“Fungus pauperibus esculentus.”—Schœff.
“Fungus pauperibus esculentus.”—Schœff.
This fungus, which, in the earlier stages of its development, frequently resembles very closely a tongue in shape, structure, and general appearance, presents later a dark, amorphous, grumous-looking mass, bearing a still more striking likeness to liver. Thus, seen while young, and just beginning to bud out from the oak,[181]its papillated surface, regular shape, and clear fibrous flesh make it an object of interest to many who, introduced to it at an advanced period of growth, can hardly be brought to believe that the blackened misshapen mass, that looks like liver, and that deeply stains the fingers with an unsightly red fluid, can indeed be the same plant. It has, from the earliest-recorded accounts, been designated by names pointing to these resemblances: Cesalpinus calls itLinguæ; Wallemb,Buglossus quercinus; the vulgar name in Italy is “Lingua quercina,” or “Lingua di castagna.” It constitutes a genus by itself.
Bot. Char.Pileusconfluent with the stalk: at first studded on the upper side with minute papillæ (the rudiments of tubes), which afterwards disappear; flesh succulent, fibrous, like beetroot in appearance, with a vinous smell and a slight acid taste;tubescontinuous with the fibres of the receptacle, unequal, very short, small, cylindrical, ochraceous-rufescent; at first with closed pores, but as they elongate they become patent; colour at first a dry dusky white, afterwards a yellowish-red; the whole surface more or less sticky, with a gelatinous secretion exuding from it;sporidiaochraceous-green, and matured at different times from the unequal length of the tubes. This fungus varies in size from that of a small kidney to an irregular mass of many pounds’ weight, and of several feet in circumference. I recently picked a specimen which measured nearly five feet round, and weighed upwards of eight pounds; but this is nothing to one found by Mr. Graves, which, on the authority of Mr. Berkeley, weighed nearly thirty pounds.
TheFistulina hepatica, which Schœffer calls the Poor Man’s fungus, “fungus pauperibus esculentus,” deserves indeed the epithet if we look to its abundance, which makes it an acquisition to the labouring class wherever it is known; but that it is in any other sense fitted for the poor, or to be eaten by those only who can purchase no other food, is what I cannot subscribe to. No fungus yields a richer gravy, and though rather tough, when grilled it is scarcely to be distinguished from broiled meat. The best way to dress it if old, is to stew it down for stock, and reject the flesh, but if young, it may be eaten in substance, plain, or with minced meat; in all cases its succulency is such that it furnishes its own sauce, which a friend of ours, well versed in the science of the table, declares each time he eats it to be “undeniably good.”
In England theF. hepaticagrows principally on old oak-trees, and may be found throughout the summer in great abundance.
Plate XI. Figs. 1 and 2.
SectionMouceron,Fries.
“Senza dubbio uno de’ migliori funghi indigeni.”—Vitt.“Esculentus!”—Ibid.
“Senza dubbio uno de’ migliori funghi indigeni.”—Vitt.
“Esculentus!”—Ibid.
This is a very delicate mushroom; it grows either solitary or in company, and sometimes in rings, succeeding occasionally a crop ofAg. oreadesandAg. prunuluswhich had recently occupied the same site. Its general appearance, once recognized, is such as to render the mistaking it for any other species afterwards unlikely, whilst the least attention to its botanical characters makes it impossible to do so. Its irregular lobed pileus with smooth undulated borders, its decurrent gills, and short solid stem are so many particulars in which at first it might seem to resemble in outline theCanth. cib., with which it has, however, nothing else in common. It bears a nearer general resemblance to several of the sectionLactifluusof Persoon, but the exudation, or not, of milk would be conclusive in any doubtful case, to say nothing of its peculiar smell of cucumber rind, or syringa leaf,[183]in which respect it resembles no other fungus. The surface is as soft and smooth to the touch as kid, except in wet weather, whenit becomes more or less sticky; the size, which does not admit of much variation, is from two to three inches across; whilst young the borders are rolled inwards towards the gills, the stalk is in the centre, and somewhat enlarged at the base; but as the fungus grows the borders unroll themselves, one side grows more rapidly than the other, the stalk becomes, in consequence, eccentric, and this eccentricity is often rendered greater by a lateral twist towards the base. The gills, which at first are white, assume later a pale salmon hue; Berkeley adds that “they are more or less forked, covered with very minute conical papillæ ending in four spiculæ;” those that are entire taper away posteriorly and terminate on the stalk, but the imperfect ones are rounded off midway; the spores are elliptic, and of the colour of brown-holland.[184]
This mushroom is found occasionally, throughout the summer, but autumn is the season to look for it, amidst the grass of woods and pastures, where it abounds. It should be eaten the day it is gathered, either stewed, broiled, or fried with egg and bread-crumbs, like cutlets. When dried, it loses much of its volume and acquires “a very sweet smell,”—“un’ aroma suavissimo” (Vitt.).
