dogs had worked those involuntary experimentalists no harm ; and then to send forth this statement among 

 those who, knowing no better, beUeve it ! Why should Fries doubt your word ? or any one, indeed, who 

 has not the means of verifying or disproving it ? for it is not a common Agaric, this poor A. rachodes. 



Now for simple truth ; and first to notice one point : — Vittadini's portrait, with a species of foliage 

 pattern running between the scales, is in fancy costume. The genuine plant is coarse, rough, and 

 inelegant ; beauty we cannot say it possesses : there is a sort of bold picturesqueness about it, that is all. 

 It is very much less elegant in every way than its relative A. jyrocerus : they resemble each other as the 

 wild horse and one of Meux's dray elephants may do. In a youthful state, A. rachodes is excellent eaten 

 in substance ; when old, and in texture Klce chamois-leather, the ketchup it affords is scanty in quantity, 

 but super-excellent in quahty, as we doubt not even our Italian fi'iends would aUow. Strange that neither 

 they nor the Prench have any notion of tliis exclusively English dainty, ketchup. In the London market 

 those who deal knowingly in the sauce-manufacture give the best price for procerus mushrooms, including 

 both the true variety and this A. rachodes in one category; the latter indeed, yielding more juice, is pre- 

 ferred. Dry salt wiU not disintegrate the substance enough to make ketchup; a very potent brine is the 

 best medium for the purpose, but the experimentalist must use little of it, and not boil the Uquor obtained. 

 Having given, in our article on A. procerus, as complete a set of distinctions between the two as we knew 

 how, very slight recapitulation seems needful. Pirst, however, we may point out the curious conical cap 

 worn by the infant Agaric — a regular hourrelet screens its tender head : it is speedily deciduous, and we 

 have found no notice of it elsewhere ; this appendage is quite unlike the remains of the universal veil in 

 any other fungus. 



AgaricMs rachodes. Agaricus procerus. 



Much more robust in all its proportions ; firm and Taller, more graceful, less fleshy, 

 stout. 



Not umbonate. Umbonate. 



Scales so persistent as to cause chasms into the flesh Scales secedent, curUng up from the pileus when dry 



of the pUeus by impeding its expansion, thus giving the like the cutioular bark of decaying twigs ; attached only 



pileus a notched appearance. . to the shaggy portions of the pileus, not affecting its 



substance more deeply. 



Eing fibrous, dropping off in fragments, seldom entire Eiiig cartilaginous, slipping easily up and down in a 



or perfect. perfect ring. 



Stem smooth, scaleless, colourless till fading, brownish Stem squamose, with strong black or red-brown 



in age. markings. 



Flesh and giUs turning orange-red. Flesh and gills unchangeable. 



Caespitose, with rude irregidar marginate bulbs, and Sohtai-y, bulb regularly globose, not marginate ; stem 



stems curved from them. not curved. 



