Order Htmenomycetes. Tribe Pileati. 



Plate LXXI. 



AGARICUS AUREUS, ^«/w 



Golden Agaric. 

 Series Derminus.' Sub-genus Pholiota.^ 



Spec. Cliar. A. aureus. Gregarious, tufted. Pileus very variable in size, sometimes four inches or more broad, 

 convexo-expanded, ricli tawny with broad, adpressed, silky scales in the centre, which towards the margin become 

 mere streaks ; fleshy. Flesh pale yellow. Gills at first pale yellow, then tawny ferruginous from the spores, 

 adnexed, rounded behind or decurrent in the same group. Spores tawny ferruginous. Stem three or four inches 

 high, one inch or more thick, solid, tough, spongy above, below looser, often cavernous ; thickened downwards, 

 bulbous, furnished near the top with a small deflexed, rather thick ring which is densely powdered \vith the spores ; 

 in aged specimens it sometimes has disappeared, but the place remains marked on the stem ; under the gills 

 minutely squamulose, below fibrillose, the fibriUae close, paler than the pileus. Root consisting of a few downy 

 fibres. Taste bitter. Sometimes the pileus is dull and the scales not adpressed, sometimes shining, with adpressed 

 scales. In each tuft one or two Agarics only attain full dimensions and expansion, at the expense of aU the rest, 

 which are crowded, compressed, and even flattened. 

 Agaricus aureus, Bidliard, Fries, Berkeley, Sowerhtj. 



Sab. On stumps or roots, left in the ground, of various trees. August to October. 



Afjaricus aureus is a very characteristic fuiigus, where it has room to develope itself properly, particu- 

 larly before the ring breaks away from the pileus ; the round head and thick bulbous stem out of all 

 proportion with it, will strike every one as singular. The veU of most Agarics, if they are taken up in a 

 half-grown state, separates from the pUeus, forming the ring, as if they had remained undisturbed; the 

 various species of Amauite do this remarkably ; however close the curtain may be over-night, it is generaUy 

 drawn aside in the morning ; but A. aurem removed from its site is unchangeable, no expansion takes 

 place, for days it continues in the same state, probably because it is of a much firmer, less juicy consistency 

 than these others. The growth is very slow, and out of groups consisting of a dozen in family, one or two 

 only usurp, and keep the upper hand entirel}-, as the plate represents. The eldest son flourishes in all the 

 grandeur of primogeniture, the second is tolerably comfortable as heir presumptive, the rest — stop ! we had 

 better not talk politics — at any rate, one thing is very peculiar in the families of A. aurem, if the larger 

 specimens decay or are taken away, the smaller do not fill out in their place ; they appear to have been so 



' From hip^a, sk'ui or membrmu. Veil not arachnoid. Spores ferruginous. 



- From <^oXtf, a scale. VeO dry forming a ring which is sometimes membranaceous, sometimes radiato-floccose. 

 Stem more or less scaly. Pileus convex, at length more or less plane, not imibilicate. Gills unequal, juiceless, 

 changhig colour. Spores ferruginous or fulvo-fevruginous, not reddish-ochre. 



