Lives of Eminent Zoologists, from Aristotle to Linnæus: with Introductory remarks on the Study of Natural HistoryMacGillivray, William
Philosophy
Lives of Eminent Zoologists, from Aristotle to Linnæus: with Introductory remarks on the Study of Natural History
MacGillivray, William
Zoologists
"SIR,--August 18, I passed through Marton Woods, under
Pimco-Moore, in Craven. In these woods I then found very
great plenty of _Mushromes_, and many of them then wither'd,
and coal-black; but others new sprung and flourishing. They
are some of them of a large size, and yet few much bigger
than the _Champignon_ or _ordinary red-grilled eatable
Mushrome_, and very much of the shape of that; that is an
exactly round cap, or crown, which is thick in flesh, and
open deep gills underneath; a fleshy, and not hollow, round
foot-stalk, of about six fingers breadth above ground, and
ordinarily as thick as my thumb. The foot-stalk, gills, and
cap, all of a milk-white colour. If you cut any part of this
_mushrome_, it will _bleed_ exceeding freely and plentifully
a pure white juice. Concerning which, note,
"1. That the youngest did drop much more plentifully and
freely than those that were at their full growth and
expansion. That the dried and withered ones had no signs of
milk in them that I then discern'd.
"2. That this milk tastes and smells like pepper, and is
much hotter upon the tongue.
"3. That it is not clammy or roapy to the touch.
"4. That although I used the same knife to cut a hundred of
them, yet I could not perceive all that time, that the milk
changed colour (as is usual with most vegetable milks) upon
the knife blade.
"5. That it became, in the glass viol I drew it into,
suddenly concrete and stiff, and in some days dried into a
firm cake, or lump, without any _serum_ at all.
"6. That it then also, when dried, retained its keen biting
taste, as it does at this day, yet not so fierce: Its colour
is now of a yellowish green, yet very pale.
"7. This milk flows much faster from about the outmost rimm,
or part equivalent to the bark of plants, than from the more
inward parts, &c.
"8. I observed these _mushromes_ even then, when they
abounded with milk (not to be endured upon our tongues) to
be exceeding full of _fly_-maggots; and the youngest and
tenderest of them were very much eaten by the small grey
naked snail.
"You can tell me what author describes this mushrome, and
what he titles it.
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