Order Hymenomycetes. Tribe Pileaii. 



Plate XXVIII. 



AGARICUS PYXIDATUS, Buiuard. 



Box-like Agaric. 

 Series Leucosporus. Subgenus Omphalia.' 



Spec. Char. A. Pyxidatus. Pileus infundibiiliform, bistre, at length turning pale with a pinkish tinge, 

 scarcely sub-camose, the centre quite membranaceous and at length often pervious. Gills narrow, decurrent, 

 distant, rather thick, slightly rufescent. Stem flexuous, solid at first, then hollow, especially above, thickened and 

 pubescent at the base. 



Agaricus pyxidatus, BulUard, Fries, Berkeley. 

 turfosus, Sowerby. 



Hah. Among grass in exposed pastures, Northamptonshire, Mr. Berkeley. At Keston, Kent, in heatliy soil, 

 Miss F. Heed. 



The whimsical name of this pretty little Agaric is not easily accounted for, unless we suppose the 

 colour resembling box-wood to have suggested it. Sowerby's invention as a designation is a droll specimen 

 of latinizing ; turf-oms being probably meant to suit an Agaric growing upon turf. In England it lias 

 seldom been found, but on the lieathy brow of Hayes Common and Keston we have two or three times col- 

 lected small specimens, those depicted being rather larger than usual. It is a very elegant little fungus, in 

 curious contrast with some of th6 infundibuliform monsters, for instance A. giganteus, one of which held a 

 pint and a half, fairly measured, and was not broken by the weiglit of tlie water. 



This is strictly an autumnal Agaric, appearing in the dewy cool days when all the abundance springing 

 up from heat storms has longed passed away, having afforded a nidus and food to the immature insects. 

 We have had a dense swarm of the small gnat-like Tipulas hatched in a basket where funguses had been 

 forgotten in July ; and as these merry midges dance in the cool still evenings of October, they no longer 

 require the rich pabulum which noui'ished them in their larva state, and was so plentifully afforded by 

 A. ruhescens and many another Agaric and Boletus, under the old oak-trees. All the Tipulas seem 

 greatly indebted to various fungus growths for the means of growth to themselves ; the larvse are very 



' From ofi^aXof, an umbilicus. Veil none. Stem stuffed, at length generally hollow, not bxdbous. Pileus 

 membranaceous, carnoso-membranaceous, or even carnoso-coriaceous and almost corky ; when young, umbilicate, 

 then expanded, or altogether infundibuliform, the margin reflexed or patent. Gills adnate or decurrent, never only 

 adnexed or free, unequal, juiceless. 



