BROWN MUSHROOMS. 39 



every way equal to the best. It has not, like many 

 edible species, a flavour peculiar to itself, but entirely 

 of the mushroom kind, resembling the cultivated 

 varieties rather than the wild ones, and not so 

 strongly flavoured as the horse mushroom. The 

 mode of cooking is precisely that of ordinary mush- 

 rooms, but we decidedly prefer them grilled or fried 

 with butter, and served on toast. We have only 

 found them in the latter part of August and begin- 

 ning of September, and never singly but always in 

 sufficient number to furnish half a dozen persons 

 with a satisfactory breakfast. Although we never 

 have failed to search the same spot, year by year, at 

 the same period, we have been disappointed, in some 

 seasons, in finding no trace of them ; but in succeed- 

 ing years they have appeared again. 



Bleeding Brown Mushroom {Agariciis hcBinorr- 

 hoidariiis). — Although this fungus is often found at 

 the foot of oaks, yet we have never met with it in 

 open pastures, but always in woods, chiefly by the 

 side of roads, and paths, running through woods, and 

 never more than two or three together, often solitary. 

 In appearance it difl"ers from the. above, in that the 

 colour is almost that of the ground on which it grows, 

 so that it may be passed over as a lump of soil, when 

 not fully expanded. The colour may be described as 

 wholly of a dirty brown, something like brick earth, 

 or clayey soil, and the pileus is not so distinctly scaly 

 as the foregoing, the scales being smaller, and more 



