2 46 FUNGI. 



are actually poisonous in Britain (Amanita muscarius, 

 Plate XVIL,Ji<j. 1). The Red-fleshed Agaric (Amanita 

 rabescens) is the near relation of the Fly Agaric. Its cap 

 i> brown, and its flesh turns red when bruised. The 

 wrapper adheres in this species just as in the one which 

 we have been describing ; and it is as frequent, though 

 less showy, an ornament of our woods. Berkeley de- 

 scribes its qualities as " doubtful ;" but I have heard it 

 recommended as edible. I have found it in Yorkshire, 

 and frequently in Kent. 



A third Amanita (A. phalloides), the Phallus-like 

 Agaric, greeted our sight when spending a day at 

 Virginia Waters. London was crowded and oppressive 

 in the extreme; we had toiled at the exhibition of '62 

 day after day, and when our humane host proposed one 

 day in the country, to recruit our exhausted powers, we 

 eagerly entered into his plan. By that calm lake we sat 

 and luxuriated, gathering several varieties of heath, and 

 the Lesser Dodder parasitic upon it, treading over thick 

 mats of the White-thread moss, and filling the provision- 

 basket, which we had quickly emptied, with fungi of 

 various shape and character. One of our group was this 

 Phallus-like Agaric. The wrapper did not adhere to the 

 cap, but opened at the summit, and let the tall plant 

 shoot from it, remaining like a soft egg-shell round the 

 base of the stem. The cap was yellowish green, very 

 glossy, the veil thick and entire. There are other species 

 of Amanita, but they have not rewarded our search. 



Another group of Agarics where the veil is very fully 

 developed is characterised as Lepiota. The Bulbous 

 Lepiota grows in rare beauty under a fir avenue in a 



