Order Hymenomycetes. Tribe Fileati. 



Plate XXIV. 



AGARICUS RUTILUS, sch.ffer. 



Purplish-red Agaric. 

 Series Pratella. Subgenus Gomphxjs.* 



Spec. Char. Agaricus rutilus. Pileus from two to three inches broad, top-shaped, urubonate, sub-viscous, 

 brown-red, sometimes yellowish in the centre, the margin liver-colom-ed, shining. Gills decurrent, somewhat 

 branched, thick, firm, elastic, entire, the shorter connected with the longer, pm-ple-umber till discoloured by the 

 snuff-coloured spores. Stem from two to four inches high, from half to three-quarters of an inch thick, rhubarb- 

 cploured without and within, fibrillose, attenuated below, firm, solid, slimy from the remains of the veil which form 

 an obsolete filamentous ring. 

 Agaricus rutilus, Schceffer, Sowerby, Berkeley. 



gomphus, Persoou. 



GojiPHUs viscidus. Fries. 



II(f^. Scotch pine-woods; not uncommon. 



Fries considers tlie tltree funguses, wMcli with their two sub-varieties form his section Gomphidius, 

 as exactly intermediate between the Agarics and the Cantharelkises ; but it is not our intention to force 

 upon the general reader those more abstruse botanical distinctions which can only interest the mere myco- 

 logist ; a Gomphus is to all intents and purposes an Agaric with dark spores, and of the family two are 

 English, including one sub-species, the pretty rose-coloured variety of A. fflutinosus. 



A. rutilus is a bold handsome fungus, generally very abundant where it grows at all, which is inva- 

 riably under Scotch firs, in the late summer and early autumnal months ; by " solitary " it is not meant that 

 an Agaric grows isolated from its congeners, but singly as regards itself, not tufted or united by the stems 

 with others. It is very persistent for an Agaric, often remaining on dry sites, in the shape of a rigid 

 mummy, retaining all its character, and easily recognizable even in winter ; but in damp places, a parasitic 

 growth almost always infests the gills, and destroys the plant. This dusty mould is of a greenish-grey colour, 

 and pervades the whole under-surface of the pileus in a smooth coating, as the natural spores would do ; 

 indeed it has been mistaken for them ; but their colour is totally different, snuify-brown. A metamorphosis 



' From ynfKpos, a wedge. Gills strongly decurrent, branched, distant, distinct, changing colour, persistent, 

 quite entire. Veil universal, glutinous, concrete. Stem firm, solid. Pileus fleshy, tm-binate, viscid, smooth, 

 margin inttexed. Spores dark, analogous to Limacium. Large, solitary, persistent fungi growing on the ground. 



