_Bonâ fide_ mushrooms are known by their beautiful pink gills (in which state they are best fit for use), ultimately becoming deep brown, and not reaching the stem, which stem carries a well-marked white woolly ring; by the very fleshy down-covered top, the delicious and enticing fragrance and the firm white flesh, sometimes inclined to pink when cut or broken: the plant is so well known and so highly esteemed in this country that it is hardly necessary to say a word in its favour, or repeat methods of preparing it for the table. Butter, spice, parsley, sweet herbs, salt, pepper, and sometimes the squeeze of a lemon, appear to be in the greatest request; but whether boiled, pickled, stewed, fried, or prepared in any other way, it is equally delicious in all. It seldom appears in Covent Garden Market; the dealers there are content to find a sale, at a high price, for stale horse mushrooms. Much has been written at various times regarding the apocryphal “inspector of the Roman markets,” who consigns mushrooms to the Tiber, but the facts have been much exaggerated. _Agaricus campestris_ is not generally appreciated in Italy, is seldom eaten, and never appears in the markets, for the simple reason that there would be no sale for it. There is an edict in existence ordering certain fungi to be thrown into the Tiber, but it is now, and has long been, altogether effete; and whilst there is an abundance of _A. cæsareus_ (by some said to be the most delicious of all fungi) for the markets of Italy, it is not to be expected that the consumption of this latter plant will be given up for another and less-known species. It is probable that _Agaricus cæsareus_ may one day be found in the southern parts of this country; if so, it will be known by its smooth _wartless_ crimson top, its yellow gills, and stout white stem springing from a large wrapper at the base (like fig. 7, Poisonous Sheet). The ketchup made from the meadow mushroom is, not without reason, looked upon as the best, although it may be obtained from many other species. I have seen persons gathering fungi for ketchup (to be sold in the markets), putting almost anything into their baskets so long as the species appeared likely to yield a black juice. I have known cows to be very fond of mushrooms; and a friend of mine in the country (who has more than once seen his cows, in the morning, go from mushroom to mushroom till all are consumed) goes regularly over his pastures every morning in the autumn, before the cattle are turned in, to secure the first gathering of the fungus crop. Sheep, squirrels, birds, and many other animals commonly eat raw mushrooms and other fungi. =Yellow-gilled Mushroom.= Fig. 6. (_Russula alutacea._) 536.