The condrion,[2672] or chondrylla, has leaves, eaten away, as it were, at the edges, and similar to those of endive, a stalk less than a foot in length and full of a bitter juice, and a root resembling that of the bean, and occasionally very ramified. It produces, near the surface of the earth, a sort of mastich,[2673] in a tubercular form, the size of a bean; this mastich, it is said, employed as a pessary, promotes the menstrual discharge. This plant, pounded whole with the roots, is divided into lozenges, which are employed for the stings of serpents, and probably with good effect; for field mice, it is said, when injured by those reptiles, are in the habit of eating this plant. A decoction of it in wine arrests looseness of the bowels, and makes a most excellent substitute for gum, as a bandoline for the eye-lashes,[2674] even when the hairs are most stubborn. Dorotheus says, in his poems, that it is extremely good for the stomach and the digestive organs. Some persons, however, have been of opinion that it is unwholesome for females, bad for the eyesight, and productive of impotence in the male sex.
CHAP. 46.—MUSHROOMS: PECULIARITIES OF THEIR GROWTH.
Among those vegetable productions which are eaten with risk, I shall, with good reason, include mushrooms;[2675] a very dainty food, it is true, but deservedly held in disesteem since the notorious crime committed by Agrippina, who, through their agency, poisoned her husband, the Emperor Claudius, and at the same moment, in the person of his son Nero, inflicted another poisonous curse upon the whole world, herself[2676] in particular.
Some of the poisonous mushrooms are easily known, being of a rank, unwholesome look, light red without and livid within, with the clefts[2677] considerably enlarged, and a pale, sickly margin to the head.[2678] These characteristics, however, are not presented by others of the poisonous kinds; but being dry to all appearance and strongly resembling the genuine ones, they present white spots upon the head, on the surface of the outer coat. The earth, in fact, first produces the uterus[2679] or receptacle for the mushroom, and then the mushroom within, like the yolk in the egg. Nor is this envelope less conducive to the nutrition of the young mushroom [than is the albumen of the egg to that of the chicken.] Bursting forth from the envelope at the moment of its first appearance, as it gradually increases it becomes transformed into a substantial stalk; it is but very rarely, too, that we find two growing from a single foot-stalk. The generative[2680] principle of the mushroom is in the slime and the fermenting juices of the damp earth, or of the roots of most of the glandiferous trees. It appears at first in the shape of a sort of viscous foam, and then assumes a more substantial but membranous form, after which, as already stated, the young mushroom appears.
In general, these plants are of a pernicious nature, and the use of them should be altogether rejected; for if by chance they should happen to grow near a hob-nail,[2681] a piece of rusty iron, or a bit of rotten cloth, they will immediately imbibe all these foreign emanations and flavours, and transform them into poison. Who, in fact, is able to distinguish them, except those who dwell in the country, or the persons[2682] that are in the habit of gathering them? There are other circumstances, too, which render them noxious; if they grow near the hole of a serpent,[2683] for instance, or if they should happen to have been breathed upon by one when just beginning to open; being all the more disposed to imbibe the venom from their natural affinity to poisonous substances.
It will therefore be as well to be on our guard during the season at which the serpents have not as yet retired to their holes for the winter. The best sign to know this by is a multitude of herbs, of trees, and of shrubs, which remain green from the time that these reptiles leave their holes till their return; indeed, the ash alone will be quite sufficient for the purpose, the leaves of it never coming out after the serpents have made their appearance, or beginning to fall before they have retired to their holes. The entire existence of the mushroom, from its birth to its death, is never more than seven days.[2684]
CHAP. 47. (23.)—FUNGI; SIGNS BY WHICH THE VENOMOUS KINDS MAY BE RECOGNIZED: NINE REMEDIES.
Fungi are of a more humid nature than the last, and are divided into numerous kinds, all of which are derived solely from the pituitous humours[2685] of trees. The safest are those, the flesh of which is red,[2686] the colour being more pronounced than that of the mushroom. The next best are the white[2687] ones, the stems of which have a head very similar to the apex[2688] worn by the Flamens; and a third kind are the suilli,[2689] very conveniently adapted for poisoning. Indeed, it is but very recently that they have carried off whole families, and all the guests at a banquet; Annæus Serenus,[2690] for instance, the prefect of Nero’s guard, together with all the tribunes and centurions. What great pleasure, then, can there be in partaking of a dish of so doubtful[2691] a character as this? Some persons have classified these fungi according to the trees to which they are indebted for their formation, the fig, for instance, the fennel-giant, and the gummiferous trees; those belonging to the beech, the robur, and the cypress, not being edible, as already mentioned.[2692] But who is there to give us a guarantee when they come to market, that these distinctions have been observed?
All the poisonous fungi are of a livid colour; and the degree of similarity borne by the sap of the tree itself to that of the fig will afford an additional indication whether they are venomous or not. We have already mentioned[2693] various remedies for the poison of fungi, and shall have occasion to make mention of others; but in the mean time, it will be as well to observe that they themselves also have some medicinal[2694] uses. Glaucias is of opinion that mushrooms are good for the stomach. The suilli are dried and strung upon a rush, as we see done with those brought from Bithynia. They are employed as a remedy for the fluxes known as “rheumatismi,”[2695] and for excrescences of the fundament, which they diminish and gradually consume. They are used, also, for freckles and spots on women’s faces. A wash, too, is made of them, as is done with lead,[2696] for maladies of the eyes. Steeped in water, they are applied topically to foul ulcers, eruptions of the head, and bites inflicted by dogs.