Translation into English of the Dutch translation of Hadrianus' Phalli by Thomas and Pam Kayser, October 2000. The Dutch translation used a 1601 version of Hadrianus' Latin work. I have not checked to see if the two versions of the publication are identical, which leaves open the possibility that this translation and the original 1564 work do not match precisely. The translation is of the text only and does not include a poem by Hadrianus and other matters.

After initially providing this as our English translation Jean-Marie Pirlot, a Latin scholar and amateur mycologist, pointed out a number of fasicinating sexual references that somehow got `lost' in the translation process. As a result we have added a modern English translation that both includes these corrections and tries to make the text more readable to a present day reader. The original English translation is included below.
 
 
 
 
 

Phalli. A description with pictures from life of the fungi growing occasionally  in the sand in Holland, by Hadrianus Junius physician and author. A new and previously unknown subject Delft By Harmann Schinckel, on the corner of Scholar's Street near the Old Temple. 1564.

(Latin Title Page)

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Though nobody should doubt that the reproducing powers and majesty of Nature and the holy mother Earth give us ample reason for admiration, if one considers what an immeasurable number of bushes, herbs, fruits, exist for the benefits and the pleasure of the human race, while the Almighty most certainly makes us believe that outside the more hidden cause in the world nothing will be reproduced - then both nature and earth, who have been serving the requirements and the needs of the people, have been accused by many mortals that they exhausted, not to say that they are depleted, as though the substances of the previous generosity would be consumed and depleted, while the kindness, never ending, from their own endeavor as through culture, present their ability to all, generous to everyone, always serving and even obedient, unless maybe the fact that the seeds of poisonous plants are less resistant, denies her this praise.

In order that we also bring praise to her generosity, we would like to describe a gift, that is known to few mortals, that is not mentioned by older or younger authors - as far as I know, that they have produced in the dunes of our country. We would like to describe this gift and thereby offer it to posterity, unless it is a proof of the playfulness of nature, unless it is a remarkable blessing to the well being of mankind, in our days when foot aches and joint diseases massively attack the people, so that it would no longer be hidden that the unknown but existing power to heal, which power, as they say, is very big for intense and unbearable pain in the joints. As is widely known, nature shows her remarkable game in her diversity of forms. In her remarkable way in so many complex forms of plants everybody is surprised by her imitations of cavities, grasses, pockets, beakers, hats, scorpions' tails, fingers, illuminated stars and hairs. In this way nature also imitates pictures in various types of fish; nettles, fleas, stars, reed stems, grapes, cucumbers, lungs, paint brushes and produces very often the shape of our plant on the Stoechadic Islands (Isles d'Hyeres) on the south coast of France. In order that other people will admire this product of nature in our country and will benefit from it, as far as that is possible, and learned men, who have more opportunity to read various papers and who have a richer gift of perception, would study it more carefully and work out its power, thus have I decided to make it common property through this publication and by these drawings portrayed and outlined by the hand of the excellent Maerten van Heemskerck (who sees the fame of his paintings only closed off by the borders of the earth) and by me written in prose and poetry in such a way, as it was perceived by my own eyes and more than once dug out from the middle of the reed. And surely an educated and truth loving person must, and who will not expose himself to slander, will not take the foolishness of Niger as an example, I would think, who is accused by Dioscorides for many things that are founded only on loose rumors and stories from other people, with little reliability and to hasty a judgement have entrusted to paper. But let me get back to the case.

It is well known that Holland, once no more than the land of the Batavians, in its western regions near the ocean has increased, through the favors of the River Rhine and through the tidal movements of the sea when the winds blew, with dams of sand, even in such a way that the beds of the most important rivers are blocked and diverted; those dams against the anger of the ocean, that otherwise would widely overflow the fields, seem to be built by divinity as a defense and restraint for flooding; but while there is almost nothing except those undulating sand masses leashed by the storms, threatening the lands with the danger of infertility more than the sea herself, the providence of Nature has reined, if it were, the sand and sand-drifts, subjected to the playfulness of the winds, subjected, conquered by the abundant growth of reeds. Thus I refer to a very hard and sharp type of reed, which is called in our language "helm" (marram grass). And now from the middle of these plants, but especially near older plants, rarely somewhere else, rather abundantly, comes up that stem, which is the close fence protected against passers by that would step on it. Just as the rose is protected by the row of her thorns. The first of our countrymen to discover the stem some years ago, as far as I know, a wagon driver, limp and with crooked legs, rather similar to Vulcan from the fable, while he repeatedly and diligently under the favor of the goddess of the hunt, was hunting the hares living in the reed beds; by mentioning it he has given us, me and Johannes Gallus, actually not the least of physicians, a real pleasant spectacle, a miracle of nature that I have revisited often with learned friends; what it looks like, I will now describe as clearly and briefly as possible. In the middle of the sharp reed, as I said, close below the surface of the sand, one finds a white round clod, looking like a small ball or tuber in shape and in color, below which is a filament, double or divided in two, serving as a root, that it uses (as I suppose) to suck up saps; it has an abundance of tough, sticky thick liquid like mash or slime, so heavy that it is heavier than water and comes close to the weight of molten lead, and it is also so cold that the mass, when it is in the hollow of the hand, creates a penetrating feeling of coldness. When it has just been taken from the hollow it is almost white, soon becoming purple colored while some blood veins run through it; different is the pale blue taint of the filament, which slowly changes into the black color of clotted blood. The slime, that I talked about, very quickly becomes liquid when its covering is pulled from the ground and runs off; and also the stem becomes flabby and spreads a very bad odor, which fills the complete space even of a large room. The covering usually breaks and splits, depending on the weather conditions, like a swelling. Then the straight stem or shaft comes out and one can take it out without damaging the covering. We also should not hide that, what I believe to be a miracle, yes even more than that, that once the covering has been plucked from the hollow, still complete and undamaged before it brings forward the stem and when it is then placed in a cupboard or a corner of the house, after a period of one or two days the stem will come out in its whole and real size.

