Order Hymenomycetes. Tribe Pileati. 



Plate LXXXIX. 



AGARICUS VESCUS, 67/...... 



Var. a. Fries in Epicrisis. 

 Esculent Rmsula. 



Section FirMjE. 

 Series Leucosporus. Sub-genus Rxjssula. 



Spec. Char. A. Vescus. Pileus from four to six inches across, the outer pellicle viscid in youth, afterwards 

 dry, dull opake, virgate with innate fibres, rugulose, fleshy, firm, at first imyularly nmhiUcate, convex, tlien plane, 

 then much depressed in the centre, infundibuUform. Margin smooth, at length remotely striate. Flesh pure white, 

 except just beneath the epidermis where it is purplish red. Gills adnate, attenuated behind, lanceolate in front, 

 altogether broad, very little forked, moderately close, white inclining to cream-colour ; spores white. Stem pure 

 white, (never flushed with red,) firm, channelled, wrinkled, solid, in age cavernous, not regularly hollow ; from one 

 and a half to three inches high ; from half an inch to an inch thick. The colour of the pileus is extremely variable ; 

 we may distinguish : — 



Var. a. Pileus rugulose of a purely flesh-red, the disc darkest ; stem reticulated ; gills scarcely forked ; rather 

 fi-agile. Smell of Cray -fish. Flavour agreeable, raw. 



Var. 0. Pileus variegated with difi'erent colours, duskily virgated, the disc paler ; the gills more firm. Smell 

 slight (Fries), flavour of hog's lard. 



Both varieties are excellent for food. 



Agaeicus Vescus, Clusins, Fries. 



Hah. Under oaks &c., in old woodlands. August to October. 



If we know of any one, who in the pride of intellect spurned all mental tasks as mere play, we would 

 tame him by insisting on his mastering, classifying, and explaining the synonymes of the genus Eussula. 



In cases of ravelled skeins attempts to disentangle always make the confusion worse confounded, and 

 so it is with these unfortunate Agarics : they are not only extremely difficult to study in themselves, but 

 the efforts of each commentator to solve, has rendered more complicated, the original puzzle. To clear 

 away the labyrinth of modern bewilderment and go back to primitive simphcity, is the only way to set things 

 right ; and if to fliis be objected, " primitive observations are very curt and bald ; " so they are, but for that 

 reason if we identify a fungus by particulars so scanty, it is all the more satisfactory. Owing to their 

 seizing on none but prominent features, the old mycologists classed several varieties under one head, but 

 the moderns have gone into the contrary extreme and founded a new species on every difference. And 



