CANTHARELLUS CIBARIUS. PLATE VIII. FIG. 1. Tribe MESOPUS. Subdivision AGARICINI, _Fries_. “Sunt qui hunc perniciosum scripsere. Verum etiam latranti stomacho eum comedi; atque ex eo pulmenta parantur, quæ si aridis mortuorum oribus admovcantur peream ni reviviscerent!”—_Batt._ “Jure inter sapidissimos fungos numeratur.”—_Fries._ No fungus is more popular than the above, though the merits—nay, the very existence—of such a fungus at home is confined to the Freemasons, who keep the secret! Having collected a quantity at Tunbridge Wells, this summer, and given them to the cook at the Calverley Hotel to dress, I learnt from the waiter that they were not novelties to him; that, in fact, he had been in the habit of dressing them for years, on state occasions, at the Freemasons’ Tavern. They were generally fetched, so he said, from, the neighbourhood of Chelmsford, and were always well paid for. Of the _Cantharellus_, this summer (1847), the supplies were immense! the moss under the beech-trees in Buckhurst Park in particular, was so lavish of them, that a hamper might soon have been filled, had there been hands to gather them. On revisiting the same park about five weeks later, they were still continuing to come up, but in less abundance. The botanical characters of the _Cantharellus_ are as follow:— When young, its _stalk_ is tough, white, and solid; but as it grows this becomes hollow and presently changes to yellow; tapering below, it is effused into the substance of the _pileus_, which is of the same colour with it. The _pileus_ is lobed, and irregular in shape, its margin at first deeply involute, afterwards when expanded, wavy. The _veins_ or plaits are thick, subdistant, much sinuated, running some way down the stalk. The _flesh_ is white, fibrous, dense, “having the odour of apricots” (_Purton_), or of “plums” (_Vitt._). The _colour_ yellow, that of the yolk of eggs, is deeper on the under surface; when raw it has the pungent taste of pepper; the _spores_ which are elliptic, are of a pallid ochre colour (_Vitt._).[168] The _Chantarelle_ grows sometimes sporadically, sometimes in circles or segments of a circle, and may be found from June to October. At first it assumes the shape of a minute cone; next, in consequence of the rolling in of the margin, the pileus is almost spherical, but as this unfolds, it becomes hemispherical, then flat, at length irregular and depressed. “This fungus,” observes Vittadini, “being rather dry and tough by nature, requires a considerable quantity of fluid sauce to cook it properly.” The common people in Italy dry or pickle, or keep it in oil for winter use. Perhaps the best ways of dressing the _Cantharellus_ are to stew or mince it by itself, or to combine it with meat or with other funguses. It requires to be gently stewed and a long time to make it tender; but by soaking it in milk the night before, less cooking will be requisite.