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 (Lycoperdon 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
melues, I cannot say too much for; it is generally tough, and always
insipid. Clitoeybe 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 ulmarius and P. ostreatus, like most other Fungi
growing on the trunks of trees, can only be described as ' edible' in con-
tradistinction to 'poisonous.' 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-