Part 7

_Bot. Char._ _Gills_ free, unequal, thin, simple, changing colour, at length deliquescent. _Veil_ universal, floccose, fugacious; _stem_ fistulose, straight, elongated, brittle, subsquamulose, whitish; _pileus_ membranaceous, rarely subcarnose, when young ovato-conic, then campanulate, at length torn and revolute, deliquescent, distinct from the stem, clothed with the flocculose fragments of the veil.

Fugacious funguses, growing in rich dungy places or on rotten wood.

Esculent species: _Ag. comatus_ and _atramentarius_.

Subgenus 36. GOMPHUS.

No esculent species.

GENUS 2. CANTHARELLUS.[146]

_Bot. Char._ These are distinguished from Agarics, which at first sight they resemble, by having veins in place of gills; that is, by having the prolongations of the fibres of the pileus invested in an _undivided_, in place of a divided hymenium, as occurs in Agarics and in the genus _Boletus_. These veins are prominent, ramifying, seldom anastomosing; central, eccentric, or wanting; no investments; dust white.

Esculent species: _C. cibarius_.

[In the next three genera, _Merulius_, _Schizophyllum_, and _Dædalea_, there are no esculent species.]

GENUS 6. POLYPORUS.[147]

_Bot. Char._ _Hymenium_ concrete with the substance of the pileus, consisting of subrotund pores with thin simple dissepiments.

Esculent species: _P. frondosus_.

GENUS 7. BOLETUS.[148]

_Bot. Char_. The word _Boletus_, which has at different times, and under different mycologists, been made to represent in turn many very different funguses, is now restricted to such as have a soft flesh, vertical tubes underneath, round or angular, slightly connected together and with the substance of the pileus, open below, and lined by the sporiferous membrane; the cap horizontal, very fleshy, the stalk generally reticulated, some have an investment; the flesh of many changes colour.

They are all innocuous, according to Vittadini, which is not strictly the case, though many species hitherto reputed unwholesome, or worse, appear to lose their bad properties by drying. The kinds generally eaten are _B. edulis_ and _scaber_.

GENUS 8. FISTULINA.[149]

_Bot. Char._ _Hymenium_ formed of a distinct substance, but concrete with the fibres of the pileus; _tubes_ at first wart-like, somewhat remote, radiato-fimbriate, closed; at length approximated, elongated, open.

Esculent species: _F. hepatica_.

GENUS 9. HYDNUM.[150]

_Bot. Char._ In this genus the under surface presents a series of conical teeth or bristles of unequal length, solid, continuous with the flesh of the pileus and covered entirely by the sporiferous membrane. The species composing it have no investments; the _flesh_ is dry, frequently corky or coriaceous; the _pileus_ irregular in shape, and its margin arched and undulated. There are no dangerous species, but which to eat must depend upon the united consent of the stomach and of the teeth.

Esculent species: _H. repandum_.

[In the last five genera of this tribe, namely, _Sistotrema_, _Irpex_, _Radulum_, _Phlebia_, and _Thelephora_, there are no esculent species.]

TRIBE 2. _CLAVATI._[151]

_Hymenium_ above, smooth; _receptacle_ club-shaped or cylindrical, with no distinct margin; _substance_ fleshy.

GENUS 15. CLAVARIA.

_Bot. Char._ _Receptacle_ erect, homogeneous, smooth, not distinguishable from the stalk, simple or entirely covered by the hymenium.

All the species in this genus are good to eat.

[In the remaining six genera of this tribe there are no esculent species.]

TRIBE 3. _MITRATI._

_Receptacle_ bullate, pileiform, margined; _hymenium_ superior, never closed.

GENUS 22. MORCHELLA.

_Bot. Char._ _Receptacle_ hollow and confluent with stalk, club-shaped, or, like the pileus, fissured above with lacunæ more or less deep, limited by thick folds, anastomosed with reticulations, entirely covered with sporiferous membrane; _flesh_ waxy in texture; _stalk_ constant.

There are two esculent kinds, _M. esculenta_ and _semilibera_; the _esculenta_ and _hybrida_ of Sowerby.

GENUS 23. HELVELLA.

_Bot. Char._ _Substance_ fleshy; _margins_ sinuous; only the upper portion of the pileus sporiferous.

Esculent species: _H. crispa_, _lacunosa_, and _esculenta_.

[In Genera 24 to 26 there are no esculent species.]

