This splendid Agaric lifts its head boldly, the " observed of all observers ", even the most careless 

 so that it is oftener kicked to pieces, and other attentions of the kind bestowed on it, than most " Toad- 

 stools " receive ; I have mourned over specimens nearly a foot across, their pure ivory gills and glowing 

 scarlet pileus crushed in the dusty road. But I must confess it is but a meretricious beauty after all, 

 so showy, so fair ! looking so good ! teaching us to distrust appearances above all examples among 

 Funguses ; the poor ugly sombre Boletus ediilis, if we placed them side by side, would have no chance in 

 outward comparison, but tried by the fiery ordeal of the gridiron, our ugly friend is as excellent an article 

 of food as this lovely one is detrimental. Tasted raw, it is neither acrid, nor in any warning way unpleasant ; 

 the poison it contains is that principle called Amanitine, which is not dissipated by cooking, and is t/te 

 jjoisoiious principle of Agarics ; other mischiefs arise from acrimony, or mere indigestibility, and are quite 

 secondary. 



Agaricus muscanus was so called by Limiseus, because, according to popular belief in Sweden, it kills 

 the flies wliich settle on it ; in France, Bulliard says, it did them no harm.' It is difficult to determine 

 between these two great authorities, since in England at the time it abounds there are few flies to kill ; 

 but as far as observation went it had no effect — they did not avoid it. It has been recommended in doses 

 of from ten to tlurty grains for epilepsy, and externally as a dressing for ulcers. The expressed juice is 

 said to pm-ify furnitui'e from noxious insects. 



It is the ]\Iushroom used by the Koriacs in decoction for their drinking festivities,^ and does not kill 

 them, although it produces delirious intoxication,^ and those effects which excite the Malay under the 

 influence of other drugs " to run a muck ". Among the Tartars, the Moukhamorr is said to be worshipped ; 

 a more correct statement woiild be, perhaps, that it is an element in their worship, not its object. Under 

 its Pythonic influence they are supposed to be divinely mspired and to speak oracles, and it is not 

 impossible that its stimulating powers suggested the incursions of the Mongols into Europe. Tlie mighty 

 Alaric might owe his inspirations, not to brandy as some have said, but to Moukhamorr; and thus, from 

 using it as a means to procure the divine afflatus, intoxication has become religion among the besotted 

 tribes of Koriac Kamtschatka. 



Agancus muscanus can scarcely be confounded with any other British species. Bulliard takes great 

 pains to discriminate between L'Oronge fausse (J. miiscarius) and L'Oronge vraie {A. Casaretis), but it 

 would be superfluous here as we have not the A. Casareus in England. Withering beheved that he had 

 found it, but his A. Xerampelimis, so called also by Sowerby, is A. ndilans and belongs to a different 

 subgenus. To recapitulate the principal botanical characters of A. timscarins : — " The plant rises out of the 

 ground inclosed within the brown studded wrapper" (Withering), but it will be seldom detected in this 

 state, as the wrapper or volva is destroyed when the plant begins to expand j the earth round old plants 

 must be carefully removeij, and the tiny buttons just peeping extricated; it now seems all bulb, with 

 fibrous roots. The outer wTapper soon disappears, except the warts on the cap and the scales on the bulb, 

 wliich are its corrugated remains ; and the inner veil is seen, extended from the stem to the edge of the cap, 

 covering the gills, and preserving them from all injury tiU the spores they contain are mature, at which 

 time the expansive growth of the plant ruptures tliis veil also, leaving some fragments pendent from the rim 

 of the cap, wliile the greater part remains attached to the stem, forming the ring. 



' From a Russian friend : " Moukhamorr, in the Russian language, is the name given to poisonous Mushrooms, 

 which are exactly hke yoiu- drawing ; the red-jacket Mushroom nnth white buttons, which is generally used in 

 Russia to kill flies. They lay a httle pounded sugar on the fungus, which the flies no sooner partake of than they 

 die immediately. The pronunciation of the word is just as you have written it, and the hteral meaning is ' fly-killer '." 



2 " Their passion for strong liquors has led them to invent a drink, equally powerful with brandy, which is 

 scarce and dear, which they extract from a red Mushroom, known in Russia as a strong poison under the name of 

 ' Moukhamorr '." — Rees Ency. Art. Koriac. 



^ " Dnmkenness among these people is a rehgious practice." — Rees, ibid. 



