254 



HARD WICKE >S S CIE NCE - G O SSIE. 



of the genus are persistent membranous gills and a 

 filamentous trama continuous with the pileus ; but 

 those of the sub-genera are very miscellaneous and 

 confused : differences in the character of the velum 

 or veil, whether present or present only in the form of 

 an annulus, or wanting entirely in any shape ; con- 

 fluence or otherwise of the hymenophorum with the 

 stem ; decurrence or other peculiarity of the lamella; ; 

 peculiarities of the stem, of the pileus, of its margin ; 

 presence of a volva or absence thereof. In one sub- 

 genus there is no stem — Pleitrotus. Of this we gathered 

 a specimen from the dead trunk of a tree : the gills 

 •are narrow, and margin of the pileus remarkably in- 

 curved. Illustrative of the scaly-cuticled sub-genus 

 Lepiota we found a few specimens of L. rachoides 

 growing singly in a hedge ; besides this peculiarity, it 

 has a stem furnished with an annulus, and is alto- 

 gether a pretty little plant. Not unfrequently A. 

 {Amanita) riibescens was met with, rather a hand- 

 some fungus with a brownish warty cuticle and white 

 gills, bulbous and ringed stem : the rubescent cha- 

 racter is not very decided, sufficiently so, perhaps, to 

 warrant the use of the term ; the bulb and stem when 

 broken exhibited this characteristic more clearly than 

 the pileus : edible. 



Less frequent was another, — not edible as this, but 

 very poisonous species, A. {Amanita) plialloides, with 

 stem strongly ringed, and a bulb furnished with a 

 volva free above ; white, except the upper part of the 

 pileus, which has a yellowish tinge. A ringless but 

 bulbous fistulose-stemmed Amanita we found in A. 

 Cecilia, also furnished with a volva, and with a pileus 

 more persistently waited than that of A. rubescens. 

 It is a much smaller species, and the brownish colour 

 of the pileus is of a colder shade, greyish or mouse- 

 coloured. A. {Tricholoma) nudus we observed only 

 in one place, a handsome, but probably very dan- 

 gerous mushroom : there was one small patch of it, 

 three or four growing closely together (fig. 206). 

 Pileus obtuse, moist, pale violet shaded with brown ; 

 gills and short, thick bulbous stem of a beautiful 

 violet throughout. The warted scarlet pileus oi A. 

 muscarius we looked for in vain, — one of the hand- 

 somest, at the same time one of the most poisonous of 

 its tribe. ( Tricholoma) A. ptrsonatus is more frequent, 

 but grows singly, here and there, in open grassy 

 places : the pileus is convex, obtuse even, moist and 

 of a pale ochre-colour; gills dirty white, stem ring- 

 less, firm, and covered with a stain of pale violet. 

 On the stumps of decayed or felled trees was the 

 well-known A. (ITyplioloma) fascicularis, with its 

 dull rufous-coloured pileus, passing into yellow at the 

 borders, yellow fistulous stems, and greenish-grey 

 gills : and in many parts of the forest growing in 

 patches, often of a circular- form, H. sublaterilius, 

 much like the preceding species. 



Examples of a section of Agarics (among our 

 specimens), characterized as having pilei clothed with 

 fibrillose scales, usually umbonate (a), or sub- 



umbonate [b), and fibrillose stems, we have in two 

 kinds of Hebeloma ; the colour of the cuticle in a is 

 golden brown : and in A. (Clitocybe) laccatus we have 

 a pileus the very reverse of umbonate, viz., the umbi- 

 licate form : it grows on dead leaves abundantly in 

 the forest ; colour variable, from flesh-coloured to 

 cinereous grey and pale cobalt. Clitocybe candicans 

 is also plentiful. On the margin of a pond, not far 

 from the "Wake Arms," we obtained several fine 

 specimens of A. (Pholiota) aitreus, a mushroom re- 

 markable for its pileus brilliantly coloured of a golden 

 tawny hue, and, examined with a lens, sprinkled with 

 closely adpressed or innate hairy scales of an orange 

 colour, which impart no doubt a brilliancy to the 

 plant in its living state, but which fades away when 

 no longer fresh. 



Last, and not by any means least of the Agarics, 

 is a tall species of Collybia (C. radicatus), plentiful in 

 the wood behind Loughton. It is furnished with a 

 long tap-root, the stems at least six inches long, 

 slender, and tapering upwards ; pileus of a greyish 

 brown, smooth, moist, plane, and umbonate. 

 (To be continued.) 



A GOSSIP ABOUT NEW BOOKS. 



ON nothing does a "war fever" leave its mark 

 more impressively than scientific literature. 

 The tide of true progress is then stemmed, if not 

 rolled back. The literary history of the last two 

 years proves how few important works of science 

 have issued from the press. And yet that period has 

 been marked by scientific discoveries of the most 

 important and even sensational character. It is the 

 epoch of the Telephone, the Microphone, and Phono- 

 graph ; of the Radiometer, Otheoscope, and other 

 instruments, which revealed to us the molecular mys- 

 teries of matter. 



It is with much pleasure that we turn to a short 

 notice of a few books which have for the last month 

 or two been accumulating on our library table. The 

 short space at our disposal does not enable us to do 

 that justice to some of them which they require. 

 "Tropical Nature," by Alfred R. Wallace (London : 

 McMillan & Co.), deserves a leading place in any 

 notice of new books. The volume consists of a series 

 of essays, chiefly relating to animal and plant life in 

 equatorial regions, speculations as to the colours of 

 birds and animals, flowers and fruits, and how they 

 have arisen through the process of natural selection. 

 All are written in that delightsome manner which 

 characterizes Mr. Wallace's other books. The chapter 

 on humming-birds is one of the most charming ever 

 penned by its original writer. That on the distribution 

 of animals as indicating geographical changes is a re- 

 markably clear piece of philosophical generalization. 

 By this time most readers of natural history will have 

 read " Tropical Nature," and our advice to those who 

 have not yet had the opportunity is that they should 



