Order Htmenomycetes. - Tribe Pileaii. 



Plate XL VII. 



AGARICUS LACCATUS, scopou. 



Series Leucosporus. 

 Sub-genus Clitocybe. Sub-division CEsypii.' 



S2)ec. Cliar. Agauicds laccatus. Pileus from one inch to two inclies broad, convex, the centre more or less 

 depressed, in age often cracked or squamulose with a mealy appearance, subcarnose, brownish red, flesh coloured 

 or bright amethyst, turning pale when dry, margin incurved, often very much lobed and waved. GiUs more or less 

 of the colour of the pileus, subdecurrent, distinct, distant, horizontal, broad behind and adnate, thick, sometimes 

 forked above, mealy from the white spores. Stem fi'om one inch to six inches long, elastic, thickest and downy 

 below, fibrillose, tough, hollow, of the same colour as the pileus but not becoming pale. 



Agaricus laccatus, Scopoli, Fiies, Schaffer, Berkeley, Ch-eville. 



rubeUus and cameus, Sc/zeeffer. 



farinaceus, Bolton, Soioerhy, TFithering. 



■ — amethystinus, Bolton, Somerhy, TFithering, Greville. 



In woods, shrubberies, &c., from June to November. 



The name of Laccatus was given to tliis pretty Agaric from the strong tinge of colour, resembling 

 that of gum lac, wliich more or less pervades the plant ; our drawing is taken from that variety of the 

 species which several authors have described as A. Ametliystinus, its garb being a lovely lilac purple. If 

 the most opposite specimens of the two kinds of A. laccatus were selected and placed together while in fresh 

 beauty, few ordinary persons would beHeve them to be the same species ; although they might allow the 

 close resemblance in the characteristic of form, independent of colouring ; so far as the latter quality goes 

 the difference would be starthng. One appears of a rich laky buff hue, perhaps edged or tinted with red, 

 but never \rith purple, and is more generally of the uniform clear self-hue, the base of the stem only being 

 reheved by wliite down ; the other is of a uniform self-colour also, and is also relieved by a white downy 

 base to the stem, its tincture, however, is pure pale violet or amethyst ; these are the extremes, but colour 

 is an accident, not a fixed attribute ; lay them side by side for a day, and in the fading of their beauty they 

 acquire mutual resemblance. The development of the white abundant spores has dimmed the gills of both, 



' From ola-vrrov, dirty wool ; alluding to the more or less scaly opaque epidermis. Pileus diy, minutely squa- 

 mulose. Gills generally arcuato-decurrent, seldom adnate. 



