THE
ESCULENT FUNGUSES
OF
ENGLAND.
A TREATISE
ON THE
ESCULENT FUNGUSES
OF
ENGLAND,
CONTAINING
AN ACCOUNT OF THEIR CLASSICAL HISTORY, USES, CHARACTERS,
DEVELOPMENT, STRUCTURE, NUTRITIOUS PROPERTIES,
MODES OF COOKING AND PRESERVING, ETC.
BY
CHARLES DAVID BADHAM, M.D.
EDITED BY FREDERICK CURREY, M.A., F.R.S., F.L.S.
Πολλὰ μὲν ἔσθλά μεμιγμένα πολλὰ δὲ λυγρά.—Homer.
LONDON:
LOVELL REEVE & CO., HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN.
1863.
PRINTED BY
JOHN EDWARD TAYLOR, LITTLE QUEEN STREET,
LINCOLN’S INN FIELDS.
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
My lamented friend Dr. Badham having died since the firstpublication of this work, my advice was asked upon the subjectof the preparation of a new edition. It was wished thatthe text of the work should be altered as little as possible, andthat the price of the book should be materially lessened. Thelatter object could not be effected without reducing the numberof the Plates; but it appeared to me that some plates relatingto details of structure might very well be omitted, aswell as the figures of a few Italian species which, althoughinteresting in themselves, are quite unnecessary in a book onBritish Esculent Fungi. With the exception of the omissionof the description of these latter species, and the addition ofthe description of two other species hereafter referred to, thealterations in the text are too trifling to require notice. Withregard to the Figures in this edition, most of them are thoseof the former plates, somewhat reduced; a few have been takenfrom the plates of Mr. Berkeley’s ‘Outlines of British Fungology,’and a few from original and other sources.
By a re-arrangement of the whole, the reduction in thenumber of the Plates has been effected, and, at the same time,figures of all the Fungi represented in the first edition havebeen given, as well as of two other species not there noticed.[vi]I should observe, however, that by a mistake of the artist anextra figure of the Horse Mushroom has been inserted inPlate IV. instead of one of the Common Mushroom.
The two species above alluded to which were not figured inthe first edition, are Tuber æstivum and Helvella esculenta.The former must have been inadvertently omitted by Dr. Badham,as it has long been known as abundant in certain partsof England. Helvella esculenta, although alluded to by Dr.Badham, was not at that time known to be a British species.It has since been observed near Weybridge in Surrey, whereit occurs almost every spring. The plant figured in Pl. XV.fig. 6 of the first edition under the name of Lycoperdon plumbeum,i