NERO

ERO'S diabolical sneer has been quoted by many a superficial gastronomer travelling on his savoury way, sicco pede so far as the ground is classical, when he has hailed the exquisite agaric or boletus that tickled his palate as 'the food of the Gods,' without a thought that he was repeating the murderous imperial sarcasm. You have only to open your Juvenal or Martial to find the boletus that helped to do the work springing up in the proper place. Cæsar's mushroom, Amanita cæsarea, as it is now called, has never, so far as we are aware, been found in our nook-shotten isle, though it occupied the choicest place in the old Roman boletar, and is equally prized by the modern Italian Prince. Happy he who discovers the delicious esculent on British ground, if it blushes unseen thereon, as is by no means impossible. In any case it might be introduced in the form of its spores or of its spawn, and would be well worth the trouble. There is no reason why it should not flourish here, especially, in our southern counties; and be it remembered that it is as wholesome as it is sapid, though it was made the vehicle, when spiced by Locusta, under the superintendence of Agrippina, for transmitting Claudius to the bourne whence there is no return even for descending emperors. Whether the Dutchman thinks of this when he calls the whole race of mushrooms Duyvel's broot, or gives them that

And again:

Song of the fairies.

name in compliment to the Prince of darkness, who is a gentleman, and may be consequently regarded as eating of the richest, such as a rebel or two in an Irish stew,t you may determine according to your estimate of Dutch or Devilish taste. But it was in allusion to the cause of the deification of his uncle that Nero characterized the fungi which carried him to Olympus, βρώμα Oev. Playful tiger! The dutiful son, to make way for whom she had sent his royal relation down the facile descent, hurled his mother to join him. The meeting of Dido and Eneas in the shades could hardly have been pleasant, but that of Claudius and Agrippina in Tartarus will be a subject for the next Dante or Beckford who shall arise to realize hell. When it came to Nero's turn to go down, after feasting his eyes on the followers of Him whose kingdom was not of this world, in their blazing tunica molesta-savage raillery that-and loaded with a hecatomb of murders, the party must have been complete. No eternally fire-encircled hearts in the Hall of Eblis could have burnt sharper, or glowed with greater anguish. Listen to the prophet:

Hell from beneath is moved for thee, to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.

All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us?

Juv. Sat. v. 1. 146.

Ibid. Sat. vi. 1. 619.

1859.]

Ro

We are, unfortunately or fortunately-according to the medium through which advancing years are viewed-old enough to remember more than one scarcity; one, in particular, as severe, though not so lasting, as that against which Joseph provided. Then, the Irish famine is fresh in the remembrance of many, and also the gratitude with which most generous English help was repaid, especially by the mans,' who cannot resist their propensity to make any Saxon-so the slang goes-assistance a stumbling stone of offence, even up to the hour in which we write. Even in ordinary years, if there be a partial failure in the potato crop, the poorer Milesians on the coast will tell you that they are driven to 'dulse' and other sea-ware that Neptune nourishes or casts upon the strand. The neighbouring sea may teem with the finest fish, but the Gael seldom takes kindly to fishing, except with a rod; and it is not extravagant to state that, in the autumn especially, thousands of pounds' weight of rich, sapid, nutritious food, containing elements of fish and flesh, are left ungathered by a starving population, who suffer it to rot, through fear or prejudice.

Ignorance is one of the greatest afflictions: she brings so many more in her train-and timidity is one of the foremost. Very far removed is this pusillanimous trembler from that wholesome caution which should guard the steps and regulate the acts of all who walk through the wilderness of this world. He whose narrow bigoted soul dares not think for itself, whether in matters of faith or in the ordinary events of life, must ever be a slave to the more potent spirit who possesses knowledge. Even if we descend to the consideration of the esculents necessary for our existence, we shall find that the intelligent and inde

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pendent man will fare sumptuously where the ignorant and prejudiced starve. And yet the majority of our Hibernian brethren hold the same faith with the dwellers in the city of the seven hills, which derives an annual revenue of some four thousand pounds sterling from the tax on Funghi-under a government, be it remembered, that condemns our delicious field and down mushroom* to be thrown into the Tiber under an escort.† We should just like to see how long John Bull would stand being marched by the police with his basket of snowy buttons or rosy-gilled expanded beauties, especially if they were his own gathering, to the Thames, the Avon, or the Humble, and seeing them ruthlessly consigned to the stream. Or fancy the same try on by the banks of the Ohio and Mississippi. If such arbitrary proceedings did not kindle a bellum fungicum, there's no snakes.

