A CATALOGUE OF ESCULENT BRITISH FUNGI. 81 



(57.) AGARICUS SALIGNUS ; Pleurotus salignus ; The 

 Willow- Sprout. 



Habitat. Chiefly on willows, also on poplar and walnut trees. 

 Solitary, or in imbricate tufts. 



Season. October to January. Not uncommon. 



Pileus. Four to eight inches across, white, becoming brown ; 

 sub-dimidiate or flabelliform, horizontal, convexo-plane, disc per- 

 haps depressed, smooth or rimose. 



Stem. Absent, or short, white, thick, tomentose, rigid. 



Section. Flesh whitish, thick, spongy. Gills white, stained 

 with brown at length, close, thin, broad, unequal, bi-anched, 

 pointed at both ends, eroded, decurrent. Odour and taste farina- 

 ceous. Spores white. 



Obis. Somewhat inferior in quality to the Oyster, but like it. — W. D. H. 



(58.) AGARICUS ULMARIUS ; Pleurotus ulmarius ; The 



Elm-Sprout. 



Habitat. On tree-trunks, chiefly elms. Singly, and in tufts. 



Season. October to January. Common. 



Pileus. Four to eight inches across, or more, white, livid, perhaps 

 spotted ; smooth, rounded, con'\iexo-plane, soft, moist. Cuticle 

 inseparable. 



Stem. Two to four inches long, white or greyish, cylindrical, 

 bent, stout, rigid, naked, sub-tomentose, hard and large at base. 



Section. Flesh white, soft, compact. Stem solid. Gills white, 

 becoming stained, numerous, broad, irregular, hollowed below, 

 adnate. Odour and taste farinaceous. Spores white. 



06s. Often abundant, and very fair eating. I have gathered a dish even in 

 the heart of London — in the Mall, to be precise, where it often appears on the 

 old wych-elms. — W. D. H. 



Genus AGARICUS. Sub-genus PSALLIOTA. 



Obs. This is the Sub-genus comprehending the Pratelles, the most familiar 

 esculents in Great Britain. They are somewhat difficult to define, owing to their 

 variable habit, and no two mycological writers agree in their descriptions of 

 what they term the "varieties " of A. campestris. Some of these varieties are 

 merely ephemeral and accidental, but others seem to be so fixed, and so uninter- 

 changeable one with another, that I have thought it advisable to describe them 

 here as distinct species, which I consider them to be. There are few of our 

 rustic mushroom-gatherers who do not regard some of these forms with suspi- 



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