Order Hymenomycetes. Tribe Pileati. 



AGARICUS DEALBATUS,to% 



Dirty -loliife Agaric. 



Series Leucosporus. 



Sub-genus Clitocybe. Sub-division Dasyphylli.' 



Sjiec. CItur. A. dealbatus. Pileus from three-quarters of an inch to two inches broad, white, greyish cream- 

 colour, or tinged with rose ; at first convex, then plane, orbicular, the extreme margin only involute, or variously 

 repand, lobed, and undulate ; sometimes depressed from the turning up of the margins, which in age are entirely 

 unrolled ; dry, smooth, shining, but clothed with a minute farinaceous sUiiness, which turns brown when bruised 

 and retains the impression of the fingers ; in wet weather water-soaked in concentric zones, forming small ridges 

 when dry. Flesh thin, pallid. Gills adnata, not decurrent, though apparently so in aged specimens, fi'om the 

 depression of the pUeus, very close, cream-white, moderately broad. Stem an inch or more high, from two lines to 

 a quarter of an inch thick, often curved as if eccentric, flexuous, greyish-white or rose-tinted, tui'ning brown when 

 handled, pruinose at the apex, stufi'ed, the fibrous bark very distinct. Odour fungoid and disagreeable. 

 Agaricus dealbatus, Sowerby, Fries, Berkeley, Greville. 



Hah. In rings, or gregarious in pastures ; often csespitose and tiled one over the other. Autumn. 



Of all the Agarics likely to be confounded with the true Champignon, tliis is certainly more resembling 

 it in appearance and manner of growth than any other; it is, therefore, fortunate that although not an 

 agreeable, it does not appear to be a dangerous article of food : we have known it mistaken for the excellent 

 A. orcella, and eaten without any worse result than slight nausea. It abounds in some seasons, then does 

 uot appear during an interval of several years ; as far as our observation of its habit goes, those seasons when 

 the old pastures are very bare and the herbage weakened by long di'ought, are favourable to its development ; 

 the late autiunnal rains then bring it up in abundance, always where least resistance is offered by the grass, 

 so that the rings are seldom regular ; but observation \viU prove that the close growing groups of the Agaric 

 are parts of a circle if not an enthe one. Very often A. dealbatus succeeds in the old rings of A. oreades ; 

 both of them prefer a poor gravelly soil, which is speedily acted upon by electric showers. A. dealbatus is 

 later in season than the general autumnal crop of the Champignon, but they may be seen in profuse circles 

 in the same field ; the Dealbatus sinning, glairy, and whiter than the buff-suited Oreades. 



A. dealbatus always has the margin at first rolled inwards. — A. oreades, never. 



A. dealbatus has very fine close dingy whitish gOls. — A. oreades, distant ones of a pure pale creamy tint. 



A. dealbatus water-soaks in :ones of a grey brown. — A. oreades absorbs much wet, but becomes dark 

 leather-tjrown coloured, the deepest shade of buff; never grey, and never zoned. 



The smell of the Champignon is mushroom-Kke and agreeable, and the taste raw, pecuharly so : but the 

 smell of A. dealbatus is too fungoid to render the tasting desirable, and wliile the Champignon increases in 

 odour as it dries, the other acquires no scent. 



Having thus attempted to introduce the Champignon to her readers, without a possibHity of error, 

 Mrs. Hussey can only add, that she will send some to any one requesting it, when the season comes round. 



' From haiTvs, close, and cpvWov, a Zra/, in allusion to the crowded gUls. Pileus dry, smooth. GQls close, 

 decurrent, or acutely adnate. 



