Order Hymenomycetes. Tribe Fileati. 



Plate LXVIII. 



AGARICUS CAULICINALIS, 5«//w 



Small scaly Agaric. 

 Series Leucosporus. Subgenus Collybia.' 



Spec. Char. A. caulicinalis. Pileus from two to seven lines broad, convex at first, and minutely umbonate, 

 then expanded, depressed or umbilicate, whitish, with small shining red-brown scales, disposed sometimes in zones, 

 rendering tlie margin jagged ; sometimes the pileus is merely minutely velvety ; in large specimens the margin is 

 sulcate. Gills distant, with a few shorter ones, nearly free, thickish, of a yellowish tinge, various in breadth, some- 

 times rather ventricose. Stem from three quarters of an inch to an inch and a half high, not half a line thick, 

 flexuous, filiform, clothed with red-brown woolly tomentum, or squamules, fibriUose or scaly ; often perforating the 

 substance on which it grows, composed of fibres, with a narrow fistulose hue down the centre. 

 Agaricus caulicinalis, BitUiard, Berkeley. 

 stipitarius. Tries. 



Hab. On grass, thatch, sticks, stumps, &c. August and September. 



" When in perfection few Agarics are more elegant ; " with this opinion of Mr. Berkeley's every one 

 will coincide. Among the notes upon it we find — " scent like the mushroom, taste also Kke the mushroom ; " 

 but alas ! for the epicure who may fancy that, hke a lai-k or wheat-ear, esculent excellence is concentrated in 

 small bodies ; the next observation is — " flesh none : " it would scarcely furnish sauce for a lark, even if found 

 in abundance, which it is not. The specimens from which the annexed drawing was made, grew " in thick 

 clusters upon mossy thatch, firmly attached to the straws, shrivelling into Uttle cups, green ^vith minute 

 Algae in age." 



We are as anxious as any one can be to shew the value and good qualities of the tribe generally, and 

 so when we can say notliing else in praise, are glad to point out beauty at least ; and to declare against the 

 necessity of proving utility as the only just ground for attention. Let the ugly things be useful ; we will 

 some day introduce to you, good utilitarian, the Boletus, called jtiar excelleiice Edulis. 



■ The world is full of beauty that we pass by unlieeded. There, opposite, is an ugly thatched bam, 

 elsewhere perhaps picturesque, but not when blocking the view from the window ; we cannot plant it out, there 

 is a road between — we cannot cover it with ivy, for it is not ours ; but look with changed ideas, set aside the 

 prejudiced spectacles, and you will see that every season decks that ragged thatch with beauties of its own ; 



' From KoXXu/Jof, a small piece of money. Stem fistulose, though often indistinctly so, slender, equal, round, 

 firm, often rooting. Pileus carnoso-membranaceous, tough, convex, then plane, sometimes depressed in the centre, 

 smooth, dry. Gills obtuse behind, free or fixed, never decurrent, unequal, juiceless, plane, quite entire. Small dry 

 persistent fungi, growmg on the ground, or epiphytes. 