TribeMitrati,Fries.
“Può essere con vantaggio raccolta ed agli stessi usi delle spugniole destinata.”—Vitt.
“Può essere con vantaggio raccolta ed agli stessi usi delle spugniole destinata.”—Vitt.
AllHelvellæare esculent, have an agreeable odour, and beara general resemblance in flavour to theMorell. TheHelvella crispa, or pallid Helvella of Scopoli and Fries, is, it seems, “not uncommon,”[185]and theHelvella lacunosa, or cinereous Helvella of Afzel (on each of whose heads respectively Sowerby and Schœffer place aninappropriatemitre), are both indigenous. They are thus succinctly but excellently described by Mr. Berkeley.
Bot. Char.Pileuswhitish, flesh-coloured or yellowish, deflexed, lobed, free, crisped, pallid;stemfistulose, costato-lacunose, 3-5 inches high, snowy-white, deeply lacunose and ribbed, theribshollow.
Bot. Char.Pileusinflated, lobed, cinereous,[186]lobes deflexed, adnate, stem fistulose, costato-lacunose;stemwhite or dusky.
ThisHelvellais not so common as the last, neither is it so sapid. They both grow in woods and on the stumps of old trees. Bendiscioli places them, for flavour, before theMorell, but this is not the general opinion entertained of them.
Plate XII. Figs. 3, 4, and 5.
Bot. Char.Pileusinflated, irregular, undulated, gyroso-rugose, of a rich dark-brown colour, margin united with thestem;stemwhite or dusky. In plantations of fir and chestnut adjoining Weybridge Heath, in Surrey. It has not yet been found elsewhere in Britain.
TribeCupulati.
These funguses are very similar in their properties to theHelvellæ; that is, are not to be despised when one cannot get better, nor to be eaten when one can. “TheVerpa,” says Vittadini, “though sold in the market, is only to be recommended when no other esculent fungus offers, which is sometimes the case in spring.” ThePeziza acetabulumis utterly insipid, and depends entirely for flavour upon the sauce in which it is served. As they are rare in England, I shall merely give the botanical character of each.
Pileuscampanulate, three-quarters of an inch high, more or less closely pressed to the stem, but always free, wrinkled, but not reticulated, under side slightly pubescent,sporidiayellowish, elliptic,stemthree inches high, half an inch thick, equal or slightly attenuated downwards, loosely stuffed, by no means hollow, transversely squamulose.[187]Season, spring.
Bot. Char.Deeply cup-shaped, two inches broad, one and a half deep, externally floccose, light-umber, darker within, mouth puckered, tough;stemhalf to one inch high, smooth, deeply but irregularly costato-lacunose, ribs solid “branching at the top and forming reticulations on the outside of the cup, so as to present the appearance of a cluster of pillars supporting a font or roof, with fret-work between them” (Berkeley). Season, spring.
Plate IV. Fig. 1.
There are many species ofPolyporuseaten on the Continent; among the more common kinds to be mentioned areP. frondosusandP. tuberaster, Persoon,P. corylinus, Mauri,P. subsquamosus, Pers.,P. giganteus, ibid.,P. fomentarius, ibid., which last is the Amadou, or German tinder fungus. Two of these are local; theP. tuberaster, which occurs principally in the kingdom of Naples, and theP. corylinusor that of the cob-nut tree, which (though it might perhaps be cultivated elsewhere) is at present restricted to Rome; both these are excellent for food.
As to thePolyporus squamosus, which is as common in England as abroad, in substance it cannot be masticated, and its expressed juice is exceedingly disagreeable; I should not think theP. fomentarius, to judge from its texture, promised much better; norP. giganteus, of which the flesh is sometimes so tough as to creak under the knife.
