GROWING about HALIFAX. 19 



AGARICUS Jlipitatus, pileo fuho, angujlo convexo, lamcilis xx. 

 angnjius crajfis, Jlipite ramofo crajfo fpongiofo fufco . Bat tar a y laridmu 

 Tab. 11. B. C. F. 



LARCH AGARIC. 



TAB. XIX. 



HpHE root confifts of an irregular mifhapen hard piece of 

 ■*■ matter, fuited, in fize and fhape, to the cavities wherein 

 it grows, as if it had been cart there in a mould ; upwards it 

 divides in feveral ftems, which are the thicknefs of one's thumb, 

 in the largeft plants ; the ftems comprefs one another near the 

 root, and are frequently united in their fubftance, growing out 

 of each other, and are actually branched ; the colour is a dead 

 greyifh brown, and the fubftance foft, fpongy, and ealily com- 

 prelhble : the root is deftitute of volva. 



The curtain is narrow, of a dead white colour, and a foft 

 cottony fubftance. 



The gills are in two feries, of unequal length ; they are 

 few, narrow, grofs, brittle, and white. 



The pileus is fox-coloured, feels foft and clothy to the 

 touch ; its diameter is often not much more than that of the 

 ftem } it is conftantly of a convex figure, and a dry, light, 

 fpongy fubftance ; eafily comprefiible between the fingers ; and 

 inftantly, on removing the preflure, re-alfumes its own form. 



Grows on the bark of larch trees, when in a ftate of decay ; 

 it feems to take root between the wood and the bark, the latter 

 of which it burfts to make itfelf way. 



The fpecimen here figured, I gathered in a little plantation 

 at Lee-Bridge, near Halifax •, where I have feen the plant every 

 Autumn, for feveral years paft. 



D 2 



