The name " pudens " given by Persoon suits well the quaker-coloured pileus of sober unglaring texture, 

 relieved by gills of a heavy opake white, and the richest of brown stems ; the mixture of colour is extremely 

 elegant, and may place the " modest " beauty before many flaunting rivals. We have presumption enough 

 to deny the propriety of the terms " fusiform root " and " long-rooting " as appUed to this Agaric ; " deep- 

 rooting " it may be, but although it grows up through eighteen inches of soil, that fact does not convert the 

 stem into a root ; its near relative A. radicatus, No. XXXVI. of these Illustrations, has a distinct stem with 

 a fusiform root, and to this we refer the reader for comparison. Fries calls this stem " stuffed," Withering, 

 Gray, and Relhan " sohd ; " its true nature is scarcely one or the other, for although the inner substance is 

 solid in itself, it is much less firm than the waUs ; but these walls are apparently only an induration of the 

 inner substance with wliich they are homogeneous, so that we may call it " solid " wdthout being very wrong ; 

 it certainly never becomes hollow as the generality of stuft'ed stems do iu age. The whole plant shrinks 

 and contracts in drying very remarkably, considering its texture. The gills are decidedly free ; another 

 point of difference from A. radicatus, which has them adnate ; they are waved and rather ventricose, 

 retiring angularly, not rounded, from the stem behind. Paulet remarks that the velvet covering of the cap 

 is homogeneous with it. The thick pile which clothes the stem is harsher than in A. vehdipes. 



As regards shape, the term campanulate does not apply because the margin of the pileus never expands ; 

 it is not however incurved, but remains nearly parallel to the stem. 



