118 SHAKESPEARE’S GARDEN 
And I serve the fairy queen, 
To dew her orbs upon the green. 
Midsummer-Night's Dream , II. i. 6. 
The fairy rings are again referred to in the Merry 
Wives of Windsor , V. v. 69 • 
And nightly, meadow-fairies, look you sing, 
Like to the Garter’s compass, in a ring : 
The expressure that it bears, green let it be, 
More fertile-fresh than all the field to see. 
It is not well for any but an expert to eat toad¬ 
stools, although there are at least 300 edible species 
among us. Folk-lore gives various safeguards to 
insure safety. If they bruise with a gold ring they 
are poisonous, and if they do not readily peel, or if 
they turn green when touched ; but none of these 
can at all be relied on ; nothing but individual know¬ 
ledge of the species will suffice. Gerard speaks 
strongly: “ Poisonous Mushrooms groweth where 
old rusty iron lieth, or rotten clouts or neere to 
serpent’s dens or rootes of trees that bring forth 
venomous fruit. Few of them are good to be eaten, 
and most of them do suffocate and strangle the eater, 
therefore I give my advice unto those that love such 
strange and new-fangled meates to beware of licking 
honey amongst thornes lest the sweetnesse of the one 
do not counteracte the sharpnesse and pricking of the 
other.” But this was all very wise and well on the part 
of old Gerard. The beefsteak fungus ( Fistulina 
hepatica , L.) is not only wholesome, but very palat¬ 
able, even though it grow on tree-trunks, and from 
it much of the ketchup of our shops is made. The 
young of the large puffball fried with eggs and 
bread-crumbs is a most delicate dainty. The curious 
spiney hydnum is quite as tasty as an oyster, and not 
nearly so dangerous, and, above all, the bright yellow 
wood-loving Lactarius deliciosus y breaking all the 
