geuera, is an Agaric in its most perfect state.^ It is of no consequence that in the mature plant a part of 

 the universal veil should be wanting, or, as it is styled, " obliterated," any more than that the ring should be 

 in some cases "fugacious;" provided the Agaric had both those appurtenances in its first developement, it 

 comes under the head Amanita. 



Lepiofa has a universal veil only; the inner veil of Amanita, which stretches from the stem to the 

 pUeus, having its origin liigh up on the stalk within it, covering the gills separately from the outer screen, 

 is wanting in Lepiota, but in place of it, the umversal veil itself being contracted to the stem, beneath the 

 pileus, covers the gills and forms a ring, which attaches itself more or less permanently to the middle of the 

 stem, and sometimes slips up and down upon it, thus showing that this appendage is independent of the stem. 

 ArmiUaria precisely reverses the case of Lepiota having the partial veil springing from the stem and covering 

 the gills, but being destitute of the universal veil Lepiota possesses. 



These are the distinctive characters of these three sub-divisions of white-spored Agarics, which the 

 inexperienced might confuse together. There are other species fnrnished with similar appendages, but they 

 have coloured spores and therefore come under the series Cortinaria°~ 



Agaricus granulosus is nearly the smallest of the Ltpiotes, and the only English one that is yellow 

 capped; ' its very ventricose giUs are a remarkable featui'e, giving it a curious pouter-pigeon appearance. The 

 ring has sometimes disa])peared in aged specimens, but a trace remains even then of its former position, for 

 the remains of the veil are attached in scales below ; the cap is more or less scaly from the same cause, 

 and, when these two circumstances are combined, we may be pretty sure a ring was once present at the 

 point of demarcation on the stem, where the scales cease. 



None of the Lepiotes are dangerous ; the best of Mushrooms, A. procerus, is one of them ; this little 

 example is never in sufficient quantity to make its esculent property of any value, or indeed to test it with 

 conviction. 



' The reader will see this clearly explained at the close of the introduction, by a drawing of A. Phalloides. 



2 In Tricholoma there is a partial fibrillose fugacious veil but it forms no ring, being arachnoid, or composed 

 as it were of spider's web. 



3 Unless we except the Agaricus Capesiipes, which turns yellow m fading, being originally white ; it is however 

 confined to bark-beds, so cannot be confounded with A. granulosus. 



