was afraid that the judges would not keep their heads clear to give them a prize (a laugh), but on their return they found that they had been awarded a silver-gilt medal for mixed cider, a silver medal for Foxwhelp cider, and a bronze medal for cider and perry fruits (applause). It was thought that the Herefordshire cider was stronger than the other, and that it was charged with alcohol or something else. For his own part, he thought that the strength existed in the fruit, and that the cider was not charged. If they could have stayed a few days longer, they might have tasted the opposition cider and compared it with their's. The distribution of the awards took place at a grand "cérémonie solennelle." The chief thing they wished to ascertain was, whether their so-called Norman apples were the real apples of Normandy or not. The result of a careful comparison was that they were not, but that they really were Herefordshire seedlings, to which the fashionable name of Norman had been given. Last year it will be remembered that a fine collection of cider apples, consisting of eighty-five varieties, was sent from Normandy to Hereford, not one of which was the same as ours. This rendered it still more necessary to place our so-called Norman apples on the tables in Normandy, in order to make the comparison. This has now been done with much more care, but the Herefordshire apples were none of them recognized by the Norman nurserymen and fruit growers, nor could the representatives of the Woolhope Club find any of them amongst the 2,000 plates shown at Rouen. There was one exception, and that is scarcely a cider apple. The Foley Norman, said to have been introduced by the late Mr. Edward Foley, at the early part of the present century, was closely similar in size, colour, taste, and shape, to the Blanc Doux exhibited there. It has thus become clear that the so-called Norman apples of the Herefordshire orchards are not really Normans. They are probably Herefordshire seedlings from the farm nurseries, which, in the long century of neglect that has passed over our orchards, got planted out, and, having no name of their own, have received the fashionable name of Norman. Thus, the Norman Bitter-sweet will become the Hereford Bitter-sweet; the Red, Yellow, and Black Normans will be called for the future Red, Yellow, and Black Herefords; and so on, the name Hereford supplying the place of Norman. The other half of your representatives' work was to select some six or seven of the very best varieties of real Norman apples for introduction into Herefordshire. Four kinds had already been decided upon, and the editor of a Pomological publication would assist them in deciding upon the others (applause). It was interesting to know what others thought, and in a long article in the Journal de Rouen, of the 4th of October, the editor wrote:-"See this appetising fruit sent from England, is it not splendid? Ripened under fog, this beautiful fruit! (laughter). Does it taste as well as ours? We do not know. But for size, freshness, and colour these English apples can take a place in the first class. The Normandy apple is not more rosy or finer" (applause). Leaving to his companion, Mr. Piper, to make observations on the Normandy orchards in general, he would only say that their peregrinations led them to the great centre of Normandy orchards-Yvetôt. It was a rich, beautiful country. Yvetôt was a town of some 10,000 inhabitants, and its burlesque Royalty had been immortalized by Béranger in one of his most popular songs. There was a tradition that Clotaire, the son of Clovis, having slain Gualtier, Lord of Yvetôt, before the altar of Soissons, made atonement by conferring the title of king on the heirs of the murdered man. Certain it was that the land around was held free from servitude for a long time before the year 1370. In 1592 the league of the Huguenots was overthrown by King Henry IV., near Yvetôt, who after the action cried out, "If I lose the Kingdom of France I am assured of that of Yvetôt ;" and the same king, as all the world knew, when Marie de Medicis was crowned said, "I wish all honour should be shown to my little King of Yvetôt, according to the rank he ought to possess." The Roi d'Yvetôt was said to live in a thatched cottage, to ride an ass through his dominions, and to make pleasure his only code. Béranger thus playfully describes him :— (laughter and applause). "Il était un roi d'Yvetôt Peu connu dans l'histoire Oh, oh, oh, oh! Ah, ah, ah, ah! Mr. Piper remarked that he particularly noticed the beautiful apple trees of Normandy, their wonderful crops of fruit, and the large number of trees which had lately been planted. For every acre of land which had been planted with fruit trees in England during the last ten years, 40 acres had been planted in Normandy. The fruit trees in Normandy seemed to be more healthy than in England, and cropped more heavily. About four miles from Rouen there was an orchard about 200 acres in extent. There was nothing like that in England. The cultivation of the land in Normandy was excellent. A person might see more bad farming between Hereford and Worcester, passing through