Nor is this all. The Ispettore dei Funghi has the power of fining and imprisoning those who break any of the regulations in fungus cases made and provided, and this potent officer is bound to make a weekly report to the Tribunale delle

Grascie.

But there is a well-worn and very true proverb touching dwellers in glass-houses and casters of stones. Protestant England is just as timid and peccant in this matter as her Roman Catholic sister. We write after a botanizing excursion in a rich and lovely southern county, on a brilliant October day. The woods, the meadows, the hedge-rows, the waysides, the growing and fallen timber, were teeming with fungi of all hues and shapes, and of these between thirty and forty species were not only esculent, but well, some deliciously, flavoured and nutritious. There were the rich Boletus edulis, numbers of Agarics-deliciosus among 'em, and the exquisite Agaricus procerus of some, colubrinus of others, immortalized by the wittiest of wanton wags. Oh,

VOL. LIX. NO. CCCXLIX.

F

Punch-whom our soul lovethhow couldst thou fright the isle from its gastronomic propriety by that perfect personification of panic? How couldst thou make each affrighted guest start with doom' stamped on his features as the complacent host explains to them that the delicious side dish of which they have been so freely partaking is not the common mushroom; it's a large fungus called the Agaricus procerus? It grows solitary in Hedge Rows, is called Colubrinus, from the snake-like markings on its stem. The pileus is covered with scales, which are formed by the breaking up of the mud-coloured Epidermis and-(General panic takes place.) It does, indeed. Oh, Pulicinellino squisitissimo, thou to whom an Empire and a Fungus are coequal, if thou hadst ever enjoyed this tall delight in the moment of projection from the hands of a chef or a cordon bleu, thou wouldst have tickled us othergates than thou didst. Oh, John Leech! much has thy magic pencil to answer for. That terror-stricken trio, and that characteristic sketch of our favourite tall agaric hanging on the wall of the dining-room, have kept back the fungus reform bill for years. the guests had been supping with Lucrezia Borgia, and had just heard their sentence of death from her avenging murderous lips, they could not have been more perfect pictures of horror and despair. To be sure, they might have had some excuse for their ecstasy of fear. They might have heard of the deadly agaricus muscarius, that most lovely and most deleterious mushroom. Who that sees this beautiful species, brilliant with its orange-coloured cap (reminding one of the hue of the once very rare orange cowry* in its finest state), starred with silvery downy tufts which age hardens into warts, as it strikes the eye by the wood-side, would fancy that it lures to delirium if not to destruction. Taste it not. You may as well eat of the insane root that takes the reason prisoner. Ask the Russ or him of Kamtschatka, or

If

the Koriar, who all use the mouchomore, as it is called, for intoxication, and worse purposes, whether they eat it fresh, dry, or make a hellbroth by immersing it in liquor made from the epilobium. See that Russian: he drinks the infernal draught. Now his eyes begin to roll; now convulsions seize on his limbs. He raves as the feverstricken patient raves.

Its votaries personify this diabolical agaric. If they are urged to suicide or crime, they declare that they obey its behests. Nay, to screw their courage to the stickingplace when they meditate assassination, they stimulate themselves to murder with the moucho-more.

Nothing, save the enemy of man -and even he is remarkable for politeness, and for helping people to have their way—is without some redeeming quality. The root and part of the stem of this brightlooking agaric, taken internally, in the shape of powder, is said to be efficacious in epileptic cases, and when applied externally, to dissipate glandular enlargements, wens, and indolent tumours, and to heal ulcers. Among its baser uses, the juice rubbed on the walls and bed-posts of Neapolitan dwellings and Anglican sea-side lodging-houses, may shield you from the attacks of the Cuirassiers, and even put to flight the Voltigeurs, the Scotch Greys, and the entomo-population generally, flat-bodied or rotund. If all tales be true, none of the parasitical troops, heavy or light, quartered on man as the consequence of the Fall, can stand before this sweeping router. When you are at home suffering from a plague of fliesand a wound from a fly, especially if it have previously fed on putrid flesh, has been followed by deaththe juice of this fungus infused in milk will summarily deliver you from their persecution. You will soon see them on their backs; and this mode of riddance is equally certain and far more humane than 'Catch 'em alive, O.'

The varieties of Agaricus muscarius, so called from its anti-mus