TRIBE 4. _CUPULATI._

_Hymenium_ concrete, superior, smooth, shut in while young by the margins of the receptacle; _sporules_ disseminated with elasticity or otherwise; _receptacle_ bowl-shaped, flat or concave; some of this tribe when young have an involucrum.

GENUS 27. PEZIZA.

Series ALEURIA. Subgenus MEGALOPYXIS.

Esculent species: _P. acetabulum_.

[In Genera 28 to 45, which conclude the first great division, _Hymenomycetes_, there are no esculent species.]

DIVISION II. GASTEROMYCETES.

_Bot. Char._ The _receptacle_ a close cavity with or without a hymenium; _spores_ at last free and variously disseminated.

[In Genera 46 to 73 there are no esculent species.]

GENUS 74. BOVISTA.[152]

_Bot. Char._ _Peridium_ papyraceous, furnished with a distinct back, which at length peels off altogether, fertile within; _capillitium_ equal.

Esculent species: _B. plumbea_.

GENUS 75. LYCOPERDON.

_Bot. Char._ A sessile _peridium_, membranaceous; at first filled with a white, consistent, homogeneous substance, which after a time is converted into a dust of various hues, and is interspersed with copious filaments. The funguses of this genus are invested in two membranes; the innermost of which, or _peridium_, is tough and smooth on the outside, shaggy with floccose threads within. The external membrane, which is very fragile and tender, frequently falls off during the maturation of the seed, which then escapes through the peridium by an irregular orifice at the apex.

Esculent species: _L. plumbeum_ and _Bovista_.

DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES.

AGARICUS PRUNULUS, _Vitt._

PLATE I. FIG. 1.

Subgenus TRICHOLOMA, _Fries_. Subdivision PERSONATA, _ibid._

AGARICUS MOUCERON, _Bulliard_. _Cæsalpinus_, p. 617.

MOUCERON GRIS, _Paulet_, _Persoon_.

“Cogitatione ante pascuntur succineis novaculis aut argenteo apparatu comitante.”—_Pliny._

“Tout ce qui fait l’ornement des festins s’embaume du parfum de ces cryptogames.”—_Persoon._

_Bot. Char._ Gregarious, or growing in rings[153] on the ground; _pileus_ thick, convex, irregular in shape, more or less tuberculated, sometimes lobed;[154] margin not striate, wavy, expanding unequally; _epidermis_ cream-coloured, grey, reddish, or of a dirty nankeen hue, paler towards the circumference, soft to the touch like kid, minutely tomentose, fragile, dry, firmly attached to the flesh; flesh firm, compact; _gills_ watery, white, very numerous, irregular, with many smaller ones (from 5-11, _Vitt._) interposed, lying over each other like the plaits of a frill, adnato-emarginate,[155] the imperfect gills rounded off at their posterior end. _Stem_ white, robust, firm, solid, somewhat irregular in form, generally thickened at the base, constantly so in young specimens, but in older ones, though occasionally bulging, it presents not unfrequently an equal cylinder throughout, and sometimes tapers slightly downwards. The fibres are effused into the pileus, spreading out like a fan through its substance; _smell_ strong, _taste_ agreeable; _spores_ white, elliptical, adhering firmly to the body on which they fall. The dried plant retains much the same form it had when fresh.

