of cases_ they are harmless; the innoxious and esculent kinds are the
_rule_, the poisonous the _exceptions_ to it; in a general way, it is
more easy to say what we should not eat than what we may; we should
never eat any that smell sickly or poisonous. Opinions respecting the
agreeableness or disagreeableness of an odour, as of a taste, may differ;
thus, in France and Italy (where the palate seems to us to bribe the
judgment of the nose), it is usual to speak of that of the _Ag. prunulus_
as “perfuming the air;”[86] but though the strong peculiar smell exhaled
by this and some other esculent funguses is anything but a perfume, as
we apprehend the term, it is very different from that intolerable fœtor,
that nauseous overwhelming odour given out by the _Phallus impudicus_,
the _Clathrus cancellatus_, the _Amanita verna_, and its varieties. There
are some indeed which, yielding no smell, will poison notwithstanding;
but then there are none to lure us into a false security by a deceitful
fragrance. The same negative indications are furnished by the palate as
by the nose; those that are bitter, or styptic, or that burn the fauces
on mastication, or that parch the throat when they have been swallowed,
should be put aside; those that yield spiced milk, of whatever colour,
should be held, notwithstanding exceptions, in suspicion, as an unsafe
dairy to deal with. The “Lucchese Goat” (_Ag. piperatus_) and the “Cow of
the Vosges” (_Ag. lactifluus aureus_), though in high request in their
respective localities, and really delicate themselves, are akin to others
whose milks, though they may have the colour of gold, have the qualities
of gamboge.
“——Nescius auræ
Fallacis,
Qui nunc te fruitur credulus _aurea_!”
Paulet was once so indiscreet as to eat a slice of the Griper (_Ag.
torminosus_), which belongs to this genus, and afterwards still more
indiscreet in giving it the inviting name of “Mouton zoné;” it is well,
however, that the reader should be apprised, as he will frequently come
across this ‘mouton’ in his walks, that it is a perfect wolf in sheep’s
clothing, nor less to be avoided than one nearly allied to it, which
rejoices in the name of _necator_, or the slayer.[87] Here, as it is a
safe rule rather to condemn many that may be innocent than to admit one
that is at all suspicious to our confidence, we should, till intimacy
has made us familiar with the exceptions, avoid all those the flesh of
which is livid, or that, chameleon-like, assume a variety of hues on
being broken or bruised.[88] The external colour furnishes no certain
information—with the single exception of that of the gills in one or
two Agarics—by which to know the good from the bad; thus, the “Boule de
Neige” and the Vernal Amanite are both white; but the dress, in one case,
is of innocence, in the other of mere hypocrisy; again, the green, which
we are so cautioned to avoid in this class of plants as chlorotic and
unhealthy, and which is of such bad augury in _Amanita viridis_, is quite
the contrary in the _Verdette_ (_Ag. virescens_). So that to be led only
by colour would certainly be to be misled—a mistake which, in the family
of the _Russulæ_, might readily compromise life.
Some mycologists recommend, with certain exceptions, the avoidance of
such Agarics as have lateral stalks, of such as are pectinate (_i.
e._ have equal gills, like a comb), of such as have little flesh in
proportion to the depth of their gills, and generally, of all those
that are past their prime. Some warn us not to eat after the snail,
as we are in the habit of doing in our gardens after the wasp; we may
trust, it seems, to him to point out the best greengages, but not to
the slug to select our mushrooms for us. Finally, it has been very
currently affirmed, though I think without sufficient warrant, that all
such funguses as run rapidly into deliquescence ought to be avoided
as dangerous. Here, while it might be unsafe to lay down any positive
rule beyond one’s own experience, this, so far as it goes, would rather
lead me to a different inference; and even the reader will ask—Does
not the mushroom deliquesce, and is not ketchup, that “poignant liquor
made from boiled mushrooms mixed with salt,”[89] to which we are all so
partial, this very deliquescence? But, besides this, the _Ag. comatus_,
which is highly deliquescent, is largely eaten about Lucca; the _Ag.
atramentarius_ also is, on our own authority, _periculo ventris nostri_,
as good for ketchup as for that purpose to which its juices are more
commonly put, viz. for making ink. Thus, amongst deliquescent Agarics,
there are some the juices of which are both safe and savoury, perhaps of
more than those here recorded; but as I have not hitherto myself made
trial of any others, and as there are some dangerous species mixed up
with this group, the public cannot be too much cautioned against making
any rash experiment, where the consequences of a mistake might be so
serious.
