this cause; we all know tlie common Musliroom has pink, then chocolate gills, and the Cortinarius 

 Agarics often begin with lovely Hlac or even wliite gills, wliich in age become rich reddish-ochre, that being the 

 colour of the spores when developed ; the effect of one tint thus placed upon another is to give that changeable, 

 shot-siUc effect to the giUs, wliich defies the pencil. In Agaricm fiexuosus, although the spores are not pure 

 white, they are paler than the membrane on which they are placed, fidl in front therefore, the gill shows its 

 own hue most clearly ; seen sideways the frosting of the spores gives it a pruinose effect like the bloom 

 on fruit. 



The example here given of A. Jlexuosus is more regularly shaped than it is often found ; it sometimes 

 attains much larger proportions, and becomes very irregular, large lobes of the pileus remaining curved 

 inwards, unable to extricate themselves from the grass roots and other obstructions to expansion; ours- 

 grew where it got fair play, but even then it is not of the regular funnel-shape assumed by many of the 

 tribe ; it is viscid, retaining leaves, &c., sticking to it. The giUs are frequently forked in a most compli- 

 cated and elegant manner, and before the spores ripen jiave a redder tinge than the pileus. The milk is 

 not rich and flowing bountifully, as in A. vellereiis and some others, but scanty and "sky-blue;" nothing 

 can exceed its acrimony that we have met with in the vegetable kingdom ; capsicum is mild to it ; spurge 

 not so permanently painful. A young friend despite of warning, on tasting a morsel instantly started off on 

 a race, which was so apparently objectless as to give painfid doubts of his sanity ; but he had descried a 

 brook at a distance, and there we found liim ten minutes after, still laving liis burned tongue in the stream. 

 It is due, however, to these very acrid Agarics, to state that unless the substance be swallowed the effect 

 subsides entirely after some minutes; no soreness or blistering effect is produced; perhaps their acrimony 

 most resembles the leaves of the Arum. 