The trueP. frondosusis probably rare in England, that which I have met with and have had cooked, without being able to say much in its favour, is theP. intybaceusof Fries, which Mr. Berkeley says is distinguished from the other by having larger pores. Vittadini has not included it among the esculent funguses in his work; Persoon does not recommend it for weak stomachs on account of its toughness.[188]Paulet, indeed, is of a different opinion, telling us that in place of its being heavy for the stomach,hewill feel all the lighter who sups upon it. The people in the Vosges seem to have an equal affection for it with this writer, giving it the somewhat whimsical, though really most graphicsobriquetsof the Hen-of-the-Woods and the Breeding Hen (Mougeot). Professor Sanguinetti informs me that it sells for six or seven baiocchi in the Roman market, the finer specimens being sent as surprise presents, “per meraviglia,” from poor tenants to hard landlords.
Bot. Char.“Pileivery numerous, dimidiate, condensed into a convex tuft from half a foot to a foot broad, imbricated, variously confluent, irregular, at first downy, dusky, then smooth, livid grey; disk depressed, dilated above, from half to one inch broad, convex, the base confluent with the compound stem” (Fries).
Plate V. Fig. 3.
SubgenusOchrosporea,Fries.
“Esculenta deliciosa.”—Vitt.
“Esculenta deliciosa.”—Vitt.
All the funguses of this genus being esculent, enter more or less largely into the supplies of the Italian markets. Roques describes seven species; Persoon five; Vittadini gives a detailed account and drawings of three, selecting those principally for the superiority of their flavour over the rest, and because of their greater abundance in the Milanese district. Mr. Berkeley, in a list with which he has favoured me, enumerates four British species as esculent,C. coralloides,C. grisea,C. cristata, andC. rugosa; as, however, he has no personal experience of any of these as articles of food, I shall merely give the botanical character of theC. coralloides, the most abundant of all the species (for the excellent qualities of which I can myself vouch), furnishing the reader with one or two drawings of other sorts, in further illustration of this elegant genus.
Bot. Char.Pileuserect, white;stemrather thick, branches unequal, elongated, mostly acute, pure white, sometimes violet at the base.
Having thoroughly cleansed away the earth, which is apt to adhere to them, they are to be sweated with a little butter, over a slow fire, afterwards to be strained, then (throwing away the liquor) to be replaced to stew for an hour, with salt,pepper, chopped chives and parsley, moistening with plain stock, and dredging with flour occasionally. When sufficiently cooked, to be thickened with yolks of eggs and cream.
Proceed as before; after sweating theClavarias, wrap them in bacon and stew in a little broth seasoned with salt, pepper, parsley, and ham; cook for an hour, then serve in white sauce, or with africasséeof chicken.
N.B.—The saucepan should be covered with a sheet of paper under the lid, which keeps theClavariaswhite and also preserves their flavour.
There can be little doubt that our woods, properly explored, would be found to abound in funguses hitherto considered rare, and this would probably be one of them. At present the weald of Kent, within forty miles of London, remains, so far as Mycology is concerned, nearly as unexplored as the interior of Africa.
Plate V.fig. 2, representsClavaria amethystina, Bull. Plate V. fig. 5, representsC. cinerea, Bull. Plate V., fig. 6, representsC. rugosa, Bull.
Puff-balls.
SubdivisionGasteromycetes,Fries.
Tribe 3.Trichospermi.
Family 1.Trichogastres.Genus 1.Lycoperdon,Tournef.
“Il Licoperdo piombino è uno dei funghi mangiativi più delicati che si conoscano. Il suo uso è pressochè generale.”—Vitt.
“Il Licoperdo piombino è uno dei funghi mangiativi più delicati che si conoscano. Il suo uso è pressochè generale.”—Vitt.
All these more or less spherical white funguses furnishedwith a membranaceous covering, and filled when young with a white, compact, homogeneous pulp, which we call Puff-balls, are good to eat; those in most request for the table abroad, and the best, have no stem,i. e.no sterile base, but are prolific throughout their whole substance. One of the most common of these is theLycoperdon plumbeum, of which the following excellent description is chiefly taken from Vittadini.
