palatable to insect larvae as well to ourselves ; and when they have taken possession, we will allow them to 

 retain it, for most assuredly it is no longer worth a contest. 



Although a large and solid species, A. nchHlaris appears to arrive at this weight and bulk without 

 deriving any assistance from the earth. Various kinds of dead leaves form its nidus, and, on lifting it up, 

 remain caked together and attached to it by a profuse cottony web permeating the mass, bracing up and 

 supporting the stout stem and well-balanced pileus ; whenever any circumstance oocurs to affect this 

 balance, the stem makes a bend to counteract it, thus permanently curving the bulb. Windy exposed 

 sites are never chosen as a habitat by our friend ; dry ditches where leaves lie thickly, and irregular 

 ground affording sheltered nooks, are its favourite haunts ; the beech is the tree preferred as a neighbour ; 

 the leaves of others may be mixed in the attached mass, but we have never found it in Kent, except where 

 the predominant fohage was that of Fagiis sylvatica. Not many habitats have been cited in England ; 

 but probably in the glorious groves of the Chilterns, as at Ashridge, where the silver trunks rise branchless 

 for thirty or forty feet, like " the i)illars of some fair aisle," an explorer might be rewarded by plentiful 

 groups of our excellent Agaric. It is strictly an autumnal fungus, for it cannot appear till leaves enough 

 have fallen to make a nidus : perhaps the leafy conglomerate affords an artificial heat which stimidates its 

 production, but the cotton sheathing the bulb must not be supposed similar in nature to the " spawn " of 

 mushrooms, it has nothing to do with the propagation, being merely a most admirable mechanical contriv- 

 ance to sustain the fungus upright. That an Agaric so substantial should derive nutriment only from 

 the atmosphere, dew, or rain, seems indeed surprising, yet so it must be, for the fibres of the cottony 

 investment can scarcely absorb and convey to the plant, from the leaves, any material supply of food ; at 

 any rate, it must be granted, that our elegant friend is not, like many plants, a " gross feeder," and we 

 naturally infer a purer wholesomeness as diet for ourselves from the ethereal natm'e of an Agaric's food, 

 than if it abstracted it from dungy pastures. 



Agaricus pileolarius of Bulliard (plate 400) is our A. nebularis, which Persoon recommends in his 

 'Champignons Comestibles' as very agreeable in flavour (the tazza-shaped A. pileolarius of Sowerby, given 

 in our First Series, although a near relative, is very different). Persoon says it is common in forests, par- 

 ticularly those of pine; we suspect it is the vaiicty A. tiirgidiis, oi GreviUe, wMch prefers this locahty. 

 Fries is undoubtedly right in ascribing that more clumsy and darker-hued individual to this species ; we 

 had come to the same conclusion long before we saw the ' Epicrisis.' 



There is a very magnificent Agaric in general habit of growth, site, and season, much resembling 

 A. nebularis to the cursory observer, but the student will observe that the gills are tinged with violet, and 

 the spores are reddish-ochre. Perhaps this latter is A. violaceus of Sowerby (not the true A. violaceus, 

 the "bishop" of mushrooms), confused with tlie Blewit, A. personatns, but referred by Fries to Cortinarius 

 myrtillinus ; another season must elapse before we can settle this question satisfactorily. 



