Order Hymenomtcetes. Tribe Pileati. 



Plate LXVII. 



AGARICUS DELICIOSUS, zm.^«. 



Orange milked Agaric. 

 Series Letjcosporus. Sub-genus Galorrheus.^ 



Spec. Cliar. A. deliciosus. Pileus four inches or more broad, viscid, zoned, orange-fulvous turning pale, 

 duU, as if there were the remains of a minute very closely pressed dirty-white web. Hemisphei'ical when young, 

 in which state the margin is decidedly involute and tomentose, at length expanded, fleshy. The whole plant 

 abounding with orange milk, which on exposure to the air, dries green. GDIs decurrent, from the fii'st of the same 

 colour as the pUeus, forked at the base, rather broad and distant ; spores ochraceous white. Stem three inches 

 high, curved, stuffed, more or less hollow, scrobiculate, strigose at the base. Odour and taste agreeable, but 

 sometimes slightly acrid. 

 Agaeicus deliciosus, Linrmus, Schoeffer, Fries, Berkeley, Sowerby, Witliering. 



Hah. Under the Scotch fir {Pinm sylvestru), not uncommon. September and October. Esculent. Excellent. 



The Agaric most likely to be mistaken for A. deliciosus, is one we have givenheioie, A..Jle.vuosH.i; 

 small specimens of thatj while growing, are much like faded ones of the Deliciosus, having the same appearance 

 of a pallid web being extended over the pileus, or rather as if excoriated ; both are viscid and zoned. On 

 .^ viewing the under side, however, of these two Agarics, there is considerable diflerence in the hue of the 

 gUls, those of A. deUciostt-s being a much deeper colour ; reddish-yellow, " bright aurora or flame-coloured," 

 shot with the pale spores, which are not pui-e dead wliite, but have a decided tinge of yellow-oclire, when 

 in a mass. 



The fracture of A. deliciosus, or any milky Agaric supposed to be it, is the main point to attend to ; 

 the juices are invariably in the true plant, rich orange, like a slice of carrot ; A. tkeiogalus has white milk 

 changing to a beautiful delicate yellow, but this cannot be confounded with our present subject ; not only 

 is " dehcate yellow " by no means the same thing as intense orange, but the cut or broken parts of 

 A. iheiogalus are white at first, and assume the yeUow tinge afterwards. The nulk of many of this genus 

 / of Agarics undergoes a change from exposure to the air, but none the pecuKar one which at once deter- 



mines A. deliciosus ; the orange exudation becomes green, and this fact, which if we knew no better, might 

 be supposed an objection to it, is a token that we have got hold of one of the best of the esculent funguses ! 

 We fancy, for we do not know, that a Boletus, which turns blue or green when divided, is therefore dele- 

 terious, but this is possibly a fallacy, for in Agarics certainly that colour is not connected in some cases, 



' From ydXa, milk, and pew, to flow. Veil none. Stem naked, fij-m, subequal, diffused into the pileus. 

 Pileus fleshy, firm, piano-depressed, imibilicate, margin even, when young involute. GUIs unequal, often forked, 

 uaiTow, attenuated behind, adnato-decuiTent. The whole plant abounding with a milky juice. Spores white, 

 sometimes ochraceous. 



