Order Hymenomtcetes. Tribe Pileati. 



Plate XII. 



AGARICUS VIOLACEUS, i;^... 



Gen. Cliur. Hymenium consisting of plates, radiating from a common centre, '^vith shorter ones in the inter- 

 stices, composed of a double closely-connected membrane, more or less distinct from the pdeus. Veil various or 

 absent. 



Series Cortinaria.' Sub-genus Inoloma.^ 



Suh-cjen. Cliar. Inoloma ; veil fugacious, marginal, consisting of free, arachnoid threads. Stem solid, bulbous 

 fibrillose, more or less diffused into the pdeus, fleshy. Pdeus fleshy, ciu-ved when young, then expanded, fibrillose, 

 or viscid, regular. Substance juicy. Gills emarginato-adnexed, broad, changing colour. Colour of the pUeus or 

 gills violet. Large autumnal Fungi, growing on the ground. 



Sjiec. Cliar. Ac. violaceus ; pdeus from three to six inches broad, obtuse, then expanded, villoso-squamose, 

 obscure violet ; gdls, when young deep violet, nearly black, changing to reddish ochre, distant ; stem four to six 

 inches high, spongy withm, then hollow, cinereous tinged with black, and stained by the ochi'aceous spores above 

 the point of attachment of the fugacious ved, when yoimg tomentose, the base bulbous, and covered with white 

 fibrous down when growing among decaying leaves. 



Agaricus violaceus, LinniBits, Withering, Fries, Berkeley, Roques. 

 araneosus, Bulliard 



Hab. Pine groves ; among dead leaves and rubbish in a shrubbery and near veiy decayed compost, not on 

 recent dunghills. Autumn. 



"Le violet Ev&jue" of Paulet, is a strikingly handsome Agaric, not likely to escape notice and 

 attention, it is, however, rare. The noble plant from wliich the accompanying drawing was made, grew in 

 Miss Ti'aill's park at Hayes, among sweepings and leaves laid up to decay ; it lias never re-appeared on the 

 same site. In a young state the pileus is damp (it does not amount to viscidity) and incurved ; a veil of 

 fragile tlu-eads, called araclmoid because resembling those of a spider, extends to the margin of the pileus, 

 and is affixed to the stem, forming a delicate screen over the gills tiU the plant is nearly mature ; at which 

 time it is totally ruptured and dispersed by the expansion of the pileus, except tlie extremities, which 

 contract upon the stem into a slightly persistent ring, above and upon which the spores are shed ; below, the 

 stem is fibrillose, so that even ia old age the place of the veil's attachment may be traced. It is necessary 

 to observe this, because it identifies the Agaric as one of the Cortinarious tribe; Withering says the 

 fragments of the veil sometimes remain attached to the edge of the cap also ; that the colour of the pileus 

 varies much with age, losing its lilac and gaining a russet hue. Our Agarics, in their perfection, were 

 intrinsically dark violet, approaching to black, with a copper gloss over it, an effect very peculiar and 



' Prom cortina, a veil ; spores reddish-oehre ; veil arachnoid. 

 - From (Vfs, a fibre, and XS^a, &. fringe. 



