The first thing to know about funguses is, that in the _immense majority 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_!”