lent like the bloom of fruit ; the gills are interspersed with innumerable shorter cues : even when 

 thoroughly water- soaked, there is no tinge of grey in the colouring. 



But the little Agaric, growing on our mossy lawn, agrees, not with these particulars, but with A. albellm 

 of Fries precisely ; it is seldom more than one inch across, of tender friable substance ; it is not pure white 

 and never turns buff, but looks mottled and water-soaked even in dry weather ; " guttis squamaceis sub- 

 secedentibus saipe adspersus," is very grapliic, although untranslatable ; the gills are simple, the margins 

 involute, never fully expanded ; it is a much more delicate article for the table, than a A. Georgii, of wliich we 

 at first believed it to be a minor form, merging both in " the Prunulus," much as people do A. campestris 

 and A. arvensis in " the Mushroom ; " but we have now little doubt, that both being vernal mushrooms, 

 both under the head Prunuloidea, both having the same peculiar scent, they are yet not the same iti toto, 

 but that our plate faithfully represents A. Georgii of Clusius, wliile the small delicate species is Le vrai 

 Mousseron hlanc or muscat of Paulet, A. alheUus of DecandoUe and of Fries. Fries gets angry with the 

 synonymes, and says "Mousseron is a barbarous name wliich has created endless confusion;" it seems a 

 bold task to venture on ground thus anathematized, and we hope we shall not lie under the reproach of 

 making that " darker which was dark enough " before. 



Paulet having as Fries justly says, taken infinite pains with the subject, is the best modern guide ; but 

 it must be premised that " Mousseron " is the commercial French name for all Agarics sold in a dried state 

 and as these are frequently cut into several pieces to assist desiccation, botanical skill is sadly at fault in 

 examining them. His first example runs thus — "The third esculent species of L'Ecluse is a spring 

 mushroom which he has rendered famous, and which in Germany they call the Mousseron St. George, 

 because it ordinarily appears about the day of that saint. It is a small white mushroom, washed with red 

 brown ; with a nearly orbicular pileus a httle bundling out, scarcely two inches broad," belonging to the same 

 family as the Mousseron blanc; it is "abundant in Hungary and Brabant," but he did not believe that it 

 grew in France at all ; he had never seen it. This is certainly our present subject, and A. graveolens of 

 Sowerby, the A. prunulns of Dr. Badham and in part the A. Mouceron of Vittadini. 



Secondly. " The fourth escident species of Clusius is Le vrai Mousseron blanc " of Paulet ;" it is seldom 

 more than an inch lugh and the stem is of equal thickness with the bullet head. It grows in spring among 

 moss, and its " parfum exquis " announces its presence ; it is the most highly flavoured, delicate, and light 

 on the stomach of any known. This is the Mousseron blanc of Persoon's Champignons Comestibles, 

 A. alhellus of DecandoUe and Fries, and in part A. Mouceron of Yitt. who considers it one with its pre- 

 decessor. 



Thii-dly. Le ilousseron Gris or d'ltalie of Paulet, a small Mousseron gris de lin fonce* the stem often 

 two inches high but the head never more than one ; the giUs white, prolonged upon the stem, which is 

 stuffed, and hoUow with age. Flesh thick, white, very delicate and wholesome, of most agreeable odour ; 

 sold in commerce at forty sous the pound. This is A. Mozisseron of Persoon and perhaps of Bulliard, Plate 

 CXLII, it is the Prugnuolo cenerino of Italy, and included in Vittadini's Mouceron ; it is probably A. gra- 

 veolens of Fries ; but certaiidy is not A. Mouceron of Kromhholz, Tab. 5.5, for that is Agaricus Prunulus of 



' Gris de hn does not mean merely brown-holland colour "gris-de-Un." Johnson says " gray with a purple 

 hue, a fashionable colour of a pnrpHsh shade." 



■' Of Florence sattin flowered with white and green, 

 And for a shade betwixt the bloomy gridelin. — Dryden. 



This expression "bloomy gridelin" throws, as we fancy, some light on the origin of the name Prunulus — these 

 Agarics have been said to " grow under plumb trees," " to be the size of a plumb," the " colour of one," although as 

 some plumbs are purple, others yellow, that is not very definite ; we venture to suggest that the pnheruleitt veil 

 leaving a fruit like hloom on the suiface may have suggested the name, bloomy hke a plumb — Pruindus. 