Ledbury, than they saw in their peregrinations in Normandy, which was a wonderful country, and which he advised them to visit (applause). The Chairman congratulated the Club, Herefordshire, and England on the success of the labours of the deputation, to whom they were greatly indebted. He proposed the health of the deputation (applause). Dr. Bull, in response, said the deputation bestowed on the matter an amount of zeal which could not possibly be exceeded. At the same time they enjoyed themselves very much. Mr. Piper also responded, saying that although they had brought honours from Normandy, he should not advise the Woolhope Club to exhibit again next year. If the same energy had been exhibited in Normandy, where the fruit was really beautiful, as had been displayed on this side of the water, they should certainly not have won a prize. Dr. Cooke read an amusing paper on "The Whitlings of the Woolhope Club," for which he was accorded a cordial vote of thanks, and the proceedings ended. NOTES ON THE EDIBLE FUNGI OF ITALY. By A. S. BICKNELL, F.L.S. Ir is an admitted fact that Achilles sometimes laid aside his armour; I trust, therefore, that it may be a relaxation to the members of the Woolhope Club for once to quit their wonted scientific labours in fungology, to follow the less intricate path in which I wish to lead them. Some of you tax your eyesight by peering through microscopes at spores or cells as difficult to examine as the almost invisible microbe of the celebrated Dr. Koch; others, less curious, but equally zealous, study the giant fungi of our own Woolhopean Dr. Koch,-for Koch and Cooke, as you well know, are synonymous -co-equals in fame. Some of you are learned in öosphores, urēdines, or perhaps British nidularia; truly it may be said that nothing is too minute, nothing too gigantic, for such enthusiastic scientists, and that you touch nothing which you do not adorn. What then is there for the humble visitor to do who would fain add his quota to the general lore? I think there may yet be corners of the fungological domain where greater light may fall, and one of these I hope to show. In every science there is a department strictly scientific, usually abstruse, and there is generally another in which all with average observant faculties may, as it were, stroll and render service. In fungology it has certainly always been so. For years the popular statements concerning fungi, with their terrors and their superstitions, were almost all we had to read, and as fungological studies assumed their proper botanical position, through our better knowledge of structure and classification, fascinated by scientific discoveries, we somewhat neglected to rectify the popular beliefs of our forefathers; the wondrous stories of hecatombs of poisoned families still circulated, ill contradicted, in the autumn papers, and the credulous public to this day believe that a couple of grammes (say 1-15th of an ounce,) of any toadstool for breakfast, will be followed by delirium, coma, and death, which no injection of stramonium or of atropine can avert. We, of course, have long grown out of this early creed, but, in my opinion, there is still too much romance remaining; from author to author the same wild inaccuracies are passed on, till, from being printed so often, they become stereotyped by bare assertion. It struck me then that it would not be wholly waste of time if I were to revise the hallowed statements concerning the sale and commercial value of fungi in Italy, and correct to modern date the antique and omnivorous assertions of the enthusiastic Badham. I propose to tell you what species are at present authorised by law to be sold in the public markets of the great cities of the peninsula; what species I have seen in them; and, inasmuch as what has been said concerning these edible Italian fungi rests almost exclusively on the text of Vittadini, dressed up in English by Badham, I shall confine my remarks to those authors, first reminding you that Dr. Vittadini published his excellent book at Milan in 1835, and that the second edition of Dr. Badham's Esculent Funguses appeared in 1863, after he had spent some time at the baths of Lucca, a comparatively obscure wateringplace, in a region remote from the great markets of the country. As I like order, I will take the chief edible species according to their botanical sequence, giving you a brief running commentary as I proceed. 1. Amanita vaginata was excluded from the markets in Vittadini's time, but I saw it at Bologna, September 29th. 2. Amanita Cæsarea. Vittadini is right in saying that, with Boletus edulis, it forms almost the only branch of commerce in fungi. It may have been the Boletus of the ancients, but we have no right to assert, as Badham does, that it was. It is now universally called Vovolo, and is in the markets of Milan, Bergamo, Brescia, Verona, Cremona, Bologna, and other Lombard cities, from the middle of September to the middle of October. At the commencement of the season it fetches about 1s. a pound. It was usually given me cut up and stewed, or fried in batter. Amanita muscaria, which, when washed by rain, so much resembles it, I may here remark is uncommon in Italy, and though described by Vittadini as "one of the most dangerous fungi known, enclosing a deadly poison," and by all other writers in equally impressive language, yet I doubt if it fully deserves to be so characterised. The peasantry about Nice and Savoy are reported, by a writer in the Field, to use it. Bulliard certainly says he killed dogs and cats in six to nine hours; but they might well have died from indigestion, after such unnatural food, for he himself ate two ounces and felt nothing, and I have lately made the same innocuous experiment; therefore, Berkeley's statement that in small doses it produces intoxication and delirium is not warranted by facts. 