40 An HISTORY of AGARICS, 



XLV. AGARICU6 jlipitatus, piko pufoinato grifeo, lamellis trifidis 

 mollis . angujlis albidis, jlipile bulbofo crajjb fpongiofo. 



SOFT AGARIC. 



TAB. XL. 



HpHE root is bulbous, foft, and fpongy; emitting fhort 

 -■' dawny, almoft imperceptible, fibres, by which it adheres 

 to dead and putrid vegetables, particularly oak leaves : there is 

 no volva. 



The ftem is foft, light, fpongy, and brittle; the thicknefs 

 ©f one's thumb, of a dead white, round, and perfectly up- 

 right ; it is about three inches high, and deftitute of curtain. 



The gills are narrow, arched, arranged in three feries, 

 numerous, thin, delicate, and of a dead white, inclining a little 

 to a pale yellowifh hue; they are of a foft, dry, light fubftance; 

 the third feries is very fhort, as expreffed in the plate. 



The pileus is at firft of an oblong figure, when full grown 

 becomes almoft flat, but riling round the fides in form of a 

 cufhion, the rim is conftantly inflected. The furface is of a 

 clothy touch, fmooth, and foft ; it is of an invariable pale moufe- 

 colour, from its firft appearance to the utter decay of the plant; 

 it is three inches in diameter. The flefh or fubftance of the 

 pileus is dry, foft, brittle, and incapable of being divided into 

 filaments; it cuts like cream-cheefe, the colour and fubftance 

 of which it not unaptly refembles. 



Grows in the dry parts of woods, and in pafture grounds 

 about Halifax, not unfrequently. 



It differs from the Agaricus piper atus, in being deftitute of 

 milk, in its foft fubftance, and bulbous root, and in that the 

 gills are in three regular and diftinc~t feries. The two laft cir- 

 cumstances diftinguiih it from the Agaricus integer alfo. 