(Click to see original woodcut)

When I had heard evidence from more than one reliable person, I wanted to do the test myself and thus I have seen with my own eyes the truth confirmed when I had put away two of these coverings in a hidden place in my study. The substance of the stem is fungous, loose, lighter than a feather, spotted, of an ash like color, with a continuous opening, which is made bare, smooth as it were, wider at the bottom, narrower at the end. The stem is round and will get as long as two palms of the hand; some say they have found them with a length of three palms. On top one doesn't find the hat or the cap such as we know from toadstools, but a helmet or a cap (bonnet), conical almost, which can be taken off, anyway, a gland-like shape, except for the fact that the skin is netted, as one can see on the udder of a cow which shows net shaped stripes. The top part, with more inward going wrinkles, has an opening which emanates a strong odor and therefore attracts the flies. This cap of the stem has one color. I have seen it, before I wrote this, seen in black on top of the white stem, but this must be due to old age, because with the withering the white changes into charcoal black; sometimes the color of the cap turns from ash grey into green, which will then soon turn into brown-yellow. So far we have described the appearance of the plant, as it exists of covering, stem, and a glans like helmet, as truthful as possible, why I have called it the Phallus can easily explained, yes, it is clear to everyone who has only greeted the threshold to Greece. That is because of the resemblance that it has with the object, made of any type of wood or fig tree wood, which was called the object Phallus or Ithyphallus by the superstition Phallagogia; the object was carried around during ceremonial services of the foolish heathens. What stops us to using a new word in a new case, since the diversity of the fungi have found different names, among which some sponges, other egg or finger shaped ones, some prune-shaped have been named? Anyway, whether our Phallus should fall under the class of fungi, I am not sure and I would not directly decide to do so, because I do not want to make a judgement before others do, who know more about the matter; the lightness however and looseness of the substance and (what is the first condition for the existence of sponges) the sour sap of the moist earth do witness that it belongs to the family of the fungi, although the folds and creases, that do not exist here, but do among fungi, do witness against it; there is also no trace of the cap that is normally connected to the stem, because the hat takes the place of the cap, can be taken off without damage; moreover the place of existence is also against it, because this plant can only be found in the dunes, and only there where old marram grass grows; fungi on the contrary, as declared uniquely by the authors, exist in swampy, dirty and through rotting moist places like close to the roots of the oak tree,

So far did I come with my writing when a letter reached me from Petrus Matthiolus, a prime expert of plants, which was sent to me by Joannes Sambucus Pamnonius, a man of unforgettable learning and equally civilised. While I read through the letter with interest I came upon the mention of the Funguscervinus or deer-fungus, and struck by the novelty of the case and because I immediately took hope that this concerned the same object as mine, I read it more eagerly than accurately, because as it looked on first impression to be similar to our plant. Nevertheless when I read everything again more carefully, it proved to be different from our plant. The hunters stated that it originates under the ground in game parks, ours originates in the dunes just below the surface of the sand in dense marram grass plants that provide the hares with their homes. The other is described as having some sort of spherical shape like other truffles, where ours is more long and round; the other one is black on the outside; ours is spotty and ash colored. What is similar, as the author writes, is that some of his plants have the shape of the Phallus, but what he tells about seeing the glans (glands) on one side and little round balls on the other side is complete lacking with our plants. This I would like to add at the end, that this tuber (turnip) or the covering, as it grows out of the marram grass plants and as it is hidden by them, in the language of the inhabitants of the dunes is called unger eggs which means: eggs of the ghosts of evil spirit.

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