GROWING about HALIFAX. 57 



AGARICUS Jlipitatus, pileo hemifphcerico vifcido, acuminata, LXV. 

 lame His albis, ftipite longo cylindrico albo. Sp. PL 1642. cljpeatui. 

 No. 16. — Hudfon Angl. 691. 



SHIELD or BUCKLER AGARIC. 



TAB. LVII. 



T 



HE root is a little, oblong, hard tubercle, emitting a few 

 black fibres. 



The item is hard, (lender, cylindrical, the thicknefs of a duck's 

 quill, and five or fix inches high; it is folid, and covered with 

 a whitifh grey powder at firft, afterwards it becomes fiftular, 

 and changes to a dark brown or blackifh colour; the furface 

 is fmooth, and the fubflance eafily divides in filaments like 

 hemp. 



The curtain is white, vanifhes and difappears while the 

 plant is young. 



The gills are arranged in three feries ; thofe of the third ad- 

 hering to the ftem by a broad bafe, the reft pointed at each 

 extremity, and broad in the middle ; they are numerous, and 

 of a thin, pliable, and very delicate fubflance; the colour at 

 firft a greyifli white, turning black in the progrefs. 



The pileus is hemifpherical, fometimes terminating in a 

 fhort conical apex; it is fmooth, and while young of a dead 

 white, and covered with a flippery glutin ; when old it becomes 

 dry, and changes to a brownifh moufe colour; in decay the rim 

 lacerates, and the whole turns black and diflblves. In dry feafons, 

 I have fometimes feen the rim roll upwards, without breaking, 

 and fhew the points of the gills all round, on the upper-fide. 



There is a variety of this very frequent in meadows in this 

 neighbourhood, which is throughout of a yellowifh brown or 

 burf colour. 



