Order Hymenomycetes. Tribe Pileati. 



Plate XXXI. 



AGARICUS PUDICUS, Buiuard. 



Modest Agaric. 

 Series Derminus. Subgenus Pholiota. 



Spec. Char. Agaeichs ptjdicus. Solitary or csespitose. Pileus three inches or more broad, white tinged 

 with umber, convex, then expanded, obtuse, diy, smooth, polished. Stem solid, nearly equal, often curved at the 

 base, smooth above, fibrLUose below, tough, brown within towards the base. Ring deflexed, persistent. Gills 

 broad, ventricose, slightly rounded behind, adnate, whitish or pallid umber till clouded with the spores. Spores 

 dull brown, scarcely ferruginous. Flesh white, extremely tirm and crisp, taste at first agreeable, but leaving a slight 

 astringeucy on the palate, becomiug very unpleasant, and entirely losing its weight and substance in drying, not 

 deliquescing. Not esculent. 

 Agaricus pudicus, BulUard, Fries. 



Hah. Stump of elcu ; Hayes. May. 



When first tliis pure-looking, pretty Agaric presented itself, we hailed it with delight as the long- 

 sought " Pioppini," the famous esculent'Agaric so called in Italy. That it grew, not on a poplar, but from 

 the stump of an elm, was in some degree staggering to our faith ; but we commenced a careful drawing of 

 the welcome stranger, no longer a foreigner, but a native of our own country ! The specimens fonnd were 

 twins only, not more in a developed state, and, till their portraits were complete, of course breaking and 

 eating was out of the question ; the smell was quite agreeable, like a mushroom, and our faith remained 

 unshaken, till we, at last, were at liberty to taste. " Surely tliis substance must be very tough and indi- 

 gestible ? " we said to ourselves ; " but in Italy that seems no objection, perhaps stewing may soften it. 

 But hold, how unpleasant the apres-gout of the morsel we have masticated ! no esculent Agaric ever pos- 

 sessed that peculiar flavour ;" and then it was resolved that perhaps the astringent disagreeableness might 

 pass away in drying; so it was dried, and, strange as it may seem, the tough, firm, elastic flesh vanished, 

 leaving little fragile morsels so unsubstantial as to be really nothings. " And was it the Pioppini, then ?" 

 No, certainly not ; for further researches, when once doubt had been excited and a thorough examination 

 of the fungus made, identified it with A. jmclicus oi Fries, the Agaricus capemtus, a name erroneously 

 applied in the 'Flora' volume, and therefore not given as a synonym, lest it should mislead, the true 

 Agaricus caperatus of Fries being a Cortinarious fungus totally dissimilar. 



The true " Pioppini," the A. agerita of Fries's 'Epicrisis,' is yet to seek in England, and there is small 

 chance of finding it, since, although the Lombardy Poplar {Populus dilatata) is now so common here, the 

 first plant was brought from Italy by Lord Rochford, in his travelling-carriage, about eighty years ago, and 



