Order Hymenomycetes. Tribe Pileati. 



Plate LXXII. 



AGARICUS PSAMMOCEPHALUS, Buiuard. 



Series Cortinaria.' Sub-genus Telamonia.^ 



Spec. Char. Pileus from two to four inches broad, fleshy, the margin thin ; tawny-cinnamon ; at first convex, 

 then expanded, at length umbonate, often in age splitting at the margin ; fiufuraoeous squamulose, from the remains 

 of the veU, as if powdered with grit-sand, whence the name. Flesh of a paler shade of the same colour as the 

 pileus, not white (as in Bulliard's plate). Gills, in full maturity, darker than the pileus; arcuato-adnate, sometimes 

 with a decui-reut tooth, close, compressed. Stem from four to six inches high, half an inch thick, attenuated, 

 stuffed, squamulose and peronate from the remains of the veil, which forms an evanescent ring, above which the 

 stem is naked and smooth. Inodorous. 

 Agaricus psammocephalus, Bulliard, Fries, Berkeley, (MSS.) 



Hab. On Hayes Common, among furze-bushes. Autumn. 



When Agarims psammocephalus was found on Hayes Common some years ago, it was new to English 

 Botany ; Bulliard had figured it, but not altogether correctly ; Fries says " it is common in pine woods," 

 we suppose he means in those of his own particular region. In the same situation that we first discovered 

 it, we have only once succeeded in procuiing other specimens ; perhaps in the ancient fir forests of Scotland, 

 it may be plentiful; it certainly is not so in southern Britain. Climate, however, is very independent of 

 degrees of latitude. The table-land forming Baston Common and Keston Heath, terminating with 

 Holwood, is said to be quite as bracijig and cold as Westmoreland. Great purity of air is needful to many 

 plants, and this district supphes a list which includes an immense variety, for if alpine specimens can be 

 gathered on the brow, those of southern England flourish in the secluded valley beneath. On Keston 

 Heath grows in profusion the Lancashire bog Asphodel, Narthecium ossifragum, in company with the snowy 

 cotton rush ; Hypericum elodes fringes the little runlet, the percolation from which forms the swamp ; a 

 Cnicus, nearly unique, lifts up its solitary purple head ; the richest mosses, pale chrysoHte green, or reddish 

 straw-coloui-, cover a great portion of the bog, tempting the foot to tread on them as a safe spot, then 

 giving all the water they contain like sponges, into the shoe ; and here and there is a black space of peat, 

 sparkling with silver grit-sand and gemmed with the scarlet sun-dew and its dcHcate pearl blossoms. It is a 

 charming bog ! long may it remain so, but we feel a reluctance to mention the spot, lest some day we 

 should find London " HerbaUsts " ransacking it. They have exterminated the bee-orchis from the fields 

 which were once lilac with it, the rai-er kinds we seldom find now in their old haunts. Osmunda regalis 



o 



' From Cortina, a veil. Spores reddish ochre. VeU arachnoid. 

 - From Te\ajia>v, Uiit. Veil consisting of arachnoid fibres woven into a subpersisteut ring. Stem soUd, at 

 length softer within, firm, fibriUose. Pileus more or less fleshy, the margin thin, campanulate or convex, then 

 expanded, dry, squamulose or fibriUose. GiUs adnate or emargiuate, broad, distant, changing colom-. Large firm 

 Agarics, growing on the ground. 