Some trees give origin by preference to good, others to deleterious
species; thus, the hazel-nut, the black and perhaps the white poplar,
together with the fig-tree, grow only good sorts; whereas the olive has
been famous, since the days of Nicander, for none but poisonous species.
“The rank in smell, and those of livid show,
All that at roots of oak[90] or olive grow,
Touch not! But those upon the fig-tree’s rind
Securely pluck—a safe and savoury kind!”
The elm, the alder, the larch, the beech, and some other trees, seem
capable of supporting both good and bad species at their roots; hence
it is not safe to trust implicitly to the _tree_ to determine the
wholesomeness or unwholesomeness of the fungus that grows out of it,
or in its neighbourhood. The presence of a _free acid_ is by no means
conclusive either way, there being many species of both good and bad,
which will indifferently turn litmus-paper red. The old and very general
practice adopted by cooks of _dressing funguses with a silver spoon_
(which is supposed to become tarnished, then, only when their juices are
of a deleterious quality), is an error which cannot be too generally
known and exposed, as many lives, especially on the Continent, have
been, and still are, sacrificed to it annually. In some cases the
kitchen-fire will extract the deleterious property from the funguses,
which it would have been unsafe to eat raw, and frequently the acrid
lactescent kinds change their nature entirely and become mild by cooking;
in other cases, the virus is drawn out by saturating the fungus,
sometimes before dressing it, either in vinegar or brine,[91] the liquid
then containing the poison which was originally in the plant; but in
other species, as in _Ag. emeticus_, it would seem from the experiments
of M. Krapf, of Vienna, upon living animals, that it is to be extracted
neither by ebullition nor desiccation.[92]
The effects produced by the poison of mushrooms are exceedingly
various, that is to say, the virus itself differs in different species,
both as to _kind_ and, where that is the same, as to the _degree_
of its concentration; it is generally, however, of the class called
acro-narcotic, producing inflammatory affections of the intestines,
and exerting a deleterious influence over the whole nervous system. In
cases where only a very small quantity has been taken experimentally,
a constriction of the fauces has followed, and continued for a period
varying from some minutes to several hours, occasioning, or not, nausea,
heat, and, in some instances, even pain of the stomach; “sometimes
the affection is entirely confined to the head, and a stupor or light
delirium succeeds the eating of some species, and continues for two or
three days.”[93] Not unfrequently, as in those cases cited by Larber,
the symptoms have been altogether those of cholera, without any cerebral
disturbance whatever; but in other instances that have come to my
knowledge, during a several years’ residence on the Continent, these have
been of a mixed character,[94] in which both the head and viscera have
participated; and the autopsies after death have, in accordance with the
symptoms, shown the stomach and intestines more or less disorganized
with the products of inflammation, together with a congested state of
the brain or of its investments, or a local or general softening of its
substance.[95] The poison, as has been said, exists in very different
degrees of intensity in different species. In some, as the _Amanita
verna_, a few grains of the fresh fungus suffice to kill a dog;[96] while
the _Agaricus muscarius_, though equally fatal in sufficient quantities,
is not nearly so strong. Some time in general elapses from the swallowing
the poison to that in which its deleterious workings first begin to be
felt. I have heard of cases (similar to those cited in the last note)
of persons who had supped overnight on the meal that was to prove their
last, who have slept, risen next morning, gone to work, and continued
working for hours, before they have been made aware of their condition.
When, however, the symptoms have once set in, they become rapidly more
and more alarming, while the chances of arresting or mitigating their
excruciating severity lessen every minute. As the evils to be apprehended
from the agency of these plants can only be prevented by their instant
evacuation, to assist the disposition to vomit, or, if called in early
enough, to anticipate it by the milder emetics in sufficient doses
(surely not by strong ones, as some have recommended!), and, when the
stomach has been thoroughly evacuated, to relieve the violence of the
pain by bland mucilaginous drinks, with opiates, are the indications
plainly pointed out, and the means by which inflammation and subsequent
sphacelus of the gut, as well as the deleterious effects produced on
the nervous system by the absorption of the poison into it, have been
occasionally averted; but should symptoms of great depression be already
present (as too frequently happens before the medical man arrives), he
will endeavour, in that case, to rally the vital powers (scanty though
the chances of success will then be) by small and repeated doses of
sulphuric ether and ammonia combined, or should head symptoms require his
interference, he must in that case bleed.
