yet perhaps this is an unfaii- statement, for if differences do exist wliich though slight are constant, it is 

 better to set down too many descriptive particulars than too few : the misfortune is that the most im- 

 portant points are apt to be lost sight of in the details, and closer study is required to place the subject 

 before us in a distinct recognisable aspect. Many small points too can be given by the pencil which words 

 fail to represent, and again others are easily and strictly defined in words which cannot be produced in 

 plates ; between both, we trust to present an excellent aud elegant Agaric clearly before the student, con- 

 fining ourselves in the present case to the red variety of A. vescus, but in truth we have only come to the 

 conclusion that our Agaric is the one Tries so designates after a most patient investigation ; that it is truly 

 Fescus in quality, experience has long convinced us, but we only arrived at the certainty of its being 

 identical with the Agaric so called, because it could not possibly be anything else. It never has the 

 roseate flush upon the stem which distinguishes A. lepidus, and its whole type is different from that (also 

 an excellent article for the table). It has many characters of the fuugus Vittadini describes as A. ruber, 

 Agarieus integer of Fries, but not others that are essential; it has ivkite, not cream-coloured spores, which 

 the Italian author assigns to his A. ruber, while the purple-red under the epidermis, although taken by itself, 

 not a sufficient peculiarity to create a distinct species, is so particularly noticed by Tries when it does 

 exist (which is only in two cases, A. vescus and his A. emeticiis, not the Emeticus of Schoefi'er given in 

 one of our early numbers) that an Agaric possessing it cannot be A. integer ; we know it is not the acrid 

 Emeticus, and are thrown inevitably on J. i'e««««. "And why not?" it maybe asked: "why make any 

 difficulty about it. " Because the type of A. vescus had always imprinted itseK on our mind in the dull 

 dingy purplish-greeu garb worn by A. keteropliyllus of Vittadini and Krombholz neither of whom have 

 noticed this red species of it, in any way ; indeed if considered at all, it has been considered sometliing 

 else, and its very singular and powerful scent and flavour of cray-fish, have been ascribed to the pallid green 

 A. virescens, which smells and tastes only of Champignons i^A. oreades). The usual purplish-green form has 

 not this cray-fish scent; but that of the modern HeteropliyUus (once placed, perhaps for that reason, 

 under the same head), — hog's lard. 



We have thought it better, not being able on account of restricted number to bring forward several, 

 to select this extreme form for publication, since it is more advisable to encounter a difficulty than to evade 

 it, and the more common style of developemeut will be easily understood when met with ; after reflecting 

 upon the present tendency to create new species, it would never do to fall into that error ourselves, or 

 certainly this Agaric differs enough from its congeners already estabhshed, to encourage so doing. It has 

 cream-coloured giUs which are broad, simple or rarely forked, they are adnate or close to the stem, 

 narrowest behind, fullest in the centre, aud broadly lanceolate in front, they are always puckered in where 

 they join the pileus, as if that had shrunk, extremely irregular in distance from each other owing to its 

 irregular expansion ; some are unduly crowded, and others made to gape apart. The margin is in some 

 places curiously folded down, (not properly inflexed,) so as to render the gills only half as long in those 

 portions as where it is plane. This Agaric has a general resemblance, when growing, to A. alutaceus, but 

 as that when examined has buff gills and spores, there can be no mistake. 



No Fungus has higher pretensions to gastronomic excellence, for it is extremely refined and delicate in 

 flavour ; it has no approximation to meat in taste or consistence , but resembles cray-fish, and should be 

 simply fried as directed for A. heterophi/llus. , 



