Journal of Proceedings. lvii
The Boleti have a bad reputation, and they are certainly not inviting.
I should want very clear evidence of their wholesomeness before I
experimented on any species very unlike the savoury B. edulis, although
Mr. Worthington Smith's friend, Mr. Penrose, seems to have tasted
several other species with impunity. I should like to know, however,
something of Mr. Penrose's constitution before I implicitly followed
him.
This seems to complete the list of illustrative poisonous Fungi that
we are likely to meet with. Others I need not mention whose very
odour condemns them. Like Lynette in Tennyson's idyl,
"As one
That smells a foul-fleshed agaric in the holt,
And deems it carrion of some woodland thing,"
no one is likely to make a possible experiment, as an article of food, of a
Fungus whose whole aspect is disgusting. If Mr. W. G. Smith was
hardly able to draw a figure of Clathrus cancellatus, so loathsome was
its smell, no one need be warned against experimenting on its gustatory
qualities.
After all, the number of Fungi known to be poisonous is not a quarter
that of those known to be esculent; and it seems likely that future
experience will show material additions to the list of edible Fungi; and
if you will only follow my rule of safety, you are not any of you likely to
find out any more species to be poisonous. We may gather and study,
but we need not eat, every Fungus we meet with. It is only through
wilful ignorance that any but wholesome Fungi are even tasted. No
one need be poisoned by Fungi unless he neglects the simplest
precautions.
Mr. E. Meldola then gave a brief account of what took place at the
Congress of Delegates from scientific societies at Southport in connection
with the meeting of the British Association. This meeting Mr. Meldola
attended as delegate from the Essex Field Club and the Braintree and
Bocking Natural History Society.* As the final item of the Ordinary
Meeting Mr. W. Cole read the "Report of the Committee appointed to
investigate the Ancient Earthwork in Epping Forest known as the
'Loughton ' or ' Cowper's' Camp " which was printed in vol. iii. of the
' Transactions,' pp. 212-230. It was illustrated by large wall diagrams
and plans of the camp, prepared by Mr. H. A. Cole from drawings by
Mr. D'Oyley, Mr. W. Cole and General Pitt-Rivers, and, as above stated,
the whole of the objects obtained during the explorations of the
Loughton Camp and Ambresbury Banks were shown.
A series of short discussions on the facts brought forward in the
above papers, carried on principally by the President, Dr. Cooke, Mr.
Wharton, Mr. Meldola, and Mr. W. Cole, and very cordial votes of
thanks were accorded to the authors. The meeting then resolved itself
into a conversazione, and the remainder of the evening was devoted to the
examination of the numerous and interesting exhibits.
* It is unnecessary to give details of the resolutions reported on hy Mr. Meldola, as
the main features are embodied in the new rules recently issued by the British
Association.—Ed.