on the mountains, making morning above, 
while the deep valley beneath was still in twi- 
light, it was pleasant to pass the little opening 
coffee-house with its two or three candidates 
for early breakfast, and crossing the noiseless 
trout stream over the little bridge, to enter 
one of those old chestnut forests and begin 
clambering up the laddery pathway, to reach 
the summit just as he poured his full efful- 
gence on the magnificent rival views of the 
Lucchese and Modenese territories ; pleasant 
too was it on the road Rome-ward, pausing a 
few days to enjoy the exquisite scenery about 
Spoleto, to climb the steep streets to the 
cathedral, and thence passing the giddy via- 
duct several hundred feet above the white 
ravine, which it traverses, to issue upon those 
Nurcian Hills then fragrant with the breath 
of morning, ' le beau matin qui sort humide 
et pale,' and with the scent of sweet herbs ; 
but above all other hills renowned for the 
fragrance of those ever reproductive mines of 
coal-black, subterranean truffles ! It is a plea- 
sant remembrance to have plucked the crimson 
Amanite that ministered to a Caesar's decease 
in the very neighbourhood of the Palatine 
Hill ; to have collected mushrooms amidst the 
meadows of Horace's farm, where he tells us 
they grew best, and to have watched along 
the moist pastures of the Cremara a stand of 
the stately Agaricus procerus nodding upon 
their stalks ; or standing on the heights above 
Sorrento, just as the setting sun flashed upon 
the waters of the bay ere they engulphed 
him, and left us to his sister and the evening 
star, to have come upon that wonderful 
Polyporus tuberaster, whose matrix is the 
hard stone, from which it derives strength and 
luxuriance as if from a soft and genial soil. 
" But not only in Italy, in our own country 
also, the collector in Mycology will have to 
traverse much beautiful and diversified scenery; 
amid woods, greenswards, winding lanes, rich 
meadows, healthy commons, open downs, the 
nodding hop-grove, and the mountain sheep- 
path ; and all shone upon by an autumnal 
sunset, as compai'ed Avith southern climes 
' obscurely bright,' and unpreceded by that 
beautiful rosy tint which bathes the whole 
landscape in Italy, but with a far finer back 
ground of clouds to reflect its departed 
glories ; and throughout all this range of 
scenery he will never hunt in vain ; indulgent 
gamekeepers made aware of what he is poach- 
ing may warn him that he is not collecting 
mushrooms, but will never warn him off from 
the best kept preserves. In such rambles he 
will see, what I have this autumn myself 
witnessed, whole hundred weights of rich 
wholesome diet rotting under trees; woods 
teeming with food and not one hand to gather 
it ; and this perhaps in the midst of potato 
blight, poverty and all manner of privations, 
and public prayers against imminent famine. 
I have indeed grieved when I reflected on the 
straitened condition of the lower orders this 
year, to see pounds innumerable of extempore 
beef-steaks growing on our oaks in the shape 
of Fistulina hepatica ; Agaricus fusipes, to 
pickle, in clusters under them ; Puff-balls, 
which some of our friends have not inaptly 
compared to sweetbread for the rich delicacy 
of their unassisted flavour ; Hydna, as good 
as oysters, which they somewhat resemble in 
taste; Agaricus deliciosus, reminding us of 
tender lamb-kidneys ; the beautiful yellow 
Chantarelle, that halon hagothon of diet, grow- 
