Punch (59.1870)

November 12, 1870.] PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI. 197

LA. GAZZA LADE.A.

" Pyat " in Scotch means Mag-pie—a kind
of bird famous for pilfering and prattling.
M. Felix Pyat, of Red Republican noto-
riety, now in Paris, seems determined to act
up to his name. He pilfers the airs, attitudes,
and acts of the Republicans of 1792, and he
prattles in his organ, Le Combat—ye Gods,
how he does prattle !—what he certainly no
more understands than the magpie the words
it repeats by rote. We are glad to learn
by the last balloon post that this mischievous
magpie has been silenced—by the most ap-
propriate means, ridicule and contempt.

Would all other blatant blockheads of the
same genus, now doing their best to discredit
French pluck, and make the resistance of
Paris seem hopeless, could be snuffed out as
we learn M. Pyat has been.

Cruel Case.

A small boy of Stockton-on-Tees
Was dreadfully bitten by fLeeeea,
He went to his Nus,
Who made matters worse
By putting him in among bees.

Apparently a Grievance.

TWO SIDES OF THE QUESTION

The Post-Office has hitherto afforded the
public a great accommodation in the convey-
ance of small parcels. This is now largely
curtailed and the alteration appears to cause
[ much dissatisfaction and inconvenience.

Nurse. "I can not allow Butter and Jam, too, on your Brbad, Master Alfred. Sufficient reasons can, perhaps, be given for
It is very Extravagant."

Master Alfred. " It can't be Extravagant, Mary, if the Same Piece of Bread does
for both."

the change : otherwise we shall not consider
ours to be quite so much of a pattern post as
we have hitherto thought it.

MYCOPHAGY AND MYCOLOGY.

you like, you can also explore the woodlands and see where it grows,
with other things of the same sort equally good, no less tough to the
organs of speech and equally tender to the nerves of taste, if you will
vouchsafe to be guided by your ancient Smelpungus

Sweet Mr. Punch,

How do you think you would have relished the repast men-
tioned in the subjoined extract from a newspaper? One can imagine
it to have been the counterpart of a genuine " Dinner after the Manner > . n,nT itd uf wttu \ twtqt

of the Ancients" ; particularly the Ancient Romans :- j A INGRAM U ITH A T WIS1.

" Perth.—Society of Natural Science.—At a meeting of the Perth- The Aurora Borealis must have played some strange pranks, not to
shire Society of Natural Science, held on Friday evening, a paper was read ! say " Old Gooseberry," with the wire which, the other day, transmitted
by Mr. Saddler, assistant to Professox Balfour, Edinburgh, entitled 1 the following telegram from Lille :—
' Contributions to the Flora of Perthshire,' and cue by Dr. Buchanan White,

President of the Society, on ' Sugaring for Moths.' After the meeting, the " An aeronaut who left Paris on the 27th, arrived here to-day. His bal-
members adjourned to the Moncrieffe Arms Hotel, where supper was prepared, loon descended at Metz, in the midst of the Prussian lints on Thursday, and
consisting of different species of funguses, cooked in almost every conceit-able he was obliged to burn his despatches and fly through Belgium. No official
manner. The dishes most relished were Boletus edulis, Coprinus eomatus, and reports have, therefore, been received."
gar*cu8 canypestrw What were the Prussians about to let this French aeronaut, whose

"Sunt tibi boletijungos ego sumo suillos." Your friend Martial (1 don't '. balloon fell in the midst of their lines, burn his despatches and fly through
mean Captain Dyngwell) drew a distinction not understood by modern Belgium? How chanced they not to secure his despatches, and to
mycologists and mycophagists. Every boletus nowadays is a fungus, ■ make himself prisoner? It is impossible to understand, except on the
though not every fungus is a boletus. Of course you know that a great supposition that when the balloon fell he was not, in it. Had he, then,
variety of funguses are eatable; but few Britons dare venture upon previously flown away to Belgium through the air? If so, he might,
any but the Common Mushroom {Agaricus campeslris above named), one would think, have carried his despatches with him, and need not
Very likely their fear may be heightened by apprehension of injury to have burned them. This telegram requires explanation.

their teeth in table-talk over thinas with such crackjaw names as _

those of which the foregoing are mild examples. Lt is an exertion, -

for epicures at least, to articulate them. You may find no difficulty in Aqueous Attraction,

saying Tricholoma gambosus, Amanita strobiliformis, or Lepiota procerus.

But some of your readers will have a little. However, there is no help Smiles may have been occasioned by a contemporary in publishing
for it. We have hardly any trivial name for any fungus but the the subjoined announcement :—

Common Mushroom aforesaid. The Marasmius Oreades is called in " Bournemouth.—This fashionable watering-place is full to overflowing,
English-French " Champignon," the Cantharellus cibarius, in the same j and almost every house has been engaged for the winter months."
tongue " Chantarelle " ; we name the Morchella esculenta " Morel," and I 0ue cannot he] Tihlnking that a watering-place, full to overflowing,
the Tuber xshvum Truffle, but otherwise almost every fungus which ; must be rather to£ d to*be leasant>
the people do not call a Mushroom, they call a loadstool. The Boletus \
edulis enjoyed by the Perthshire naturalists would be "to the general"
a toadstool of the fattest aud most frightful species ; the more knowing
inhabitants of Bordeaux regale themselves upon it as a delicacy under
the name of cep, so called, i fancy, because thereabouts it likes to grow
at the foot of the vine. They, you see, don't make a mouthful of the
word, but they eat the thing. Do likewise if ever you have a chance,

The Amazons of the Seine.

which you may have early next summer, please Jupiier Piuvius, and, if arms c* ladies,

M. Allix, the Secretary of the Amazons, was once famous for a
project of telegraphy by sympathetic snails. He seems now to have
transferred his hopes from snails in the hands of men, to slugs in the

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