Bot. Char.Body globose; when full-grown about the size of a walnut, invested with two[189]tunics, the outer one white, loosely membranaceous and fragile, sometimes smooth, at others furfuraceous; the innermost one (peridium) very tenacious, smooth, of a grey-lead colour externally, internally more or less shaggy with very fine hairs; these hairs occupy the whole cavity, and in the midst of them a prodigious number of minute granular bodies, the sporules (each of which is furnished with a long caudiform process), lie entangled. The whole plant, carefully removed from the earth, with its root still adhering, is in form not unlike one of its own seeds vastly magnified.
TheL. plumbeumabounds in dry places, and is to be found in spring, summer, and autumn, solitary or in groups. “This,” says Vittadini, “is one of our commonest Puff-balls, and after the warm rains of summer and of autumn, myriads of these little plants suddenly springing up will often completely cover a piece of ground as if they had been sown like grain, for a crop; if we dig them up we shall find that they are connected with long fragile threads, extending horizontally underground and giving attachment to numerous smaller Puff-balls in differentstages of development, which, by continuing to grow, afford fresh supplies as the old ones die off.”
SubdivisionGasteromycetes,Fries.
Tribe 3.Trichospermi.Family 1.Trichogastres.
“Vescie buone da friggere” (Tuscan vernacular name).“La sua carne candida compatta si presta facilemente a tutte le speculazioni del cuoco.”—Vitt.
“Vescie buone da friggere” (Tuscan vernacular name).
“La sua carne candida compatta si presta facilemente a tutte le speculazioni del cuoco.”—Vitt.
This differs from the last-mentioned Puff-ball in many particulars; in the first place it is much larger (sometimes attaining to vast dimensions), its shape is different, being that of an inverted cone; never globular, the flesh also is more compact, while the membrane which holds what is first the pulp and afterwards the seed, is very thin and tender; the seed, moreover, has no caudal appendage; and finally, a considerable portion of the base is sterile, in all which additional particulars it is unlike theLycoperdon plumbeum. The plant is sessile, a purple-black fragile membrane contains the spores, which are also sessile,[190]and of the same colour as the peridium.
No fungus requires to be eaten so soon after gathering as this; a few hours will destroy the compactness of the flesh and change its colour from delicate-white to dirty-yellow;[191]but when perfectly fresh and properly prepared, it yields to no other in digestibility. It may be dressed in many ways, but the best method is to cut it into slices and fry these in egg and bread-crumbs; so prepared, it has the flavour of a rich, light omelette.[192]
Plate IX. Fig. 3.
Subgenus 3.Amillaria.
This is a nauseous, disagreeable fungus, however cooked, and merely finds mention here, as its omission in a work on the esculent funguses of England might seem strange to those unacquainted with its demerits; it is really extraordinary how some Continental writers, speaking from their own experience, should ever have recommended it for the table. Pliny’s generalapageagainst all funguses really finds an application to this, which is so repugnant to our notions of the savoury, that few would make a second attempt, or get dangerously far in a first dish. Not to be poisonous is its only recommendation; for as to the inviting epithetmelleus, or honeyed, by which it is designated, this alludes only to the colour, and by no means to the taste, which is both harsh and styptic.
Bot. Char.In tufts, near or upon stumps of trees, or posts. Pileus dirty-yellow, more or less hairy;stemfibrous, varying greatly in length, from one inch to nine or ten; enlarged above and below, thinner in the middle;ringthick, spreading,rough or leathery;gillssomewhat decurrent, deeper than the pileus;sporeswhite, appearing like fine dust on the gills.
SubgenusPleuropus. SubdivisionÆgeritaria.
“Fungo mangiativo sommamente ricercato e di ottima qualità.”—Vitt.
“Fungo mangiativo sommamente ricercato e di ottima qualità.”—Vitt.
Bot. Char.Solitary or connected to others by a common root; thepileuspresenting a dirty-white surface, turning afterwards to a pale rust-colour, and sometimes tessellated; varying like all parasitical funguses in shape, but generally more or less orbicular; flesh continuous with the stalk, white, compact;stalkvery thick, solid, elastic, smooth towards the summit, tomentose at the base;gillsof a yellowish tint, broad, thick, ventricose, emarginate,i. e.terminating upon the surface of the stem in a receding angle; the imperfect gills few;tasteandsmellagreeable;sporeswhite.
