very peculiar and cau scarcely admit of mistake ; it is liberally hosed in the remains of the veil, closely 

 drawn in, adpressed to it in several distinct bands. "Ye\um._fusm(m passim cingulatum" (Fries). The 

 arachnoid veil would seem to consist of two parts, the outer one reddish, mose densely woven, cracking 

 into dark cingulations by the elongation of the stem. The inner portion remaining attached to the margin 

 of the pileus and ring-circle of the stem in the form of dehcate wliite threads ; very slight traces of this 

 inner cortinarious covering ultimately remain round the border of the pileus, giving the appearance of a pallid 

 zone above the extreme mai'gin. It is not glutinous, although in wet weather it appears to be so. In groups 

 of eight or ten, the bright yeUow caps close together, it is a very showy handsome Agaric, but in that case 

 seldom regularly shaped, owing to the compression of some by others ; but where a solitary individual has room 

 for display, its elegance and beauty are striking. In 1 849, several patches, more than a foot across, and con- 

 sisting, on an average, of ten individuals, occupied a few square yards, taking a tolerably regular circular arrange- 

 ment ; we helped ourselves KberaUy, and perhaps the disturbance of the ground prevented the next season's 

 growth being equally luxuriant ; whether it was so, or the season itself unpropitious (which it was to most 

 fungus growths), in 1850 our Agarics had dwindled sadly. We shall find them no more ; the site has 

 been carefully weeded, the bushes, which bore the most delicious blackberries weary botanist ever feasted 

 upon, are eradicated, and the whole thickly chalked ; doubtless the sheep were looking on with great 

 admii-ation at operations which would ensure their fleeces from thorns, and give them a sweeter bite, but 

 we turned aside and grieved over our A. suManaitts — over splendid examples of the true A. necator, which 

 we always were going to depict, but prettier things would press before them — over " Ilygropliorm lepo- 

 rinus" (Fries), with its anomalous ruddy spores, which, new to England, grew close by, and wiU never 

 grow again, and we had not painted it because a well-meaning companion, exclaiming " Nothing but 

 jjraiensis /" ibxew it away. If all that we have longed to portray had been executed! But, alas ! who 

 ever performed all they designed and desired ? 