3. Concerning Lepiota procerus Badham gives no authority for his assertion that "it is in equal request in Italy with Amanita Cæsarea." Vittadini does not say it is sold, and I have never seen it. 4. Agaricus caudicinus, Badham says, "grows on the head of Populus nigra (var. Neapolitana), which it is usual to remove as soon as the vintage is over, and that it makes the greatest show in many Italian markets." Vittadini tells us it has been confused with Armillaria melleus, and in "Fries" it becomes our old friend Pholiota mutabilis. I have never seen any of these fungi for sale, neither do I expect I shall, because the poplar heads are very rarely amputated. One of the delicacies of an Italian market should be Clitopilus prunulus (the Mouceron of France), worth 15d. a pound in Rome, according to Badham, and 10s. to 12s. when dried. Its season being March and April, it ought to have been in Rome when I passed the entire spring there this year, but it was only conspicuous by its absence. Perhaps the most startling statement to be found in Badham's sensational book is the passage where he says, that almost the only fungus condemned as poisonous in Rome is our 6. Common Mushroom: the words of Professor Sanguinetti, his authority, are "The sale is absolutely prohibited of the so-called Prateroli." Evidently the question turns upon whether pratiolo means Agaricus campestris. In Bologna, long a Pontifical town, I saw mushrooms selling in the market for 40c. the kilo gramme (less than 2d. per lb.), but they are not abundant in Italy, for there are few meadows. Vittadini says-"They are common round Milan, but never seen in the Milan or Pavia market, though allowed to be sold," and then he adds the strange sentence-" They are found under elms, planes, on gravel, or in the little ditches through which the rain runs away," and further, he quotes the wellknown passage in Horace "Pratensibus optima fungis natura est," assuming--I do not see why-that it refers to mushrooms. 7. Coprinus comatus, "largely eaten," according to Badham, "about Lucca," and, 8. Lactarius piperatus, described by him with delightful vagueness, as "extensively used on the Continent," are not mentioned by Vattadini, nor have they been seen by me. But 9. Lactarius deliciosus, which Badham had not noticed abroad, sometimes is sold. Near Spezia, on the 15th October, there were plenty, and I have met with it not only by the sea, but on the 19th August, growing under spruce firs on Mont Blanc. 10. Amongst the fungi in the markets I have often looked for Russula heterophylla, because Vittadini says "The villagers round Milan and Pavia gather indiscriminately every sort of Russula, and he had never heard of an accident from their use," but hitherto, like Badham, I have not found it. 11. In Mantua, on one occasion, I saw an immense basket of Cantharellus cibarius sold to the hotel for 1 franc 50 centimes (14d). It is called Gallinaccio (Turkey cock), and they are very plentiful in the spruce forests of the Alps. 12. The fungus, however, which is by far the most commonly sold in Italy is Boletus edulis. It goes by the name of Porcino (Piggy) or Ferré. In the market of Bergamo it was 40c. per lb., and was selling with large frogs and small tench. At Brescia it was 10c. dearer, and at Verona 40c., the stall there being set out with robins and thrushes, for game. In Florence and at Parma there was no other fungus. The usual method of cooking is frying with bread crumbs; and it may be bought dried in almost any grocer's. Vittadini declares that occasionally other boleti are mixed with it, but I cannot say I ever saw another species in the heaps I have examined. I may add that throughout France this boletus, known by the name of Cépe or Ceps, is considered a delicacy by all classes. 13. Boletus scaber is almost as common in the markets as Edulis, but not in the same quantity, and I am surprised that Badham appears never to have seen it there; they call it Porcinello (little piggy-wiggy) or Albarello. 15. Both Polyporus frondosus (or intybaceus) 16. And Hydnum repandum are said to be sold in Italy, but neither Badham nor I have come across them. 16. Clavaria coralloides, however, I saw at Bologna on September 29th, priced at 40c. per lb. On September 21st of the present year, 1884, a specimen of this last, vulgarly called Fungo barbino (little beard fungus), was found near Bellano, Lake of Como, weighing no less than 62 lb.; it may, however, have been Hydnum Erinaceum. |