minent part in embellishing Agarics. Sometimes, when white, they give a mouldy look to the pileus over 

 which they have ejected themselves ; sometimes they give a snuffy appearance to a set of clean yellow gills, 

 or disfigure bright purple ones by tliis incongruous mixture ; or they change lovely pink to deep purple- 

 black, as in the common mushroom, warning us that youthful purity has passed away with youthful 

 blushes, and that sordid ketchup must be thought of instead of elegant stews ; but in the present case, the 

 pallid vermilion, by courtesy called rose-colour, greatly improves the garb of the quietly clad Agaric, 

 painting the dingy white stem with a pleasant contrast of hue, and rendering the gills an agreeable rehef to 

 the sober brown pileus. 



A. manmoms has a slight scent of meal ; the peculiarly disagreeable odour, however, which is under- 

 stood by fungoid, predominates, not that which the epicure recognizes in his favourite Pmnulus. Both are 

 spring productions, but they are extremely unhke in other characteristics, so that to point out the differences 

 between them would be an affront to our latest convert, or our most careless reader. 



Among the piok-spored Agarics more nearly allied to our present subject, A.fertilis is larger, and 

 the pileus is buff' or yellowish ; A. j)luteits looks like the conical thatched roof of an old summer-house, and 

 has free gills ; A. rhodopolius has a hollow stem, sometimes stringy within or curiously partitioned. There 

 are not many English Agarics possessing rose spores, and some of the remaining number are much 

 smaller, others grey-blue, and most of them autumnal. The very peculiar cracked umbo of A. mammmvs 

 is a distinction from its congeners, nearly sufficient to decide any doubts of its identity. 



