Midsummer to Michaelmas 
garden to-day — the large-flowered Scarlet Tropseolum climb- 
ing up a yew — Flame-flower is such a nice name for it ; 
and Nasturtiums were running riot all over a Thorn-hedge. 
This is Mushroom time, but, unfortunately, edible Mush- 
rooms are not plentiful here. I sometimes find a few in 
the field, but not the abundance which generally prevails in 
fields some six or seven miles from here. But it is not a 
good year for Mushrooms. I am sorry, as I am fond of 
Mushrooms. But I can never bring myself to experiment 
on kinds not commonly eaten, such as Ceps or Blewitts, 
Puffballs and suchlike, however confidently I am assured 
by experts they taste like chicken. The Puffballs are 
called here Devil’s Snuffboxes, and Puckfist and Fuzzyballs; 
in Ireland, Cos a Phooka, or Puck’s-foot. Puck is said 
to be derived from Pogge, or toad, meaning the Devil. 
Herrick writes of a little Fuzzball pudding for the King of 
the Fairies. I saw one autumn a gigantic fungus ( Ly coper - 
don giganteum) the size of a large stable-sponge. It had 
been found by the side of an avenue, and the owner had 
preserved it under a glass globe and showed it to me as a 
great curiosity. I was told by a Gamekeeper they are not 
uncommon in the high moorlands, and sometimes used 
here for smoking Bees stupid, that the honey may be easily 
taken. There is a lovely scarlet Mushroom, called Amanita 
muscaria , which is very common in the Highlands, and 
which is sometimes found brown instead of red, when it 
gets eaten by mistake with sad consequences. But I 
believe it can be so prepared, by being well crushed in salt 
and vinegar, that it becomes harmless. It is eaten in this 
way by Russian and Swedish peasants. The wild tribes 
of Northern Asia buy these Mushrooms dried from Russian 
traders, and make a sort of intoxicating narcotic drink by 
preparing them with Willowherb or Whortleberries — Hurt- 
berries as these are called in some parts of England as well 
as here sometimes. The sort of mad drunkenness produced 
by this drink seems, so scientific people say, to be the 
same as the Bersarkar madness of old days in Sweden and 
Norway. In Switzerland, where they also eat Mushrooms, 
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