philus has always a red base to the stem, and that stem, moreover, is swollen into a sort of hollow bulb ; 

 several are frequently confluent at tliis thickened base, but Champignons, how closely soever they may grow in 

 the ring, are independent and may be separated from each other without violence. By its Jjne dose gills, its 

 piped stem, and reddened stoolleu base, tliis miscliievous Agaric may be distinguished from the wholesome cue 

 with certainty. That the bad character given of A. dnjopliilus is deserved came under our own observation. 

 About a dozen of them were eaten by mistake for Champignons by an elderly gentleman, whose sense of odour 

 and taste were considerably impaired ; at the moment no unpleasant effect was produced, but some time 

 afterwards a sense of burning in the fauces and suffocation caused great apprehension. It subsided, however, 

 under proper treatment with no ultimate bad result ; without instantaneous remedies the termination raigiit 

 have been fatal ; the best and simplest is a tea-spoonful of ready-made mustard in a tumbler of warm water, 

 notliing being certain to prevent bad effects, but removing the came of them by an immediate emetic. 



Order Hymenomycetes. Tribe Pileati. 



AGARICUS FyENISECII, Pmo«.. 



Eddish Agaric. 

 Series Pratella. Sub-genus Psilocybe.' 



Spec. Char. A. FjEnisecii. Pileus fi-om one to two inches broad, sub-carnose, hemispherical, semi-ovate or 

 rnmpauulate, the margin transparent and minutely grooved by the backs of the gills beneath ; brown umber turning 

 paler, banded with various shades of brown when losing its moistm'e ; in decay it has a bm'ned appearance, and at 

 length dries up and is black. GUIs adnexed, distant, broad, ventricose, mottled umber, the extreme margins white. 

 Stem from two to three inches high, one and a half line thick, naked, smooth, nifescent-umber, sub-flexuoiis, fis- 

 tulose, at first slightly pulverulent, the apex striate, the base cottony. Spores black. 

 Agaricus Fteniseeii, Persoon, Berkeley. 



Hah. Among short grass upon lawns, &c., after contmued rain in spring, summer, and autumn ; dispersed 

 freelv, never in rings. 



To Mr. Berkeley's excellent description of tliis Agaric, wliich grows frequently on the same sites as the 

 Champignon, there is Kttle to add. It is an elegant httle species, and generally campanulate, though some- 

 times of the other forms mentioned ; in drying it often cracks at the apex, and when more than usually 

 saturated with rain inclines to so deep a brown as to be nearly black, but is at no time viscid. 



Eddish is an old English word for latter-math, the sort of grass tliis Agaric prefers to the ranker 

 unmown herbage. Of its qualities we know nothing ; it resembles one of the very imperfect delineations 

 given by Sowerby, as portraits of poisonous Agarics mistaken for Champignons ; but no further difference 

 need be pointed out, than that the spores are hlach in A. Fanisecii instead of white, as ia A. oreades. 



' Erom •^iKos, naked, and Kv^rt, the head, or pileus. Veil marginal, thin, flocculose, very fugacious. Stem 

 hollow, rarely stuffed, when young tough, equal, sub-fibrOlose, often viscid. Pileus conic or convex, then expanded, 

 almost distinct from the stem. Gills rather broad ; substance tough, persistent, never dehquescent. 



