lxxiv 
Journal of Proceedings. 
It is true I hunt for the despised ‘ pot ’ still, and it gives a zest to the 
pursuit to know that if I neglected the scientific aspect I should always 
be haunted by the spectre of ‘ death in the pot.’ My first essay was on 
the Common Champignon ( Marasmius oreades). I found it growing in a 
friend’s field just after I had bought Mr. Worthington Smith’s admirable 
Plates of Edible and Poisonous Fungi. The only other book I had then 
to help me was the little one of Dr. Cooke’s, to which I would refer those 
who wish to know all the interesting details of fungus-cookery. Still I 
had no doubt about the species, and I straightway had those Champignons 
cooked—not forgetting an epitaph I was familiar with in my childhood 
in Mitcham churchyard on a family who died from eating so-called 
‘ Champignons.’ I thought I was too far advanced in the scientific stage 
to be myself mistaken. And delicious I found my Fungi in the eating. 
But the friend on whose grounds I had gathered them, though he 
entrusted me with the care of the health of himself and his family, had 
misgivings about my botany. That same night on which we feasted on 
his ‘ toadstools ’ he took the trouble to come and inquire whether we were 
still alive. His pleasure was only equalled by his surprise. He still 
thought we must be moribund—doomed by a latent poison. Next 
morning he sent one of his sons, with such a rueful countenance, on the 
same errand. I believe that to this day he has his doubts as to whether 
we really ate them at all! Since then I have brought home and tasted 
twenty-five other species. I must not include the truffle in the present 
list of Fungi I have eaten, and should like to eat again, for I have never 
had the good fortune to find it growing. And there are many other 
delicacies I still keenly look forward to becoming acquainted with—par¬ 
ticularly the Giant Puff Ball (Ly coper don giganteum). At present I 
merely wish to give an account of the twenty-six species I have found 
and eaten. If I could only make the recital as agreeable as the fruition! 
“ To take the species in their usual botanical order, I must begin with 
one, Amanita rubescens , that is among the least commendable; but 
although I cannot praise it much as an entree , it makes a capital 
ketchup. The next, however, Lepiota procerus, is indeed delicious—soft 
and savoury. Its close ally, Lepiota rachodes, I have found quite as 
great a dainty, although Mr. Worthington Smith says ‘ it cannot be so 
highly recommended, if it even be wholesome.’ Certainly I never had 
the chance of eating enough to verify the last aspersion, much as I 
should like to try! Our familiar friend of protean aspect, Armillaria 
melleus, I cannot say too much for; it is generally tough, and always 
insipid. Clitocybe nebularis has a pleasant fragrance and delicious 
flavour. But what is this compared with its congener, Clitocybe odorus ? 
The scent of new-mown hay, or melilot, or of the breath of a cow that 
has browsed on Dutch clover, gives but a faint idea of its charming 
odour ; I have only eaten two specimens, but the taste was as delicate as 
the smell. Pleurotus ulviarius and P. ostreatus, like most other Fungi 
growing on the trunks of trees, can only be described as ‘ edible ’ in con¬ 
tradistinction to ‘pm sonous -’ I shall never go out of my way to hunt 
for much flavour in them again. But when I come across Clitopilus 
prunulus I know what a delicacy there is in store for me at home. 
Nothing can describe its bewitching relish—quite different from that of 
any other fungus I have tasted. We all know the true Mushroom of 
commerce ( Psalliota campestris), so it wants no commendation at my 
hands. And we have all eaten its close ally, Psalliota arvensis, although 
we may not think it so great a luxury. But it has fallen to the lot of 
very few to taste the rare Psalliota elvensis. This I found last year in 
the Harrow district, growing in great abundance under trees on the top 
of a hill. It is a much finer-looking species than the Common Mush- 