CONDITIONS NECESSARY TO THEIR GROWTH.
Of these, in fact, we know but little, and in the great majority of
instances absolutely nothing; in a few cases moisture[97] and heat seem
alone sufficient, even in our own hands, to cause some of them to grow;
in others, electricity appears indispensable. A wet autumn is generally
found to be exceedingly prolific in these plants, with the following
notable difference as to _kind_: all those that are parasitical on
trees show themselves, during a wet season, in amount directly varying
with that of the previous rain, irrespective of any other influences
conspiring to give this effect; whilst those, on the other hand, which
issue from the earth, when the surface of this has been long chilled or
when the electrical state of the air has not been materially modified for
some time, will be found to come up sparingly or not at all, whatever
rain may have fallen. An exception to this rule occurs in the common
mushroom, which, by the combination of certain degrees of heat and
moisture, may be reared throughout the year without the co-operation of
electricity. A variety of plans have been recommended for this purpose,
many of which are both troublesome and expensive; the following, taken by
M. Roques from a scientific work on gardening, and said to be infallible,
has, if so, the great advantage of extreme simplicity to recommend
it:—“Having observed that all those dunghills which abounded chiefly in
sheep- or cow-droppings, began shortly to turn mouldy on their surface
and to bear mushrooms, I collected a quantity of this manure, which, so
soon as it began to turn white, I strewed lightly over some melon-beds
and some spring crops of vegetables, and obtained in either case, and
as often as I repeated the experiment, a ready supply of excellent
mushrooms, which came up from a month to six weeks after the dung had
been so disposed of; but as an equable temperature is in all cases
desirable to render the result certain, where this cannot be secured
under the protection of glass, the next best plan is to scatter a portion
of the above dungs mixed with a little earth in a cave or cellar, to
which some tan is an excellent addition; for tan, though it kills other
vegetable growths, has quite an opposite effect on funguses.”
Next to the common mushroom, in regard to the success attending its
cultivation, comes that of the _Pietra funghaia_, a plant unknown to
Clusius, but described by Mathiolus and Imperato, under the name of the
‘stony fungus.’ Cesalpinus has added to their accounts, directions for
procuring it the whole year through, which, he says, is to be done either
by irrigating the soil over the site of the stone, or by transferring the
_Pietra funghaia_ with a portion of the original mould, and watering it
in our own garden. Porta adds, that the funguses take seven days to come
to perfection, and may be gathered from the naked block (where this has
been properly moistened) six times a year; but in preference to merely
watering the blocks, he recommends that a light covering of garden mould
should be first thrown over them. The _Pietra funghaia_, though its range
of territory be extremely small, lies embedded in a variety of soils,
in consequence of which its Polyporus, like our own mushroom, is very
various in flavour, depending on the kind of _humus_ in which its matrix
happens to be placed. Those that grow on the high grounds above Sorrento,
and on the sides of Vesuvius, are in less esteem than such as are brought
into the Naples market from the mountains of Apulia.[98]
A third fungus, which we have the means of producing _ad libitum_, is
that which sprouts from the pollard head of the black poplar;[99] these
heads it is usual to remove at the latter end of autumn, as soon as the
vintage is over, and their marriage with the vine is annulled; hundreds
of such heads are then cut and transported to different parts; they are
abundantly watered during the first month, and in a short time produce
that truly delicious fungus, _Agaricus caudicinus_, the _Pioppini_,
which, during the autumn of the year, make the greatest show in many of
the Italian market-places. These pollard blocks continue to bear, for
from twelve to fourteen years; I saw a row of them in the botanic garden
at Naples, which, after this period, were still productive, though less
frequently, and of fewer Agarics at a crop. The practice of rearing
funguses from the poplar is not modern; Dioscorides knew, for he tells
us that if we “bark the white or black poplar, cutting the bark into
pieces and covering it with horse-dung, an excellent kind of fungus will
spring up, and continue to bear throughout the year:” by way of comment
to which passage Mathiolus adds, that a little leaven[100] will produce
an abundant crop in four days. Another fungus, which I have myself reared
(_Polyporus avellanus_), is to be procured by singeing over a handful
of straw a block of the cob-nut tree, which is then to be watered and
put by. In about a month the funguses make their appearance, which are
quite white, of from two to three inches in diameter, and excellent
to eat; while their profusion is sometimes so great, as entirely to
hide the wood from which they spring.[101] Dr. Thore says, that in the
Landes, the _Boletus edulis_ and _Ag. procerus_ are constantly raised
by the inhabitants of that district, from a watery infusion of the said
plants; that something more than this, however, is necessary, seems
certain, since during the two or three years during which I frequented
the baths of Lucca, and was in the habit of using infusions of these
and a variety of other funguses, often throwing them over the very
spots where each kind grew, my experiments never succeeded. Nor was Dr.