This Agaric which takes its name from the tree where it is most commonly found, grows also, though less frequently, on the Poplar and Beech. Mr. Berkeley reports it rare; perhaps, however, as it is eminently local, it may here, as in Italy, be common in some places though of unfrequent general occurrence. No country being so rich in Elm-trees as our own, we should probably findA. ulmariusmore often if the height at which it grows among the branches did not frequently screen it from observation.[193]Though registered in the Flora of Tunbridge Wells, I have not met with a single specimen of it this autumn.
This Agaric dries well and may be kept (not, however, without losing some of its aroma) for a long time without spoiling; the gills, after a time, assume the same hue as the pileus.
SubgenusClytocybe. SubdivisionChondropodes.
“Il a le même goût quo le Champignon de Couche, quoique un peu plus prononcé.”—Persoon.
“Il a le même goût quo le Champignon de Couche, quoique un peu plus prononcé.”—Persoon.
Bot. Char.Gregarious;pileusfleshy, loose, of a uniform brown colour, sometimes marked with dark blotches, as if burnt;gillsnearly free, serrated, at first dirty-white, afterwards a clear bistre; easily separable from the stalk;stalkhollow, ventricose, sulcate, rooting, spindle-shaped, slightly grooved, tapering at the base, sometimes cracked transversely, varying singularly both in length and breadth.
This excellent fungus is very abundant throughout summer and autumn, coming up in tufts at the roots of old Oak-trees after rain. It may be easily recognized by its peculiar spindle-shaped stalk.
Vittadini does not mention it, nor does its name occur in the list of esculent funguses in the Diz. di Med. Class.; notwithstanding which the young plants make an excellent pickle; while the full-grown ones may be stewed or dressed in any of the usual modes adopted for the common mushroom.
Series 1.Leucosporus.Subgenus 1.Amanita.
“La Coucoumèle grise (Ag. vag.) est une des espèces les plus délicates et les plus sûres à manger.”—De Candolle.
“La Coucoumèle grise (Ag. vag.) est une des espèces les plus délicates et les plus sûres à manger.”—De Candolle.
Bot. Char. “Margin of the pileus sulcate, gills white, stuffed with cottony pith, fistulose, attenuated upwards, almost smooth; volva like a sheath. Woods and pastures, August and October; not uncommon.Pileusfour inches or more broad, plane, slightly depressed in the centre, scarcely umbonate, fleshy, but not at the extreme margin, which is elegantly grooved in consequence, viscid when moist, beautifully glossy when dry; epidermis easily detached, more or less studded with brown scales, the remnants of the volva, not persistent;gillsfree, ventricose, broadest in front, often imbricated, white;sporuleswhite, round;stemsix inches or more high, from half to an inch thick, attenuated upwards, obtuse at the base, furnished with a volva, this adnate below to the extent of an inch, with the base of the stem, closely surrounding it above as in a sheath, but with the margin sometimes expanded; within and at the base marked with the groovings of the pileus, brittle, sericeo-squamulose, scarcely fibrillose, but splitting with ease longitudinally, hollow, or rather stuffed with fine cottony fibres; the very base solid, not acrid, insipid.Smellscarcely any. It occurs of various colours, the more general one is a mouse-grey” (Berkeley).
The perfect accuracy of the above description will strike every one familiar with this species. Vittadini speaks of it as a solitary fungus, but I have found it on more than one occasion in rings. Its flesh, being very delicate and tender, must not be over-dressed. When properly fried in butter or oil,and as soon after gathering as possible, theAg. vaginatuswill be found inferior to but few Agarics in its flavour.
Subgenus 18.Inoloma.
Bot. Char.Pileusfrom four to six inches broad, obtuse, expanded, covered with soft hairs, colour deep violet;stemspongy, grey, tinged with violet, minutely downy, about four inches high;veilfugacious, composed of fine threads;gillsdeep violet when young, but turning tawny in age;fleshthick, juicy.
This is a handsome fungus, not very common, but plentiful where it occurs; it grows in woods, particularly under Pine and Fir trees, and may be dressed either with a white or a brown sauce.
