difficult to render. They did not readily decay ; had the odour and taste, raw, of the common Musliroom 

 and became of a particularly rich high flavoui-, cooked. They cannot be caUed hlac at any age or stage, the 

 " violet eveque " is a much better term, that of the darkest hedge violet, which we too, call ' Bishop's 

 purple.' This is the colour of the gills before the spores attain maturity, they are ia great quantity, and 

 therefore the gills "emit a plentiful powder," as BuUiard and Mr. Stackhouse agree; but the latter 

 gentleman does not correctly discriminate the hue in likening it to " Spanish snulf," it has a redder and more 

 ochraceous tiage. Paulet, who describes this Agaric very faitlifuUy, failed ui identifying it with any of 

 those mentioned by his predecessors m that path of study. The Fiolaceus of Sowerby is our Ble^vitt, a 

 very different species, with paUid brown-buff pileus, shghtly tinged with hlac, and giUs more or less the 

 same, but, as it sheds a copious wliite dust instead of ochry, no further difference need be pointed out ; 

 the placing the pileus, giUs downward, on a piece of glass, or smooth black substance, by procuring a 

 deposit of spores, wiQ give perfect certainty as to whether, on examing any violet or purple Agaric, it is to 

 be placed under Leiicosponis or Cortmaria. 



On cutting Agaricus violacem across, it wiU be found that the flesh, although predominantly wliite, 

 has a tinge of the external violet, and beneath the epidermis that of the pileus is deeply stained with it. 

 No Agaric displays better the distinct nature of the membrane the gills are composed of than this, the flesh 

 of the pileus running down between these folds called giUs, in a very striking manner, and provuig that 

 " they are not formed, as some have supposed, of layers of the reduphcated seed membrane alone, but by a 

 prolongation of the fibres of the pileus, wliich these merely invest." (Badham.) The giUs are styled, ia the 

 series Itioloma, " emarginato-adnexed "; that is, hoUowed out beliind (emarginate), and placed close (adnexed) 

 to the stem, not united with it. The wliite downy substance investing the bulbous part, must not be 

 considered as the root of the plant, its use seems to be to attach the taU heavy Fungus to dead leaves, the 

 earth, and even to small stones, by wliich means it is secui-ed in an upright position. 



