Order Hymenomycetes. Tribe Pileati. 



Plate XXIX. 



AGARICUS DRYINUS, Persoon. 



Oak Agaric. 



Series Leucospobus. Subgenus Pleuropus. 



Spec. CJtar. A. uryinus. Veil iiniversal, fugacious. Pileus horizontal, oblique, excentrie, compact, hard, 

 about three inches broad, nearlj' smooth, whitish, the surface broken into brown adpressed scales ; the margin in- 

 volute, with fragments of the broad woven veil adhering to it ; flesh continued into the stem, white. Gills white, 

 not very broad, decurrent, forked, crisp. Spores white. Stem firm, almost woody, tomentose at the base ; the 

 whole plant, and the stem in particular, turns yellow when bruised, and in drying. Taste and smell agreeable ; 

 doubtless esculent. 



Agaricus drpnus, Persoon, Fries, Berkeley. 

 Goquillc du Chene, Paulet. 



Hdb. Rare. Upon an oak at Hayes. 



The veil is a distinctive character of this Agaricus dri/iniis, from all other ascertained English species 

 of the genus Pleuropus, or side-footed Agarics, so that the student can scarcely fail to recognize, if he 

 should ever find it. Being a very rare, and therefore interesting subject, we intend to present it under 

 both aspects, — as it grows, in the present plate, showing only the pileus, and in another, giving the reverse, 

 with the gills running down the stem, resembling slightly those of the remarkable A. euosmus, of our First 

 Scries. There is notliing very striking to fix the appearance of the pileus upon the memory, its being 

 fringed with the white. fragments of the ruptured universal veU, which also remain in soft brown scales upon 

 its surface, being the main characters to attend to. 



It is certainly Paulet's Coquille du Chene, and we could detect no quality in our specimen which 

 should cause a difference of opinion with that gastronomic authority ; but unfortunately we could not aiford 

 to eat our subject ; by the time two drawings from it had been executed, it was besides not in a very good 

 condition, so we buried it with decent respect, in our Perela Chaise for funguses, from which we are in the 

 habit of supplying our flower-beds with the richest of manures ; a manure of decayed Agarics, Boletuses, 

 &c., of any description, being far superior in certainty and effect to guano, which may bum, or vegetable 

 soil, which is full of weeds. We give this hint gladly to our gardening friends, but another to accompany 

 it. Unless covered with earth to keep in the putrefactive gases, the smell will prove very obnoxious ; after 

 thorough decomposition has taken place, the earth above should be mixed into the mass intimately as com- 