Subgenus 19.Dermocybe.
Bot. Char.Pileusslightly fleshy, convex when young, at length umbonate, chestnut colour, from one to three inches broad, glabrous;gillsrather broad, easily detached from the stem, ventricose, changing from light-purple to a ferruginous hue;stemrather thin, from one and a half to three inches long, hollow, silvery, light-lilac or white;veildelicate, composed of floccose threads; intaste, when raw, it somewhat resembles theAg. oreades, but it has no smell.
ThisAgaricmay be distinguished from others by its chestnut or bistre colour; it is probably not uncommon; growing all the summer and autumn in woods, and under trees inmeadows. Mr. Berkeley reports it esculent; I have no experience of it.
Subgenus 7.Galorrheus.
“Ed è veramente commestibile e saporoso quando se ne levi il latte.”—Bendiscioli.
“Ed è veramente commestibile e saporoso quando se ne levi il latte.”—Bendiscioli.
Bot. Char.“Pileusinfundibuliform, rigid, smooth, white; gills very narrow, close; milk, and the solid blunt stem, white. In woods, July and August.Pileus3-7 inches broad, slightly rugulose, quite smooth, white, a little clouded with umber, or stained with yellow where scratched or bruised, convex, more or less depressed, often quite infundibuliform, more or less waved, fleshy, thick, firm but brittle; margin involute at first, sometimes excentric, milk-white, hot.Gillsgenerally very narrow (1/20 of an inch broad), but sometimes much broader, cream-colour, repeatedly dichotomous, very close, ‘like the teeth of an ivory comb,’ decurrent from the shape of the pileus, when bruised changing to umber.Stem1-3 inches high, 1½-2 inches thick, often compressed, minutely pruinose, solid, but spongy within, the substance breaking up into transverse cavities.”[194]
Though very acrid when raw, it loses its bad qualities entirely by cooking, and is extensively used on the Continent, prepared in various ways. It is preserved for winter use by drying or pickling in a mixture of salt and vinegar (Berkeley).
I have frequently eaten this fungus at Lucca, where it is very abundant, but as it resembles theAg. vellereusin appearance, with the properties of which we are unacquainted, too much caution cannot be exercised in learning to discriminate it from this and neighbouring species.
Subgenus 8.Clitocybe.SubdivisionCamarophylli.
White Field-Agaric.
Bot. Char.Pileusfrom one to two inches broad, margin involute when young, then expanded, depressed in the centre.Gillsdeep, connected with veins, sometimes forked, broadly adnate, but breaking away from the stem as the pileus becomes depressed.Stemsix lines broad at the top, tapering downwards, not more than two at the base; at first stuffed with fibres, then hollow, excentric; the whole plant white, with occasionally a tinge of pink.Tastepleasant, odour disagreeable.
These graceful little Agarics grow in pastures, and are extremely common in the autumn. They are so small that it requires a great many of them to make a dish, but as they occur frequently in the same fields with puff-balls, and may be dressed in the same manner, it is not unusual when the supply is scarce to serve them together, with the same sauce. The flavour ofAg. virgineusis not unlike that ofAg. oreades.
Plate VIII. Fig. 2.
Peridium warty, of a blackish-brown colour, the warts polygonal and striate, flesh traversed by numerous veins; asci 4-6-spored; spores elliptical, reticulated.
This plant, the common truffle of our markets, is abundant in Wiltshire and some other parts of England, and probably occurs in many places where it escapes observation, from its subterranean habit.
