Order Hymenomycetes. Tribe Pileati. 



Plate LXXVIII. 



AGARICUS ORCELLUS, 5.//.«../ 



The Orcella. 



Series Hyporhodeus.' 



Sub-genus Clitopilus.^ Sub-division Orcelli, {Fries). 



Spec. Char. A. orcellus. Pileus from one inch to four inches across ; fleshy, brittle, soft, silky, moist, sub- 

 viscid in wet weather, whitish or pallid greyish-buff; irregular, generally excentric, more or less lobed and waved, 

 not zoned, not hygrophanous ; margin broadly involute, never fully expanded, crenulated, tomentose. GUIs extremely 

 decuiTent, intermixed with shorter ones ; very close towards the margin of the pileus ; at first pallid, then red-flesh 

 or salmon colour from the spores. Spores a pale chalky shade of vermillion. Stem not exceeding a quarter of an 

 inch thick, solid, short, flocculose, thickened upwards, diflFused into the pileus. Odour, of fresh meal and cucumbers. 

 Esculent. Excellent. 



Agakicds orceUus, BulUard, Fries, Vittadini, Eromiholz, 

 paUidus, Sowerhy. 



Hah. In ancient woodlands, growing in riags or irregular lines, the plants at sonie distance from each other ; 

 never csespitose. From July to October. 



This most delicately delicious of Agarics certainly merits careful discrimination, so that no one 

 iindingj shall fail to recognise it. Eaten from early times under names wliich jjoint out its peculiar shape, 

 resembling an ear, the " Orgella " of Italy, the " Oreillete " of France, although according to Pavdet " tres 

 recherchee " there, was never identified as a common English species, till Dr. Badham, who had frequently 

 met with it abroad, found his old friend, neglected and despised in England, as one of that dreaded family, 

 the Toadstools. 



It has been no easy task to disentangle the web of erroneous synonymes and misapphed characteristics, 

 woven around A. orcellus, which has become of doubtful reputation, from being thus involved in doubt, by 

 the fault of others, not its own ; for no Agaric is more true to its type, more unfailingly recognisable, when 

 once we have formed its acquaintance. One point wiU separate A. orcellus at once from several rivals — the 

 colour of its spores ; these place it under the genus Hyporhodeus, Mycologists having agreed to call their 

 hue rose-colour ; so long as we know what they mean, a disquisition on the propriety of the designation 

 may seem superfluous ; but there are tyros to whom it may save a puzzle to say, that if light-red be diluted 

 with sufficient constant-white, Mycological rose-colour will be attained ; it is, in fact, salmon-colour. The 

 general habit and configuration of the whole fungus resembles Cantharellus cibarius, but it is less robust, and 

 more expanded. Our Orcella is undoubtedly Agaricus pallidus of Sowerby, who found it in Hainhault 

 Forest " with a strong mealy smell, the gills producing a pink powder." It is not Agaricus primulus of 

 Fries, although very near it ; that has much narrower gills, a stem twice as thick, gills not so decurrent ; 



' From iiTTo, a diminutive, and poSeos, rose-coloured. Spores pale rose-coloured (by courtesy), really a pale 

 chalky red without any mixtiu'e of carmine. 



2 From kXItos, a declivity, and nCKos, a cap. Stem tolerably firm, subequal, distinct from the pileus. Pileus 

 fleshy, campanulate or convex, then somewhat plane, dry, regular. GiUs unequal, changing colour. 



