Order Hymenomycetes. Tribe Pileati. 



Plate LXIX. . 



AGARICUS PERONATUS, 5oto. 



Sjmtterdash Agaric. 



Series Leucosporus. 



Sub-genus Clitocybe. Sub-division Scortei.' 



Spec. Char. Agaricus peronatus. Pileus from one inch to two inches and a half broad, convex or campa- 

 nulate, at length expanded, sometimes umbonate, carnoso-coriaceous, subrufescent or yellowish, pallid when dry, 

 clothed with a minute matted silkiness. Gills pale reddish or bullish, of the same shade as the pileus, with a yellowish 

 margin, distinct, rounded behind, almost free. Stem firm two to three inches high, two lines thick, composed of 

 fibres, solid above and downy, hollow below and there covered with dense yellow strigse. Taste nauseous, acrid ; 

 smell fungoid, disagreeable. 



Agaricus peronatus, Bolton, Fries, Berkeley, Sow., With., Greville. 



Hub. Among rotten leaves, particularly of the oak ; July to November, not uncommon. 



In the plate given of the various Agarics which have been confounded with the Champignon, A. oreades, 

 it appeared quite unnecessary to include A. peronatus, although one of the nearest allies of that excellent 

 species, for it is so very easily distinguished as to preclude the possibility of mistake. Many Agarics arc 

 held in an upright position among fallen leaves, &c. by cottony fibres, which proceeding from the stem 

 throw out their grasping tentacles in every direction, but chiefly in that, where resistance is most needed ; 

 but the strigse, which clothe the lower half of the stem in the present instance, are much more even, close, 

 and of equal developement all round, like a " fluffy " long-napped woollen hose, drawn round the lower 

 extremity of the toad-stool, which thus stands boldy, and, we suppose, comfortably supported on fallen leaves 

 of oak, an elegant and strongly marked individual of the genus Agaric ; no other has half so determined a 

 legging. The buff variety of Laccatus may carelessly be mistaken for it, for that has cottony fibres at the base, 

 but of a snow wliite hue, and not half so abundant and regular as the " Guernsey hose " of A. peronatus, 

 wliicli are never white but cream-yellow ; the peculiar red tint, also indicative of an A. laccatus, is absent in 

 A.peronatus, which is of a uniform buff-leather colour, such as spatterdashes were made of in the ancient 

 days, when " Antigropelos " had not dawned upon the rapt vision of their patentee. " Perhaps this Agaric was 

 named from the texture of its pdeus, instead of the covering for its leg ? " tlus doubt is suggested by a 

 mischievous etymologist; any peg will do to hang etymological arguments upon, and we ever eschew 



' From scorteus, coriaceous. Pileus sub-coriaceous, dry. Gills free, subdistant, at length pallid. 