Italy is not the country for the English florist; he will find twenty times as many petals at home. Trim parterres are not inventions of the South; summer-houses would be no luxuries in a climate that never knows winter; the only Conservatories that flourish there are not for flowers, but for music. In few northern regions is Flora worse off for a bouquet than at Rome or Naples; regarded merely as the herald of Spring and not appreciated for her own sake, as soon as she has waved her wand over the land and covered it with the March blossoms of Crocuses, Cyclamens, and Anemones, her reign is over. All scents are held in equal abhorrence save those of frankincense and garlic, for which there seems to be a prescriptive toleration; but every other odour, fetid or fragrant, musk[195]or mignonette, is equally proscribed; and an Italian Signora would as soon permit a Locusta to cook for her, as a violet to scent her boudoir. To pick wild flowers is as dangerous as it is difficult to find cultivated ones; acoup de soleilor a fever is easily procured by imprudent exposure before sunset, while the interval betweenthat and night is too brief to be employed for the purpose; but when the season for flowers is long past, and Autumn with her fruits is come round again, when the stranger can wander forth where he lists without an umbrella, he will be able to luxuriate amidst the lovely scenery, and to delight himself in the natural history of the district: the season of the periodical rains has ceased; the repose of the forest is no longer troubled by the Power of the waters; the mountain Pines borne for miles down into the valleys are stranded on the broad shingly bed of the exhausted torrent; broken bridges are safely repaired; the maize is receiving the last mellowing touches as it festoons the cottage fronts, the prickly chestnut-pods are beginning to gape and the brown chestnuts to leap out shining from their envelopes; the last reluctant olive has been beaten from the bough; the vintage has nearly ceased to bleed; night fires[196]already begin to nicker on the mountains, and the hemp stubble is daily crackling on the plain. This is indeed the time for enjoying Italy; nature has revived again, and with nature, man. The feverish torpor, I had almost ventured to call it the summer hybernation, has ceased with September, and Autumn has come round with the vivifying influence of a new Spring; then if we go abroad to wander, whether our walk be across plains or through upland woods, we shall not stroll a mile without stopping a hundred times to admire what is to many of us a nearly new class of objects which have sprung up suddenly and now beset our path on every side. These are the Fungus tribe, which are as beautiful as the fairest flowers, and more useful thanmost fruits; and now that butchers’ meat is bad, that the beans have become stringy, and the potatoes are hydrated by the rain, they appear thus opportunely to eke out the scantiness of autumnal larders in the South and give a fresh zest to the daily repast. Well may their sudden apparition surprise us, for not ten days since the waters were all out, and only three or four nights back peals of thunder rattled against the casements and kept the most determined sleepers in awful vigil; and now—behold the meadows by natural magic studded with countless fairy-rings of every diameter, formed of such species as grow upon the ground, while the Chestnut and the Oak are teeming with a new class of fruits that had no previous blossoming, many of which have already attained their full growth. We recollect with gratitude the objects of a pursuit, which has accidentally brought us to such an acquaintance with the diversities of Italian scenery as we never should have experienced without it. In fishing, it is not the fish we catch, which alone repays us for our toil; it is the wandering as the rivulet wanders, “at its own sweet will,” the exercise and the appetite consequent upon it, the prize in natural history, the reciting aloud, or reflecting as we walk, and when it is pleasantly warm the “molles sub arbore somni,” which console us for the lack of sport. On the same principle, mushroom-hunting may be recommended to the young naturalist not only for the beauty of the objects which he is sure to come upon (if he do but hunt at the right season), but also because in that most beautiful of months, whether at home or abroad, it brings the wanderer out of beaten paths to fall in with many striking views which he would not otherwise have explored. The extremely limited time during which funguses are to be found, their fragility, their infinite diversity, their ephemeral existence, these, too, add to theinterest of an autumnal walk in quest of them. At Lucca, leaving idleness and indigestion in bed, just as the sun was beginning to shoot his first rays on the white convents and the spires of the village churches on the mountains, making morning above, while the deep valley beneath was still in twilight, it was pleasant to pass the little opening coffee-house with its two or three candidates for early breakfast, and crossing the noiseless trout-stream over the little bridge, to enter one of those old chestnut-forests and begin clambering up the laddery pathway, to reach the summit just as he poured his full effulgence on the magnificent rival of the Lucchese and Modenese territories. Pleasant, too, was it on the road Romeward, pausing a few days to enjoy the exquisite scenery about Spoleto, to climb the steep streets to the cathedral, and thence, passing the giddy viaduct several hundred feet above the white ravine which it traverses, to issue upon those Nursian Hills then fragrant with the breath of morning, “le beau matin qui sort humide et pâle,” and with the scent of sweet herbs; but above all other hills renowned for the fragrance of those ever-reproductive mines of coal-black subterranean truffles! It is a pleasant remembrance to have plucked the crimson Amanite, that ministered to a Cæsar’s decease, in the very neighbourhood of the Palatine Hill; to have collected mushrooms amidst the meadows of Horace’s farm, where he tells us they grew best; and to have watched along the moist pastures of the Cremera a stand of the statelyAg. procerusnodding upon their stalks; or, standing on the heights above Sorrento, just as the setting sun flashed upon the waters of the bay ere they engulfed him, and left us to his sister the evening star, to have come upon that wonderfulPolyporus tuberasterwhose matrix is the hard stone, from which it derives strength and luxuriance as if from a soft and genial soil.