On tracing this fungus to its origin, (spring is the only time, and the borders of the woodlands the proper place, to look for it,) if we dig up the earth where it grows, this will be found mouldy to a considerable depth beneath the surface, and strongly impregnated with the peculiar odour which the _Prunulus_ exhales; this apparent mouldiness being, in fact, the spawn, amidst the white filaments of which many minute Agarics, in various stages of their development, may be found; some, in the earliest, presenting merely white cones destitute of heads, whilst in others a slight protuberance indicates the future pileus forming or already formed. The pileus is at first almost spherical, and involute in its borders, the gills whitish, very minute, and so thickly set as to press one against the other, each communicating to the membrane that lines the next the impressions of its own fibres, which remain in the form of transverse striæ, and furnish a characteristic to this fungus retained during all its subsequent growth (_Vitt._). The greatest size which I have known the _Prunulus_ attain has been in England, where I have picked specimens measuring six inches across, and weighing between four and five ounces; as to the fecundity of this fungus, I collected this spring, from a single ring on the War-Mount at Keston (Kent), from ten to twelve pounds, and in the one field from twenty to twenty-five pounds. In this neighbourhood they are generally destroyed, as injurious to his grass-crops, by the over-careful farmer, quite ignorant, of course, of their value; to which the following extract from a letter of Professor Balbi to Persoon bears testimony:—“This rare and most delicious Agaric, the _Mouceron_ of Bulliard, and the _Ag. prunulus_ of other authors, abounds on the hills above the valley of Stafora, near Bobbio, where it is called Spinaroli, and is in great request; the country people eat it fresh in a variety of ways, or they dry and sell it for from twelve to sixteen francs a pound.” Vittadini says, truly enough, that the fresh is better than the dried _Prunulus_, the substance of the latter being rather coriaceous, but the gravy prepared from it in this state, being very rich and well-flavoured, is largely used by those who reject the body of the mushroom; three or four thrown into a pot of the lighter broths or of beef-tea render them more savoury. To dry the _Prunulus_ it is usual to cut it into four or more pieces, which are exposed for some days to a dry air and then threaded: it acquires an aroma by the process, and communicates this to any dish of which it is afterwards an ingredient.

It would be extremely difficult to confound this Agaric with any other; its mode of growth in circles, the extreme narrowness of its gills, which are moreover striate, the thickness of its pileus, and the bulging character of its stalk, would render a mistake almost impossible, even did it grow in autumn when other funguses abound, in place of appearing only in spring when few species comparatively abound.

The best mode of cooking the _Ag. prunulus_ is either in a mince or fricassee it with any sort of meat, or in a _vol-au-vent_, the flavour of which it greatly improves; or simply prepared with salt, pepper, and a small piece of bacon, lard, or butter, to prevent burning, it constitutes of itself a most excellent dish. It has the great advantage of appearing in spring, at a season the common mushroom never occurs. I have placed it first in the series of Plates, as being the most savoury fungus with which I am acquainted.[156]

When eaten alone, Sterbeck’s white mustard will be found an excellent condiment for it; this is prepared as follows:—Bruise in a mortar some sweet almonds with a little water, then add salt, pepper, and some lemon-juice, rub together till the whole is of the consistence of common mustard.

AGARICUS PROCERUS, _Scop._

PLATE II.

Subgenus LEPIOTA, _Fries_.

“Elle est d’une saveur très-agréable et d’une chair tendre, très-délicate et très-bonne à manger. Les amateurs la préfèrent même au champignon de couche, comme ayant une chair plus fine et étant beaucoup plus légère sur l’estomac.”—_Paulet._

This, which is one of the most delicate funguses, fortunately is not rare in England. In Italy it is in equal request with the _Amanita Cæsarea_; in France it is also in high esteem,—“servie sur toutes les tables, elle est bonne à toute sauce” (_Thore_); and were its excellent qualities better known here, they could not fail to secure it a general reception into our best kitchens, and a frequent place among our side-dishes at table. The beauty and remarkable appearance of this Agaric have procured for it a variety of names: _colubrinus_, from the snake-like markings on the stem; _clypeatus_, from its umbonated top; ‘_fungo parasole_,’ from the orbicular form of the wide-spread pileus; and _Gambaltiem_ or _Fonz de la gamba lunga_, from the extraordinary height of the stalk. Autumn is the time of its greatest abundance, but individual specimens occur occasionally throughout the summer.

It grows solitary or few together in hedgebanks and pasture-grounds.

The pileus, which is commonly from four to four and a half inches across, sometimes attains a width of six or seven. At first it is concealed in a volva, but breaking from this it goes through a variety of forms, from that of an ovoid cone to that of a flattened disk. It is umbonated at the centre, and covered with scales, which are formed by the breaking up of the mud-coloured epidermis, and are large, raised, and persistent at the centre; thin, regular, and lighter in hue at the circumference, “the whole surface resembling a delightfully soft, shaggy-brown leather” (_Purton_). The flesh of the pileus is white and cottony, that of the stalk fibrous and somewhat brittle, with a subrubescent tinge, the whole plant turning to a rufous-orange when bruised; the gills are of a pale flesh-colour, occasionally forked, ventricose, denticulate, remote from the stalk, and having a circular pit between it and their central extremities, which are fixed into a kind of collar. The stalk tawny, striped circularly with bands of white, formed by the breaking up of the epidermis; is bulbous at the base and attenuated upwards; its apex rounded, and penetrating deeply through the flesh of the pileus (which receives it as in a socket), gives rise to the central umbo on the upper surface of the cap. The ring moveable, like that of an umbrella-stick, broad, compact, membranaceous immediately round the stalk, and fibrous towards its free margin, is white above and tawny or of the same colour as the stalk on its under surface. The smell is like that of newly-ground meal; the taste is pleasant; the spores are white and elliptic.