Puccinelli, of Lucca, who repeated similar experiments in the botanic
garden there, much more successful. Briganti, of Naples, told me much
the same story; and Sanguinetti at Rome was equally unsuccessful with
Ottaviani at Urbino. On making inquiry of friends in England who have
attempted to propagate different kinds of funguses, either by infusion
or otherwise, their attempts generally failed. My friend Mrs. Hussey, in
particular, acquaints me that she has been in the habit of subjecting
many plants to a like experiment, and with similar want of result.
Lastly, as concerning truffles, Mr. Bornholtz has given directions how
to rear them, which, as they are exceedingly expensive and troublesome,
must needs be infallible to secure proselytes, even among the most sworn
amateurs of these delicacies. “Prepare your ground,” says he, “with oak
leaves in decay; you must also mix some iron with it and take care to
make it of a proper consistence, either by adding sand, should it be too
compact, or clay, should it be of too light a nature; having then with
great care transplanted your truffles, (which must be properly packed
with a quantity of the original mould about them,) they are to be placed
tenderly in the new settlement, covered over lightly with mould, and
this again is to be covered with boughs of oak and _Carpinus Betulus_ to
protect the deposit from molestation; neither must you consider your work
completed till a sacred grove of these particular trees has been planted
round it, which must be done with such precaution, that while they keep
the precious ground in a perpetual twilight, they must not obstruct it
too much, but leave a certain free passage to the air.” After which
injunctions, if they be carefully attended to, Mr. B. assures us that
we can reckon, without fear of disappointment, on a dish of truffles,
whenever we may want them for ourselves or our friends.
FAIRY RINGS.
We know as little of the origin of fairy-rings, as of any other
phenomenon connected with the growth of funguses. These fairy-rings are
of all sizes, from one and a half to thirty feet in diameter; the grass
composing them is observed in spring, to be of a thicker growth than
the surrounding herbage, and, in consequence of the manure afforded by
the crop of last year, is of a darker colour. Within these rings are
frequently seen certain varieties of this class of plants, very generally
Agarics, though puff-balls frequently, and occasionally the _Boletus
subtomentosus_, affect a similar mode of growth. Of the Agarics which
appear in these circles, some of the principal are _Agaricus oreades_,
_Ag. prunulus_, _Ag. Orcella_, _Ag. Georgii_, _Ag. personatus_, and
_Ag. campestris_. As all these feed at the expense of the grass, (by
exhausting the ground that would otherwise have furnished it with the
necessary supplies,) the richest vegetation in the field is generally the
first to become seared. These rings (giving birth to some one species
which, dying, is not unfrequently succeeded by another a little later,
and this perhaps by a third, in the same order of occurrence) continue to
enlarge their boundaries for a long but indefinite period.
It seems not easy to determine precisely, to the operation of what cause
or causes the increase in the size of these circles from year to year
should be attributed. Is it the projectile force with which the spores
are disseminated all round, that has carried them so uniformly beyond
the margin of the last ring as to form a concentric circle for the next
of larger diameter beyond? Or is the cause to be sought underground, in
the general spread of the spawn of last year in all directions outwards,
but only fertile in a concentric ring _beyond_ the site of the last crop,
which had already exhausted the ground, and so rendered it incapable
of supporting any new vegetable life? Or do both these causes conspire
in this result? The quantity of spawn and of the spores necessarily
contained in it, and the depth to which they penetrate under the surface
of the soil, renders the possibility of their spreading in the latter way
easily conceivable.[102]
ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF FUNGUSES.
“Ins Innre der Natur dringt kein erschaffner Geist,
Zu glücklich wem sie nur die äussre Schale lösst.”—_Haller._