But not only in Italy, in our own country also, the Collector in Mycology will have to traverse much beautiful and diversified scenery; amid woods, greenswards, winding lanes, rich meadows, healthy commons, open downs, the nodding hop-grove and the mountain sheep-path; and all shone upon by an autumnal sunset,—as compared with Southern climes “obscurely bright,” and unpreceded by that beautiful rosy tint which bathes the whole landscape in Italy, but with a far finer background of clouds to reflect its departed glories: and throughout all this range of scenery he will never hunt in vain; indulgent gamekeepers, made aware of what he is poaching, may warn him that he is not collecting mushrooms, but will never warn him off from the best-kept preserves. In such rambles he will see, what I have this autumn (1847) myself witnessed, wholehundredweights of rich wholesome diet rotting under the trees; woods teeming with food and not one hand to gather it; and this, perhaps, in the midst of potato blight, poverty and all manner of privations, and public prayers against imminent famine. I have indeed grieved, when I reflected on the straitened condition of the lower orders this year, to see pounds innumerable of extempore beef-steaks growing on our oaks in the shape ofFistulina hepatica;Ag. fusipesto pickle, in clusters under them; Puff-balls, which some of our friends have not inaptly compared to sweet-bread for the rich delicacy of their unassisted flavour;Hydnaas good as oysters, which they somewhat resemble in taste;Agaricus deliciosus, reminding us of tender lamb-kidneys; the beautiful yellow Chantarelle, thatkalon kagathonof diet, growing by the bushel, and no basket but our own to pick up a few specimens in our way; the sweet nutty-flavouredBoletus, in vain calling himselfeduliswhere there was none to believe him; the daintyOrcella; theAg. heterophyllus,which tastes like the craw-fish when grilled; theAg. ruberandAg. virescens, to cook in any way, and equally good in all;—these were among the most conspicuous of thetrouvailles. But that the reader may know all he is likely to find in one single autumn, let him glance at the catalogue below.[197]He may at first alarm his friends’ cooks, but their fears will, I promise him, soon be appeased, after one or two trials of this new class of viands, and he will not long pass either for a conjuror or something worse, in giving directions to stewtoadstools. As soon as he is initiated in this class of dainties, he will, I am persuaded, lose no time in making the discovery known to the poor of the neighbourhood; while in so doing he will render an important service to the country at large, by instructing the indigent and ignorant in the choice of an ample, wholesome, and excellent article, which they may convert into money, or consume at their own tables, when properly prepared, throughout the winter.
On the authority of Link, Fries, Vittadini, and other Continental mycologists, I have, in speaking of the spores of the generaAgaricus,Boletus,Cantharellus,Hydnum, andClavaria, represented them as enclosed in cases (thecæ or sporanges). But from an interesting memoir, published by Mr. Berkeley in the ‘Annals of Natural History,’ “On the Fructification of the Pileate and Clavate tribes of Hymenomycetous Fungi,” which I had not then perused, it would appear that this arrangement only holds good with respect toPezizas,Helvellas, andMorels, and not with respect to the above-mentioned genera, the spores of which are attached (generally in a quaternary and star form) to the ends of tubes, to which Mr. Berkeley has given the name ofsporophores; a disposition which, as he observes, had been long ago pointed out by the great Florentine mycologist, Micheli. M. Montagne, in his ‘Recherches Anatomiques et Physiologiques sur l’Hymenium,’ while he confirms the fact of a quaternary disposition of the spores in general, thinks that during thefirststage of their development they are lodgedwithinthe sporiferous tubes, to the mouths of which they afterwards adhere by means of short spiculæ or branchlets.
These, like all other questions connected with the minute reproductive granules of funguses, require for their solution not only the most dexterous manipulation and the aid of the finest modern microscopes, but are likely even then to exercise the ingenuity of the curious.