Order Hymenomtcetes. Tribe Pileati. 



Plate XL. 



AGARICUS PERSONATUS, Fr 



Blue-stemmed Agaric. 



les. 



Series Leucospoeus. Subgenus Tricholoma. 



Spec. Char. Agaricus peesonatus. Gregarious, frequently in large rings. Pileus fi'om two to six inches 

 broad, fleshy, iu-m, heavy, at fii'st convex, compact, obtuse, in age nearly plane; pale bistre, often tinged with 

 violet, smooth and shining as if oiled, but not viscid ; margin at first involute, pulverulento-tomentose, at length 

 expanded. GUIs rounded, free, not distant, narrow in front, paler than the pileus, turning to a dirty flesh-colour, 

 especially when bruised. Spores white. Elesh very thick, solid, but not tough, mottled, odour like ^. oreades, 

 but not so agTeeable ; flavour pleasant, with a slight earthiness, resembling beet-root. Stem from one inch to thi'ee 

 inches high, three-quarters of au inch thick, nearly equal above the subbulbous base, firm, solid, mottled within 

 towards the apex with watery spots ; clothed with villous fibrillse, which are of a rich violet-colom- above the bulb. 

 Esculent. 



Agaricus personatus. Fries, Berkeley. 

 bicolor, Persoon. 



Hah. In pastures, on downs, &c. Autumnal. Common. 



The Blewitt, or more properly Bluette, could scarcely be mistaken, if once examined carefully, for any 

 other Agaric : by its side we place next in order A. grammopodius, its near relative, and certainly there is 

 a general resemblance between them, but as certainly great differences ; the principal being, that A. gram- 

 mopodius never has the slightest tinge of that peculiar purple which is so distinctive on the stem of the 

 Bluette, and winch suggested to Persoon a better name, as we presume to think, ihsiQ. personatus, — that is, 

 bicolor ; unless, by a fanciful application. Pries means the same thing. 



In his Lexicon Facciolati says, referring to a letter from Cicero to Atticus as authority, " That man 

 may be called personatus (masked, like the classic actors) who shows one face to the public and wears 

 another in private." And so these smooth-faced, creamy-complexioned Agarics, colom'less and charac- 

 terless, with a sort of cloudy ambiguity about them as they appear to us, tiled over each other in vast rings 

 in the grassy pasture, would never be suspected to have a briUiant purple hue belonging to them, unless we 

 looked beneath the surface : t/iere is the test of character, no more disguise ; the mask might have been 

 the smooth visage of A. grammopodius, but the stem is the stem of the bi-coloured/i<;wo«ai!zw ; there is no 

 other like it among Agarics, and once detected, the collector may fearlessly eat thereof, that is, provided his 

 palate approve, which we candidly confess our individual organ of taste does not ; but this is a case in which 

 no medium opinion exists — people always like or dishke very much the peculiar flavour and odour possessed 

 by our fair-faced friend. Pair- faced the Bluette in perfection is : really a beautiful Agaric. On the downs 



