Agaricm graveolens of Sowerby is the true A. Georgii, of which Mr. Berkeley, from iuspectiou ot the 

 original di'awiug, has satisfied himself ; A. graveolens of Withering is probably identical with it also, but it is 

 a mistake to give as a synonyme A. Grammopodius, No. 585 of Bulliard, which decidedly is not the same 

 subject, whatever his Mousseron No. 142 may be. Another mistake was gi\ing the name St. George's 

 Agaric to our EngUsh " white caps," the Horse-musliroom, A. arvemis, which does not appear so early 

 in the season, and has dark gills in maturity. Fries asks the reason of the name, but Clusius had no 

 recondite meaning, probably adopting the designation in use among the people. The fungus appears about 

 St. George's day ; very few Agarics are of vernal growth, and this never coming at any other season, may 

 well have been considered by the poor inhabitants of the districts where it abounds, craving for change of 

 food after hard diet all the winter, as a special gift from the benevolent saint. 



Fries had only seen A. Georgii in a dried state, but his description is generally correct; he considers 

 it to be the Agaric of Vittadini, Plate XII, eaten in Italy as a Prumdiis, but the particulars given with the 

 portrait, although applpng to A. Georgii in great measure, include matters appertaining generally to 

 the family vulgarly called Prunulus ; for instance, the stem of Georgii is never rufescent. He gives 

 A. gambosus as a synonyme, which is one error, and in another place (p. 146) says "Fungus Georgii 

 Clusius est A. gambosus, Fries probabiliter noster A. Mouceron," which is a second, for Fries does not 

 confound A. Georgii with A. gambosus but places them as separate members of his section Prunuloidea. 

 A. gambosus is the same as A. Po«w««, Krombholz, and it diflers from Georgii in having the margin much 

 involute, instead of incurved. It is singular that in tlais great work published at Prague, Ki-ombhok, or 

 rather Corda, should take no notice of an Agaric anciently considered as the especial gift to the people of 

 the Hungarian districts by their guardian saint. Fries may well say these delicious funguses have been 

 wonderfully lost sight of. 



That tastes differ is an established axiom, but still it seems strange that the peculiar scent of the delicious 

 Mousseron, " parfzim e.rquis, by which it betrays its locahty when hidden among the moss " (Paulet), should 

 be as offensive to English nostrils as the name Graveolens imports. " It is very strong and unpleasant in 

 its smell, so that it is not an agreeable task to go through the examination of it " (Withering), and for 

 ourselves — some years ago we took especial pains to root out of our lawn, fairy rings, formed by a most 

 odious " toadstool ;" the workmen employed complaining all the while, how offensive the spawn was ; its 

 white cottony fibres permeated the soil to the depth of eighteen inches, all of which was carefully carried 

 away ; but some seasons after, it showed itself again at another part of the turf, when Dr. Badham taking 

 one up, and to our great horror eating it, introduced t/ie Prunulus of Italy, the most dehcate and recherche 

 of Mousserons, in the guise of our old enemy. And now that the fungoid mealy scent is assured to be a 

 token of good instead of evil, we have lost all idea of its being disagreeable, and acquired the appreciation 

 of its value that our continental neighbours possessed centuries ago ; we too hail the Fungus Divii Georgii 

 as a grateful spring luxury. Dr. Badham was the first person to introduce the Prunulus as an esculent 

 English Fungus, and thereby deserves the gratitude of all lovers of such dainties. It remains to be proved 

 whether we have only one of the family here, or more than one. A. Georgii affords excellent flavouring for 

 gravv and soup, either as ketchup or in a dried state, but is not tender when stewed ; tliis is our constant 

 experience of the very large heavy specimens brought in from the Keston Warmount and similar pasture 

 localities. The whole plant is opake dull white, in age turning buff in the centre of the pileus, which is 

 perfectly dry and smooth, the margins only being pubescent under a lens, to the naked eye merely pulveiu- 



the lawn ; tlie Agarics in the ring scalded by water applied for experiment two years ago, did not reappear till now , 

 when they come up fourteen inches from the old site, so that low down the spawn was not injured, and increased 

 outwardlv. The reader will see further on that we now believe these rings to be A. albellus, Fries (in Epicrisis.) 



