“Comme il est très-léger et très-délicat, il faut le faire sauter dans l’huile fine après l’avoir assaisonné d’un point d’ail, de poivro et de sel; en quelques instants il est cuit. On le mange aussi en fricassée de poulet, cuit sur le gril ou dans la tourtière avec de beurre, de fines herbes, du poivre, du sel, et de la chapelure de pain; on ne mange point la tige, elle est d’une texture coriace” (_Roques_). The ketchup from both kinds is better than that procured from the _Agaricus campestris_, or common mushroom. N.B.—I have in the above notice described one variety of _Agaricus procerus_; there is, however, if not another, at least a remarkable modification of this, in which the pileus is thinner and much less shaggy, the gills less broad but similar in shape, the stalk more slender and elongate. This variety is also nearly void of odour, _and its flesh does not change colour on being bruised_: for culinary purposes this distinction is without importance, as both are equally good. BOLETUS EDULIS, _Bulliard_. PLATE III. FIGS. 1 AND 2. Section CORTINARIA, _Fries_. “Atto sovra ognun altro fungo al commercio, forma da questo lato, per non pochi paesi della Lombardia, una delle principali risorsi della povera gente.”—_Vitt._ The ancient Romans were well acquainted with this truly delicious fungus, and in general appear to have done it justice; the strings of dried Suillus, which his countrymen, on the testimony of Pliny, were in the habit of fetching from Bithynia, were in all likelihood the same as those similarly-prepared strings of the modern Porcino which are sold during the winter in every market-place throughout Italy.[157] Vittadini mentions a curious fact respecting them, viz. that though they are composed of many different Boletuses, no mischief was ever known to originate from their indiscriminate and very extensive consumption; whence he concludes that _all_ the species of this genus are innocuous, or, at least, that drying and cooking will extract any deleterious principles which they may have originally contained;—an inference, he thinks, supported by the daily use among the peasantry of certain districts of the _B. luridus_, which of all bad Boletuses commonly passes for the worst, and by his having experimented with it in large doses upon animals, who did not suffer in consequence. I have eaten in England a small quantity both of _B. Grevillei_ and of _B. granulatus_, which have much of the flavour of the _B. edulis_; of the _B. subtomentosus_(though, on the authority of Trattinick, it is eaten in Germany) I have no personal experience, nor do I recommend to the amateur any species beyond the two universally eaten and approved of on the Continent, viz.:—_B. edulis_ and _B. scaber_.