THE ESCULENT FUNGUSES OF ENGLAND, 
425 
till intimacy lias made us familiar with the 
exceptions, avoid all those the flesh of which 
is livid, or that, Chameleon-like, assume a 
variety of hues on being broken or bruised.* 
The external colour furnishes no certain in- 
formation, with the single exception of that 
of the gills in one or two Agarics, by which 
to know the good from the bad ; thus the 
Boule de neige, and the Vernal amanite, are 
both white, but the dress, in one case, is of 
innocence, in the other of mere hypocrisy ; 
again, the green, which we are so cautioned 
to avoid in this class of plants as cholorotic 
and unhealthy, and which is of such bad 
augury in Amanita viridis, is quite the con- 
trary in the Verdette (A. virescens). So that 
to be led only by colour would certainly be to 
be misled, a mistake which, in the family of 
the Mtissulce, might readily compromise life. 
" Some mycologists recommend, with cer- 
tain exceptions, the avoidance of such Agarics 
as have lateral stalks, of such as are pectinate 
(i. e. have equal gills like a comb), of such as 
have little flesh in proportion to the depth of 
their gills, and generally of all those that are 
past their prime. Some warn us not to eat 
after the snail, as we are in the habit of doing 
in our gardens after the wasp ; we may trust 
it seems to him to point out the best green- 
gages, but not to the slug to select our mush- 
rooms for us. Finally, it has been very 
currently affirmed, though I think without 
sufficient warrant, that all such funguses as 
run rapidly into deliquescence ought to be 
avoided as dangerous. Here, while it might 
be unsafe to lay down any positive rule 
beyond one's own experience, this, so far as 
it goes, would rather lead me to a different 
inference ; and even the reader will ask, 
* Does not the mushroom deliquesce, and is not 
ketchup, that poignant liquor made from 
boiled mushrooms mixed with salt to which 
we are all so partial, this very deliquescence ?' 
but, besides this, the Agaricas comatus, which 
is highly deliquescent, is largely eaten about 
Lucca, the Agaricus atramentarius also is, 
on our own authority, as good for ketchup as 
for that purpose to which its juices are more 
commonly put, viz : — for making ink ; thus 
amongst deliquescent Agarics, there are some 
the juices of which are both safe and savoury, 
perhaps of more than those here recorded, 
but as I have not hitherto myself made trial 
of any others, and as there are some danger- 
* " The converse of this remark by no means holds 
true; the A manita verna, the Am. Phalloides, the 
Ag. semiglobatus, Dryophilus, and muscarius, though 
amongst the most deadly of this class of plants, do not 
change colour on being cut ; the flesh of the first two 
is moreover of a tempting -whiteness, like that of the 
common puff-ball, than which there is not a safer or a 
better fungus." 
ous species mixed up with this group, the 
public cannot be too much cautioned against 
making any rash experiment, where the con- 
sequences of a mistake might be so serious. 
" Some trees give origin by preference to 
good, others to deleterious species ; thus, the 
hazel-nut, the black and perhaps the white 
poplar, together with the fig-tree, grow only 
good sorts ; whereas the olive has been famous 
since the clays of Nicander for none but poi- 
sonous species. The elm, the alder, the larch, 
the beech, and some other trees, seem capable 
of supporting both good and bad species at 
their roots, hence it is not safe to trust impli- 
citly to the tree to determine the wholesome- 
ness or unwholesomeness of the fungus that 
grows out of it, or in its neighbourhood. The 
presence of a free acid is by no means con- 
clusive either way, there being many species 
of both good and bad which will indifferently 
turn litmus paper red. The old and very . 
general practice adopted by cooks of dressing 
funguses with a silver spoon, (which is sup- 
posed to become tarnished, then, only when 
their juices are of a deleterious quality,) is an 
error which cannot be too generally known 
and exposed, as many lives, especially on the 
Continent, have been and still are sacrificed to 
it annually. In some cases, the kitchen fire 
will extract the deleterious property from 
funguses, which it would have been unsafe to 
eat raw — and frequently the acrid lactescent 
kinds change their nature entirely and become 
mild by cooking ; in other cases, the virus is 
drawn out by saturating the fungus, some 
time before dressing it, either in vinegar or 
brine,* the liquid then containing the poison 
which was originally in the plant ; but in 
other species, as in Ag. emeticus, it would 
seem from the experiments of M. Krapf, 
of Vienna, upon living animals, that it is 
to be extracted neither by ebullition nor 
desiccation." f— Pp. 32—38. 
The expansive power of the growth of 
fungi is very great, and will appear more 
especially so if we take into consideration the 
softness and succulency of their texture ; in 
fact, in the work of disintegration, the fungi 
must bear an important part. 
" Soft and yielding as vegetable structures 
appear to the touch, the expansive force of 
their growth is almost beyond calculation ; 
the effects of this power, of which the expe- 
rience of every one will furnish him with 
* " As was known to the Gi-eeks, ' Prepare your 
funguses with vinegar, salt, or honey, for thus you 
will rob them of their poison: — Svtu -yap avrccv to 
TTViyvoiSes acpouptirai.' " 
f " Vittadini, however, ate largely of this fungus, 
which he describes as very disagreeable, though it did 
not prove poisonous to him." 
