Worthington George Smith

“ When cooked, this species has a rich mushroom-like flavour peculiarly its own, and may be prepared for the table in various ways, according to the fancy of the consumer: but being big and solid, it should be cut up; and, if stewed, allowed to simmer gently, and be served with pepper, salt, and butter. There is a curious, thin, pale, slender variety, found growing in pastures about old stumps, which I have never eaten, and from its curious aspect, habitat, and comparative rarity, I think it hardly worth the experiment, but it may be esculent. ”

“ The exquisitely rich and delicious flavour of this plant when broiled with butter must be tasted to be understood. It is firmer than the meadow mushroom, and, whilst having its peculiar aroma, it possesses it in a concentrated form. Even Mr. Berkeley, who would be the last man in the world to subscribe to a doubtful species, says, “it is the very best of all our fungi.” It may be pickled, used for ketchup, or dried for future use.
Marasmius oreades grows in rings in short pastures, on downs, and by roadsides everywhere (but never in woods) . ”

“ The literature, too, of the subject is so small, and the scientific part of the study so extremely difficult to begin, that few persons dare venture to test the qualities of any fungus except the meadow mushroom, and instances are common enough where even this species is rejected. It is apparent that no one can be a sure guide to others who is not himself a “regular fungus eater,” and that no descriptions can be of value, or drawings of use, unless they are taken with the greatest care from the objects themselves. ”

“ Many readers of the "Midland Naturalist" will probably be self-taught men, who busily follow industrial occupations every week-day. It may therefore interest such readers to know that the writer of these lines never had any teacher, either artistic or scientific, other than he always found supplied to him by close observation, careful reading, experience, and constant perseverance. ”

“ I have seen persons gathering fungi for ketchup (to be sold in [Pg 27] the markets) , putting almost anything into their baskets so long as the species appeared likely to yield a black juice.
I have known cows to be very fond of mushrooms; and a friend of mine in the country (who has more than once seen his cows, in the morning, go from mushroom to mushroom till all are consumed) goes regularly over his pastures every morning in the autumn, before the cattle are turned in, to secure the first gathering of the fungus crop. ”

“ The Actinopharis, (Actinopharis Elhornii,) on the right points to the Rhizopods, and the Ferns and Fungi beneath are representatives of Cryptogamic Botany. The Apteryx, (Apteryx Australis,) and Octopus, (Octopus vulgaris,) represent rare and curious animals, and at the same time point to Ornithology and the Mollusca. The Ichthyosaurus at the base is a representative of animals long extinct, and now found in a fossil condition only. ”

“ In the determination of species a great deal depends, too, upon the colour of the spores, or seeds. These are readily obtained by removing the stalk of the species to be examined, and placing the top gills lowermost on a piece of glass. In a few hours the spores will be deposited in a thick dust, and will vary (according to the species) from pure white to pink, yellow, red, brown, purple, or jet black. The gills often take their colours from the spores. It is a very great mistake to imagine that the “Sudden Mushroom” grows in a single night. ”

“ It is the species exposed for sale in Covent Garden Market. Indeed, after knowing the market for many years, I have [Pg 30] rarely seen any other species there; when the true mushroom, however, is there, it is frequently mingled with horse mushrooms, which seems to show that the dealers do not know one from the other. In the wet days of autumn, children, idlers, and beggars go a few miles from town into the meadows to gather whatever they can find in the mushroom line; they then bring their dirty stock to market, where it is sold to fashionable purchasers ”

“ The growth of mushrooms takes a considerable time—often many weeks. The young fungi exist just beneath or upon the surface of the earth in a compressed and narrowed compass. It is during this period that all the cells are formed, and the mushroom itself fashioned; but, being in a squeezed and concentrated form, it is commonly overlooked. On the advent of a wet or humid night, the cells forming the fungus are expanded and [Pg 18] stretched out, and the mushroom is consequently thrust considerably above the surface of the pasture ”

“ The study of animals recently extinct is indicated by the sketch of the Mammoth, (Elephas primigenius,) in the ice, and of living animals by the drawing of the Red Deer, (Cerrus Elephus.) The philosophical instruments at the top. Spectroscope, microscopes, and telescopes, need no word of explanation. The Cromlech, flint arrow-head, and stone hammier point to pre-historic Archæology; the Cromlech represents the magnificent monument still standing near the village of Clynnog, in Carnarvonshire. The cup stone of this Cromlech is profusely dotted over with the enigmatic "cup-markings;" ”

“ The chantarelle cannot be called very common, but it is abundant in many districts; its solid, ringless stem, fleshy body, thick swollen veins in the place of gills, and brilliant yellow colour, at once serve to distinguish it from every other species. “Its smell,” says Berkeley, “is like that of ripe apricots.” Sometimes (as I have frequently seen in Epping Forest and elsewhere) immense numbers grow together; at other times they are very few. ”

“ I have frequently grown the fragile and deliquescent species common on manure from the seeds; but, even when the spawn is once formed, it is often many weeks before the little heads are developed into the true figure of the parents, even in the inky, fugitive and deliquescent species. Coprinus atramentarius can be readily grown from spores; if planted about rotten wood in the autumn, the fungi will appear in the late spring, and give two crops a year till the soil is exhausted. ”