The _Ag. excoriatus_ resembles the _Ag. procerus_ very closely, but is easily distinguished from it by its smaller size, the absence of the bulb at the base of the stalk, and the ring being often attached instead of free.

Being equally esculent, the following receipts will serve for both:—

“Comme il est très-léger et très-délicat, il faut le faire sauter dans l’huile fine après l’avoir assaisonné d’un point d’ail, de poivro et de sel; en quelques instants il est cuit. On le mange aussi en fricassée de poulet, cuit sur le gril ou dans la tourtière avec de beurre, de fines herbes, du poivre, du sel, et de la chapelure de pain; on ne mange point la tige, elle est d’une texture coriace” (_Roques_).

The ketchup from both kinds is better than that procured from the _Agaricus campestris_, or common mushroom.

N.B.—I have in the above notice described one variety of _Agaricus procerus_; there is, however, if not another, at least a remarkable modification of this, in which the pileus is thinner and much less shaggy, the gills less broad but similar in shape, the stalk more slender and elongate. This variety is also nearly void of odour, _and its flesh does not change colour on being bruised_: for culinary purposes this distinction is without importance, as both are equally good.

BOLETUS EDULIS, _Bulliard_.

PLATE III. FIGS. 1 AND 2.

Section CORTINARIA, _Fries_.

“Atto sovra ognun altro fungo al commercio, forma da questo lato, per non pochi paesi della Lombardia, una delle principali risorsi della povera gente.”—_Vitt._

The ancient Romans were well acquainted with this truly delicious fungus, and in general appear to have done it justice; the strings of dried Suillus, which his countrymen, on the testimony of Pliny, were in the habit of fetching from Bithynia, were in all likelihood the same as those similarly-prepared strings of the modern Porcino which are sold during the winter in every market-place throughout Italy.[157] Vittadini mentions a curious fact respecting them, viz. that though they are composed of many different Boletuses, no mischief was ever known to originate from their indiscriminate and very extensive consumption; whence he concludes that _all_ the species of this genus are innocuous, or, at least, that drying and cooking will extract any deleterious principles which they may have originally contained;—an inference, he thinks, supported by the daily use among the peasantry of certain districts of the _B. luridus_, which of all bad Boletuses commonly passes for the worst, and by his having experimented with it in large doses upon animals, who did not suffer in consequence. I have eaten in England a small quantity both of _B. Grevillei_ and of _B. granulatus_, which have much of the flavour of the _B. edulis_; of the _B. subtomentosus_(though, on the authority of Trattinick, it is eaten in Germany) I have no personal experience, nor do I recommend to the amateur any species beyond the two universally eaten and approved of on the Continent, viz.:—_B. edulis_ and _B. scaber_.

_B. edulis._—BOT. CHAR. _Pileus_ from six to seven inches across, pulvinate, smooth, with a thick margin, varying in colour from light brown or bronze, to bay, dark brown, or black, or a mixture of all these colours. The epidermis firmly adherent to the flesh, that firm, and except the part in immediate contact with the skin, which has a slight brown tint, white; the under surface of the cap nearly flat, often presenting a circular pit or depression round the stalk; _tubes_ at first white, then yellow, lastly of an olive or yellow-green tint, in the earlier stage of development (their free extremities then lie against the side of the stalk) closed; afterwards, as the cap expands, stopped up with a waxy-looking material of a dirty pearl colour. _Stem_ varying much in shape at different periods of the growth of the _Boletus_, always thick and solid; at first white, but soon changing to fawn colour, beautifully meshed or mapped (especially on its upper portion) with reticulations characteristic of this species. As the period for casting its seed advances, the inferior surface of the cap swells out, the waxy matter is absorbed, the tubes present deep and rounded orifices to the eye, and presently emit an abundant seminal dust, of an ochraceous green hue (sometimes difficult to collect, from the quantity of moisture exhaled with it), after which both cap and stalk become flaccid, the tubes turn to a dirty green, and the whole fungus falls rapidly into a state of decomposition. The favourite sites for this _Boletus_ are woods, especially those of pines, oaks, and chestnuts; it abounds in autumn, but occurs in spring and occasionally in summer. There is one variety, the _pinicola_, whose name gives its whereabouts, which differs from the foregoing, in having a moist, somewhat sticky cap, a watery flesh changing near the tubes to a light yellow-green when bruised; the reticulations are ill-marked in this species.

