Order Hymenomycetes. Tribe Pileati. 



Plate LXXIX. 



AGARICUS GIGANTEUS, ^c/../.r. 



Giant Agaric. 



Series Leucosporus. 

 Sub-genus Clitocybe. Sub-division Dasyphylli.^ 



Spec. Char. Agakicus Giganteus. Pileus from fom- to fourteen inches broad, fleshy, often splitting at the 

 margin, broadly infundibuliform, the disc always turned down ; in old plants the margin curiously waved in scallops ; 

 the base of the funnel sunk into the stem, with no traces of an umbo ; white with an ochraceous tinge, sometimes 

 guttata, afterwards pitted, not viscid, smooth, but the whole surface under a lens covered with a fine matted 

 silkiness, pubescent at the margin ; margin marked with shallow grooves. GiUs decurrent, extremely close, forked, 

 yellow- white, as broad as the flesh of the pileus. Stem from two to four inches high, from one to two inches thick 

 at the base, sub-bulbous, sometimes obese and slightly attenuated upwards, firm, fleshy, hard, quite solid, minutely 

 pubescent, at first white, then yellowish or pale umber where bruised or handled, never 7-ufescent. Boot covered 

 with white down. Scent slight but agreeable ; esculent. 

 Agaricus Giganteus, Sowerhy, Fries, {in Epicrisis not Eleiiclms,) Berkeley. 



Hah. In sunny woodlands, gregarious in vast rings from fifteen to twenty yards in diameter. Bare. September 

 and October. 



Fries appears uot to have seen tliis Agaric till the year 1834, when it appeared abundantly near 

 Upsal, and he concludes his notice with the remark that it differs greatly, is " diversissimus," from aU the 

 other species of his section InfundtbuUformes. In October, 1848, an immense ring of A. giganteus 

 appeared near Hayes. The members composing it varied much in stature and developement ; they were 

 not placed at distinct intervals, as is the case with A. pileolarius, but grouped close together, one or more 

 of humble proportions sheltered beneath the brotherly screen of the giants of the family. 



The " sunny woodland," wliich Pries assigns as the habitat of his Swedish friends, was selected exactly 

 by their English relatives. There is an abrupt slope from the table-land of Keston and Hayes Common, 

 facing nearly south, but towards the eastern extremity, curving round into the War-mount or Black Ness, 

 ■which checks the sweepiog action of winds from that quarter. Tliis slope is covered with scrubby under- 

 wood, but the alluvial soil of the valley it shelters is too good to be thus devoted, and the plough is carried 

 as high as it can go. Happily for Mycologists, there is an irregular rough slip of sward which defies 

 cultivation, for the scythe is bafiled as well as the share. We — happy we ! untroubled by the cares 

 inherited with paternal acres, we fancy the whole country ours, and take at least as much interest in some 

 portions of it as the owners do — we would not give that rude slip of virgin soil for all the agricultural 



' From Sacriif, close, and cpiXKov, a leaf, in allusion to the closeness of the gills. Pileus dry, smooth. Gills 

 decurrent or acutely adnate. 



