Order Hymenomycetes. Tribe Fileati. 



Plate XLVIII. 



AGARICUS FUSIPES, Bmard. 



Spindle-stemmed Agaric. 



Series Leucosporus. Subgenus Collybia. 



Subdivision Stri.epodes.' 



Spec. CJtar. Agaricus fusipes. Densely tufted. Pileiis from one to three inches or more broad, but only 

 a lew members of the group attaining full proportions ; fleshy, loose, tough ; when young, hemispherical or broadly 

 umbonate ; cracked, sometimes tessellated, smooth, slightly viscid in wet weatlier, dull vinous-brown or huffish, 

 marked with dark patches as if burned ; margin incurved, then expanded, acute ; flesh white. Gills pale lunber, 

 free, or only apparently adnate from the form of the pUeus ; broad, distant, flexuous, serrated, connected by veins, 

 with a watery appearance, though really dry, like a piece of half-dry parchment. Spores white. Stem from two 

 to six inches long, from half an inch to an inch tliiek, ventricose, fusiform, irregularly compressed, above paler than 

 the pileus, below dark red-brown ; external coat cartilaginous, striate longitudinally, not truly though apparently 

 tibrillose, often split longitudinally with transverse cracks, these cracks extending only thi'ough the cartilaginous 

 coat ; stuft'ed with shining, crisped, white fibre ; in age hollow. Flavour and smell of Champignons, esculent. 

 Ag.^kicus fusipes, BuUiard, Fiies, Berkeley. 

 crassipes, Sc/icejfe)', Soicerby, IVitheriruj. 



Hah. In dense fascicles, at the roots of oak-trees, after electric rains, during the whole summer. 



If carefully dried, A. fusipes can be kept for some time, to enrich gravies, etc. It is remarkably free 

 from insect larvse, the texture being apparently too tough to please them, and for this reason it cannot be 

 recommended as a stew, notwithstanding the agreeableness of the flavoui-, as it is not an easily digested 

 substance : small compact individuals soften completely in vinegar, and may be recommended as a pickle 

 to those who like such condiments. At some periods bushels of this Agaric might be collected within 

 a small circuit at Hayes Common ; and near Wymondham, in Norfolk, a line of trees were each siuTounded 

 by tufts of the not very ornamental brown fungus : it does not yield good ketchup, which is a pity, since 

 it abounds when mushrooms are not to be had. The same sites produce crops of it year after year. When 

 heavy summer rains have penetrated through the foliage, it may generally be found ; but never at the 



' Stem stout, sidcate, fibrilloso-striate, hollow or stuffed with spongy pith. 



