THE USES OF FUNGI.
191
circle of our friends I fancy that the idea of there being no scientific
demarcation between animals and vegetables would be even now-
a-days regarded as heterodox, if not dangerous to morals and subver-
sive of culture.
Two years ago you were good enough to listen to my experiences
as to the edible qualities of some of the higher fungi, such as we
have an admirable exposition of upon our tables now, Then I
showed how in our autumn rambles we might gather, without any
fear of a bill to pay for them, a multitude of delicacies which, if we
could only obtain enough of them, might be counted as veritable
food-stuffs; even in an afternoon we can, if we know how, add cost-
less luxuries to the humblest repast. But, to do that, we must have
gained a certain botanical knowledge, simple though that may be.
Still, it is a use of fungi which cannot be neglected in an age like
ours, when the increase of population is daily adding to the number
of those whose only food is often the poorest wheaten bread. As the
poor, whose only crime is their poverty, wander through the Epping
glades in which we glory, how little do they now, even in the day of
School Boards, know of the charm of Fistulina hepatica for supper,
when beef-steak fails !
Apart from such knowledge, which may take as many years to be
made useful as it has to be acquired, we have to consider the purely
commercial view of the question. In the fore-front stands the com-
mon mushroom (Agaricus campestris). There is not a greengrocer's
shop in London in the autumn, nor in the richer districts the whole
year through, where there is not displayed a basket of this simple
esculent. It is as general as potatoes, and might be as cheap. I
cannot find statistics which would show accurately what wealth to the
country this fungus represents, but a reference to the produce of
mushrooms in the city of Paris alone will show that it must be very
great. In the capital of France miles of underground passages in
the catacombs are devoted solely to mushroom culture; twenty miles
of mushrooms are there cultivated at once. This space is divided
among different proprietors, some of whom are able to gather 3,000
pounds of mushrooms in a day; and this through more than half the
year. A reference to the menu of any table d'hote in France will
show that the consumption of this one species—for as "champig-
non" it is rarely confounded there with any other—must be enormous.
The fact that they are dried and imported to other countries, not
only in France, but also in Germany—for dried mushrooms can