[2688] A cap worn by the Flamen; or chief-priest, of a somewhat conical shape; very similar in form to the Russian helmet of the present day.
[2689] “Swine mushrooms.” Fée suggests that this may be the Boletus edulis of Bulliard.
[2690] A valued friend of the philosopher Seneca, as we learn from Tacitus, and Seneca’s Epistles, Ep. 63.
[2691] See Martial’s Epigrams, B. i. Ep. 21.
[2692] In B. xvi. c. 11. In that passage, however, the pine is mentioned, and not the beech.
[2693] In B. xx. c. 13, et passim.
[2694] Fée says that the fungi are but little used in modern medicine: the white bolet, he says, or larch bolet, is sometimes employed as a purgative, and some German writers have spoken in praise of the Boletus suaveolens of Bulliard as a remedy for pulmonary phthisis. The agaric known as amadue, or German tinder, is also employed in surgery. Fée remarks that all that Pliny says as to the medicinal properties of mushrooms and fungi is more or less hazardous.
[2695] Rheums, or catarrhs.
[2696] See B. xxxiv. c. 50.
[2697] “Sucinis novaculis.” This may possibly mean “knives of amber;” and it is not improbable that the use of amber may have been thought a means of detecting the poisonous qualities of fungi.