THE MEDICINAL PROPERTIES OF OUR GERANIUMS. 175 



root rounded but not bulbous, whitened with the mycelia, 

 the shaft of the same colour as the pileus, paler on the lower 

 half, covered with the ochraceous powder or slightly squam- 

 mulose, the flesh white, yellowish under the epidermis ; the 

 portion of stalk within the veil is pale, a very little fibrilose, 

 but not powdered. Diameter of the pileus 3 inches ; height 

 of the stem 5 inches, the diameter nearly an inch ; breadth 

 of the gills 2-lOths. — From the woods at Anton's-hill, Sept. 

 16, 1845. 



This truly magnificent agaric was ascertained satisfactorily 

 to be the Agaricus caperatus of Fl. Dan. t. 1675, by the Rev. 

 M. J. Berkeley, to whom a specimen was sent. It is not the 

 Ag. caperatus of the English Flora, nor the Ap. pudicus of 

 Bulliard ; and is a beautiful addition to the already exten- 

 sive list of British species, for which we are indebted to the 

 researches of Miss Anne Hunter, an honorary member of 

 the Club. The spores, Mr, Berkeley says, are very pecu- 

 liar. ''Its greatest peculiarity,'' says Miss Anne Hunter, 

 " is its being so profusely covered over its pileus, curtain, 

 and stem, with a yellowish powder, in such quantities as to 

 make it disagreeable to gather, as gloves and everything it 

 came in contact with was covered. And I am much struck 

 with the toughness and permanency of the curtain, which 

 remains after the pileus has attained its full size." 



When small and young the pileus is obtusely campanulate, 

 but in other respects it does not differ from the mature 

 plant. Miss Hunter has found it on one spot only in the 

 wood behind the house of Anton's-hill, and there sparingly. 

 Like most of its genus it is eaten greedily by slugs and the 

 maggot of a dipterous fly ; and it seems to be, says Miss 

 Hunter, " a most favourite food of a sort of beetle," which 

 permits very few specimens to attain maturity without great 

 mutilation. 



On the Medicinal Properties of our Geraniums. 

 By Dr. Johnston. 



A few weeks ago my friend Dr. Edgar brought a plant to 

 me to have it named. It was a dried fragment of Geranium 



