12 
FUNGUS EATING. 
salmon-pink gills of the former and its gills are browner at 
maturity, while its flesh is thicker and more substantial. 
In flavour they are similar, but not the same ; one who has 
tried them both can readily distinguish them by that alone. 
The richer sort are also fungus-eaters, in a similar 
pettifogging way. Truffles and Morells, bought at a fancy 
price from the Italian warehouseman, are fit to set before a 
prince, but those which his servants might gather from his 
own fields and parks he must never dare to touch. The 
inanity, the stupid malignancy of the distinction which thus 
elevates one particular species of fungus on a saintly pedestal 
above the rest, and saitli: “ This shalt thou eat and none 
other,” would be a puzzle hard of explanation, if we did not 
know that the average British mind is intensely superstitious, 
while it thinks itself intensely practical. The guilt lies 
mainly on the shoulders of the man who first bestowed on 
fungi the nickname, “ Toad-stools.” Give a dog a bad 
name, and you know the consequences. The toad has an 
evil reputation. 
Some people are fond of saying that toad-stools have a 
poisonous look. The main idea of this statement, so far as 
it has any idea at all, seems to be that bright colours are 
intended as a warning—“ Touch-me-not.” How little truth 
there is in the notion every fungus-eater knows, for those 
who hold it place the luscious Cliantarelle, and the Delicious 
Lactare, under the same ban as the deadly Fly Agaric. 
What can be nicer and more enticing than the pure white 
flesh of a well-grown Giant Puffball; yet our country clod¬ 
hoppers can find no better use for these pounds of vegetable 
sweet-bread, than to throw them at one another’s heads. 
The question of fungus eating is usually regarded as a 
fad of no more importance than as it furnishes an amusement 
to a few harmless enthusiasts. But this is not so. There 
have been circumstances, and may he again, in which it 
would be of national importance. In the great Irish famine, 
thousands of ignorant peasants starved, while tons of nutri¬ 
tious dainties covered the land around their cabins. Potatoes 
and butter-milk, even when plentiful, are not such delicacies 
that those who are compelled to live on them should neglect 
the relish which lies so ready to their hands. 
Among the most recent attempts which have been made 
to extend the eating of fungi is the book which forms the 
subject of this notice. The author possesses certain qualifi¬ 
cations for his task, which, if they had been rightly used, 
would have produced an admirable result. His knowledge of 
the esculent species, judging by his own account, is more 
