Order Hymenomycetes. Tribe Pileati. 



Plate LXIII. 



es. 



AGARICUS VELLEREUS, Fn 



Downy Agaric. 



Series Leiicosporus. Sub-genus Galorrheus.' 



Spec. Char. Agaeicus vellereus. Pileus from four to seven inches broad, white, tomentose, rigid, more or 

 less infundibuliform, margin at first involute, the whole surface minutely but densely tomentose, firm, fleshy ; flesh- 

 white, milk-white, acrid, GiUs arched, distant, generally narrow, but in that respect variable, forked, connected by 

 veins, at length slightly buff or yellowish, rufescent after being bruised. Stem one inch high, two inches thick, 

 blunt, rather less downy than the pileus, solid. 

 Agabicus vellereus, -F/w«, 5erMey. (v^. iw^m, Sowerby). 



Hab. LTuder trees, particularly oaks, in woods. July, August, September. 



WMch of the English milky Agarics is the species eaten mider the name oi 2nperatus on the continent, 

 does not admit as yet of positive decision ; the Italian and French peasantry call then- funguses by local 

 names, figurative and poetical enough, as " the Cow " and " the Goat " from their giving milk, and " pe- 

 perone " and " poivre blanc " from the acrid taste of the milk ; but when we seek to indentify these with 

 the productions of our own soil, the conclusion come to after a wearying attempt to arrange the synonymes, 

 is that these admirable " Cows " and " Goats " are not natives of our pastures at all, unless disguised under 

 the sheep's clotliing of " Le Mouton blanc," A. vellereiis. Tliis Agaric varies much, it has not often gills 

 so higlily coloured as the variety depicted in the present case ; ihe name indicates a fleecy coverini?, but 

 that is so close and adpressed that in age very little of it remains, except at the margin of the pileus ; the 

 pileus itself is commonly much eaten and defaced by slugs, it is zoneless and stained red in patches where 

 injured, in this respect agreeing with A. contr overs us of Vittadini. 



So large and common an Agaric, if good for food at all, would be very valuable ; we have not as 

 yet ascertained if this be the fact, having been thrown upon a wrong scent by the name piperatus applied to 

 another English species, decidedly not esculent. It is often much easier to say what a tiling is not, than 

 what it is ; the Ar/ariciis pijMratus of the English Elora, A. acris 200 Bulhard, is not the one eaten abroad, for 

 we have cooked, tasted, and condemned it. None of the acrimony is lost in the process, and it acquires a 

 most unpleasant bitterish taste ; where the substance has been cut so as to allow the milk to flow, 



1 From yaka, milk and p«'<<), to flow. Veil none. Stem naked, firm, sub-equal, difi'used into the pileus. 

 Pileus fleshy, tu-m, piano-depressed, umbUicate, margin even, when young involute. Gills unequal, often forked, 

 narrow, attenuated behind, adnato-decurrent. The whole plant abounding in a milky juice. Large or middle sized 

 persistent frequently acrid fungi, gi'owiug on the ground. 



