Order Hymenomycetes. Tribe Pileati. 



Plate LXXXIII. 



AGARICUS GEORGII, clus^us. 



St. George's Agaric. 



Series Leucosporus. Sub-genus Tricholoma.^ 



Sub-division Personate, (Fries.) 



Section Prunuloidea. " Pileus fleshy, fragile, guttato-maculose or channelled, stem solid with no indications 

 of veil &c. Vernal ; generally congregated or caespitose ; particularly fragrant and aromatic when dried. The 

 most delicious of funguses ; celebrated among the fathers of Mycology and the common people, but wonderfully lost 

 sight of by recent writers ; Micheli alone has brought forward many names, and Paulet has admirably disentangled 

 the true species." (Fries, Epicrisis.) 



Spec. Char. A. Georgii. Pileus from an inch to four inches broad, plano-convex, obtuse, irregular, more or 

 less lobed, often tuberculated, dry, soft like kid-leather, under a lens tomentose. Margin incurved (not involute), 

 seldom fully expanded, waved, minutely but decidedly tomentose. Pileus cream-white ; in the incurved poitions of 

 the margin and folds, where it is not exposed to the air, often of a delicate pale salmon-colour ; the summit turning 

 bufl" or becoming tanned, or even acquiring a scorched appearance in exposed situations ; in extreme age spotted as 

 if mildewed. Flesh solid, compact, very thick, white. Gills pallid cream-colour, very numerous with many shorter 

 ones interposed, crowded, irregular, theii- margins uneven ; often imbricated, often waved from the compression of 

 the pileus, extremely narrow, attenuated in front, occasionally also behind and appearing somewhat decurrent from 

 the diffusion of the stem into the pileus, but not truly so ; sometimes adnexed, sometimes nearly emarginate with a 

 smaD tooth, various forms occurring in the same Agaric ! frequently cracking from the stem. Stem white, solid, con- 

 sisting entirely of fibres effusing themselves into the pileus ; sometimes ca\ernous ; obese, robust, firm, irregular, 

 in young specimens often thickest at the base. Odour like newly ground flour, taste agi'eeable raw, scent extremely 

 powerful when dried. Excellent for food. 

 Fungus St. George, Clusius. 



Divii Georgii, Bauliin. 



Esculentus totus albus farinam recenter molitam redolens, Micheli. 



Agaricus Georgii, Lirmav^, Fries, Berkeley MSS. (not of Sowerby.J 



graveolens, Sowerhy, Withering. 



Prunulus, Badhmu, Vittadini. 



MoussERON St. George, Blanc, Paulet. 



Hab. In dense rings ^ in old woodland sand neglected pastures about St. George's day (old style), 23rd April 

 Never in autumn. 



' From 6p\^, a hair, and Xa>;ia, a veil. Veil partial, fibriUose or floccose, very fugacious. This is the strict 

 definition of Tricholoma according to the English Flora, but Fries divides this vast family into two series, the first 

 of which is distinguished by these characters; the second, the Personatae, have a " discrete veil seceding into pulveru- 

 lence" " Velimi Obsoletum." (Epicrisis.) 



2 With respect to "faiiy rings" we find the following memorandum, April 12th 1848. — Agaricus Georgii on 