“ Nearly every species figured on the Edible Sheet will produce ketchup of good quality, if treated with salt in an earthen jar. The Champignon and Horse Mushroom may be specially referred to as producing this condiment of an excellent quality.
The juice exuded from the truffle in boiling is highly relished by many, as is the deep blood-red juice that runs from the “liver fungus” when cut. This, when seasoned with salt and pepper, and boiled, has a very delicious and stimulating flavour. ”

“ The stem and top are singularly firm, fleshy, and solid, and the latter, in hot weather is inclined to split. It grows in rings, on rich lawns and pastures, and has a strong, fragrant, enticing odour.
It is a little like A. crustuliniformis (fig. 24, Poisonous Sheet) , [Pg 41] which, however, differs in various ways, principally in discharging brown spores instead of white, as in A. gambosus. The poisonous plant has an odour like the flowers of laurel, and grows in woods in the autumn.
Few species are more substantial and delightful for the table. ”

“ The Purple Cobweb-Mushroom (fig. 12) is easily distinguished by its rust of iron gills. In Agaricus personatus they are white—sometimes dirty white; the solid ringless stem is rather rough; and the top is smooth, and exceedingly firm and fleshy; the plant grows late in the autumn, on downs, and in rich, short pastures.
Opinions vary a little regarding the value of this species for gastronomic purposes; but I think, if young plants are gathered, in dry weather, and carefully broiled or stewed, few fungi will prove more truly delicious. ”

“ These spores are microscopic objects of various forms, sizes, and colours, the produce of one plant reaching, it is said, the enormous number of ten millions; when they fall upon the earth, or any suitable matrix, they germinate and form the spawn which eventually produces an infant fungus, the exact counterpart of the original producer of the spores.
We have but one species popularly recognized as esculent—viz., the common meadow mushroom (Agaricus campestris) . ”

“ If stewed slowly and with care, this species will prove very pleasant eating, and will exude a delicious gravy. The flesh is firm and crisp, and greatly resembles the Morel. It may be easily dried for future use in a current of air, or in a dry place; in this state, specimens are at times kept threaded on strings, ready to impart their truly delicious flavour to stews and gravies. ”

“ Many country-folks readily distinguish the meadow from the horse mushroom, and have a great antipathy to the latter, although they are always willing to put it into the jar as one of the ingredients of ketchup. Opinions appear to differ greatly regarding the excellence of this species. Mr. Penrose writes—“I think young, and especially button specimens of this, very indigestible; until they are well opened out, they are unfit for use.” ”

“ Growing in woods, this deleterious species is extremely common, and without doubt very dangerous. The dirty pale-umber gills, and its habitat and time of growth—viz. the autumn—at once distinguish it from the delicious A. gambosus, fig. 19, Edible Sheet. It has a powerful and highly disagreeable odour, and brown spores, and we believe it is often mistaken by the ignorant for the true mushroom. ”

“ If horsedung be kicked aside in a rich pasture frequented by graminivorous animals, the earth will frequently present a snowy whiteness from the spawn of this species, from which the young individuals may be seen springing up. The specimen figured is not fully expanded, but is represented in the condition best for the table.
I once saw a sheep eat a large specimen with great apparent gusto, although the fungus was full of maggots.
Fir-cone Mushroom. Fig. 10. (Agaricus [Amanita] strobiliformis.) 5. ”

“ The truffle is a subterranean fungus, invariably found under trees, often just appearing above the surface of the ground, and occasionally exposed for sale in our markets, where it will realize at times as much as 5s. per pound. The truffle is esteemed by many as the most delicious object of food in the whole vegetable kingdom, and by others it is looked upon with aversion or positive disgust. The odour is very powerful, and is relished by some individuals, and very much disliked by others. ”

“ It appears to principally grow in open places in woods. When young, it looks like a [Pg 34] bright purple silk ball in the grass, and when gathered the bulbous stem is almost as large as the top itself. There is always a cottony web, like cobweb (which represents the ring) , stretching from the edge of the pileus to the stem, and this web soon takes its colour from the red spores, which are plentifully produced, colouring the gills and part of the stalk a red colour, very similar in tint to the rust of iron; when cut, the flesh is of a subdued lilac tint, and firm. ”

“ The colour of the fungus is exactly like that of a cracknel; the smooth top is frequently irregular, and the pure solid stem often out of the centre. The top sometimes partakes of a warmer, almost sienna, colouring. ”

“ Is known by its smaller size, its gills being far thinner and more crowded than in the true chantarelle; the stem frequently deep umber at the base, and the gills or veins darker than the top.
It is a species to be rejected for culinary purposes.
Yellow Milk-Mushroom. Fig. 20. (Lactarius theiogalus.) 503.
This is a beautiful plant, with an odour that is far from disagreeable. It is sometimes without the zones on the top which are shown in our figure, but it is immediately known by the change of colour which takes [Pg 59] place in the milk on breaking the fungus ”

“ There is also another large, sienna-red, rank-looking variety, I have often gathered in certain situations under trees, &c., that few would be tempted to eat; it is probably a luxuriant, overgrown, disagreeable thing, that would give one a stomach-ache, and in place of better species is not worth experimenting upon. ”

“ The fetor exhaled from this species is highly disagreeable, and can be compared with nothing but itself. It is so horribly repulsive and loathsome as to make a mere examination of the plant a matter of the greatest difficulty. ”