48 AGARICUS. 



Tricholoma. On the ground. King's Lynn. 



Name naKpos, long, p<a, a root. Lasch n. 240. Fr. Hym. Eur. p. 58. 

 C. Illust. PL 278. A. macrocephalus Schulz. in Kalchbr. Fung. Hung. p. n. 

 t. 3 ./. i. 



87. A. saponaceus Fr. Pileus 5-10 cent. (2-4 in.) broad, 

 normally fuscous-livid, fleshy, convex then flattened, obtuse, 

 wholly smooth, moist in rainy weather, but never viscous, even, 

 then when dry more or less rimoso-rivulose, dotted or broken up 

 into scales ; margin thin, at first inflexed, very smooth ; flesh 

 whitish, often becoming red. Stem 5-7.5 cent. (2-3 in.) long, 

 12 mm. (y z in.) and more thick, solid, often unequal, as curved, 

 rooted at the attenuated base, pallid. Gills uncinato-emargin- 

 ate, distant, thin, quite entire, in groups of 2-4, becoming pale- 

 white. 



Pileus varying in colour, whitish, cinereous, green, becoming black. Stem 

 sometimes smooth, sometimes squamulose when early in deciduous woods, 

 sometimes elegantly reticulated with black fibrils in later autumn in moun- 

 tainous pine woods, Fr. Icon. t. 32, lower fig. It varies with the gills becom- 

 ing yellow, such as A. napipes Krombh. t. 28. f. 23, 24. Scarcely any species 

 has been more confounded with others. It may always be safely distinguished 

 by its odour, which is wholly peculiar, rather soapy than nitrous (quite different 

 from that of A. alkalinus, Hygrophorus murinaceus, &c. ), also by the compact 

 not fragile substance, by the distant gills, by the smooth cuticle of the pileus 

 at length cracking into scales, and likewise by spots, which are often reddish, 

 both on the flesh and stem when wounded. 



In deciduous and pine woods. Common. Aug.-Nov. 



I have found an exceedingly handsome form in which the stem (figured in 

 Cooke's Illust. PL 216) is beautifully marked with regular zones of small black 

 scales. Spores sphaeroid-ellipsoid or subsphaeroid, 5x4 mk. K.; 4-5 x 2-3 

 mk. B.; 6x4 mk. W.G.S. Name sapo, soap. From the odour. Fr. 

 Monogr. i. p. 69. Hym. Eur. p. 59. Icon. t. 32, upper fig. Berk. Out. p. 

 101. C. Hbk. n. 58. Illust. PL 91, 216. S. Mycol. Scot. n. 51. A. 

 argyraceus Berk. Eng. Fl. v. p. 18 partly. A. madreporeus Batsch t. 36. f. 

 203. A. argyrospermus Bull. t. 602. A. fusiformis Schum. FL Dan. t. 1729. 

 A. murinaceus Krombh. t. 72. /. 6-18. 



88. A. cartilaginous Bull. Pileus 5-7.5 cent. (2-3 in.) and 

 more broad, fleshy, not compact, rigid, somewhat fragile, convex 

 then expanded, gibbous, undulated, smooth, delicately and densely 

 black-dotted from the cuticle being broken in minute cracks ; flesh 

 white. Stem 2.5-5 cent. (1-2 in.) and more long, almost 2.5 cent. 

 (i in.) thick, hollow, curt and firm, but fragile, shining white, the 

 surface polished, even, smooth. Gills emarginato-sinuate, crowded, 

 moderately thin, 4 mm. (2 lin.) broad, white, then becoming pale- 

 grey but pure. 



When young convex, obtuse, with the involute margin pubescent, then ex- 

 panded, undulato-repand (rimosely incised when dry), very obtuse, with the 



