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News & ArtsThursday, July 15, 2010
Books Darwin's Daughter and Those Penis Mushrooms
Posted by Charles Mudede on Thu, Jul 15, 2010 at 11:40 AM
I started reading Sex at Dawn this morning, and already (100 pages in) it has provided several wonderful passages, one of which concerns Charles Darwin's eldest daughter, Etty Darwin (she was the complete opposite of her father's very liberal and openly randy grandfather, Erusmus Darwin):
She waged a bizarre little war against the so-called stinkhorn mushroom (Phallus Ravelenlii) that still pop up in the woods around the Darwin estate. Apparently, the similarity of the mushroom to the human penis was bit much for poor Etty. As her niece (Charles’s granddaughter) recalled years later, “Aunt Etty…armed with a basket and a pointed stick, and wearing a special hunting cloak and gloves,” would set out in search of the mushrooms. At the end of the day, Aunt Etty “burned them in the deepest secrecy on the drawing room fire with the door locked—because of the morals of the maids.”
This is the penis mushroom:
- Tie Guy
4
Wow- Not sure what kinda “Peni” Miss Etty was used to looking at, but if I saw a penis that looked as small and diseased as that I wouldn’t hesitate to call 911- not for me but for the owner of said Peni...
Yes, I know Peni is not a proper word for penis plural... Just made it up now.
Yes, I know Peni is not a proper word for penis plural... Just made it up now.
5
Nobody going to go for it? Fine, I'll say it...
Which came first, the penis or the mushroom?
Yeah, I said it.
Which came first, the penis or the mushroom?
Yeah, I said it.
11
A third-hand account of second-hand reports made years after her banal actions with unfounded suppositions of her motives ....... Not science.
You're not encouraging me to read that book.
You're not encouraging me to read that book.
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