The _Boletus edulis_ cannot be mistaken for any other _Boletus_ because it alone presents all the following characters united, viz. a cap of which the surface is smooth; tubes the colour of which varies with each period of its growth, beautiful and singular reticulations of the stalk, especially towards the upper portion, and a flesh which is white and unchanging.

The _Boletus castaneus_, which bears, some little general resemblance to it, is at once distinguished by having a cottony fibrillose stem without reticulations, a downy cap and dirty yellow dust: neither can it be confounded with the _B. subtomentosus_ nor _B. luridus_, because in addition to many other points of difference, both these change colour on being cut or bruised.

As to the best manner of cooking _B. edulis_, this must be left to the taste of the gourmet; in every way it is good. Its tender and juicy flesh, its delicate and sapid flavour, render it equally acceptable to the plain and to the accomplished cook. It imparts a relish alike to the homely hash and the dainty ragout, and may be truly said to improve every dish of which it is a constituent. “Nihil tetigit quod non ornavit.” “Though much neglected in this country, it appears to be a most valuable article of food. It resembles much in taste the common mushroom, and is quite as delicate; it abounds in seasons when these are not to be found.” (_Berkeley._)

_Modes of Cooking Boletus edulis._ (PERSOON.)

It may be cooked in white sauce, with or without chicken, in fricassee broiled or baked with butter, salad oil, pepper, salt, chopped herbs, and bread-crumbs; to which some add ham or a mince of anchovy. It makes excellent fritters: some roast it with onions (basting with butter), but as these take longer to cook than the _Boletus_, this must not be put down till the onions have begun to soften.

_Boletus edulis Soup, made in Hungary._ (PAULET.)

Having dried some _Boletuses_ in an oven, soak them in tepid water, thickening with toasted bread, till the whole be of the consistence of a _purée_, then rub through a sieve, throw in some stewed _Boletuses_, boil together, and serve with the usual condiments.

AGARICUS CAMPESTRIS.

Section PRATELLA. Subdivision PSALIOTA, _Fries_.

AGARICUS CAMPESTRIS, _Linn_.

“Où croît ce champignon, délice des festins, Que l’art fait chaque jour naître dans nos jardins.”—_Castel._

There is scarcely any one in England who does not feel himself competent to decide on the genuineness of a mushroom: its pink gills are carefully separated from those of a kindred fungus _Ag. Georgii_, which are of a flesh-coloured grey, and out of the pickings of ten thousand hands, a mistake is of rare occurrence; and yet no fungus presents itself under such a variety of forms, of such singular diversities of aspect! the inference is plain; less discrimination than that employed to distinguish this, would enable any who should take the trouble, to recognize at a glance many of those esculent species, which every spring and autumn fill our plantations and pastures with plenteousness. Neither is this left to be a mere matter of inference; it is corroborated in a singular manner by what takes place at Rome; here, whilst many hundred baskets of what we call toadstools are carried home for the table, almost the only one condemned to be thrown into the Tiber, by the inspector of the fungus market is our own mushroom:[158] indeed, in such dread is this held in the Papal States, that no one knowingly would touch it. “It is reckoned one of their fiercest imprecations,” writes Professor Sanguinetti, “amongst our lower orders, infamous for the horrible nature of their oaths, to pray that any one may die of a _Pratiolo_;” and although it has been some years registered among the esculent funguses of Milan and Pavia (on the authority of Vittadini), it has not yet found its way into those markets. Besides the general botanical characters which apply to all varieties of _Ag. campestris_, almost every writer has felt the necessity of pointing out several peculiarities, belonging to each. Common to all are a fleshy pileus, which is sometimes smooth, sometimes scaly, in colour white, or of different shades of tawny, fuliginous, or brown; gills free, at first pallid, then flesh-coloured, then pink, next purple, at length tawny-black; the stem white, full, firm, varying in shape, furnished with a white persistent ring; the spores brown-black, and a volva which is very fugacious.

_Var._ A. _edulis_.