17 SEPTEMBER 1932, Page 12

MUSHROOM PREJUDICES.

Country people have enjoyed a longer and bigger harvest of mushrooms than they can remember. They have appeared in numbers even on cricket fields and tennis lawns in the three commonest species ; agaricus campestris, champignon (or fairy ring mushroom) and puffball, all three quite good to eat though we restrict ourselves to the first. Why is it that the French eat what we reject, and in one case vice-versa ? Are Latin and Saxon stomachs differently constituted ?

W. BEACH THOMAS.