ecris. 



60. An HISTORY of AGARICS, 



LXVIII. AGARICUS Jlipitatus, pileo dijlorto mutante, fufcefcente, 

 lattefcente, lamellis trifidis, Jiipite camp? ejjb falcata, bafe 

 angujlo. 



GREY PEPPER AGARIC. 



TAB. LX. 



'T^HE root confifts of a few fibres ifluing from the contracted 

 -*• bafe of the ftem. 



The ftem is often crooked or leaning, it is compreffed, ful- 

 cated, and uneven ; largeft at top, and diminifhing downwards ; 

 it is firm and folid while the plant is young, when old it be- 

 comes fiftular ; it grows fingle or folitary, and is constantly of 

 a pale greyifh buff colour. 



The gills are arranged in three diftincl: feries ; the firft feries 

 about forty-five in number ; they adhere to the ftem by their 

 bafe, are narrow, membranaceous, 1 thin, and brittle; the 

 colour is a pale buff, with a tinge of flefh. 



The pileus is two or three inches diameter, very various in 

 its fhape; it is convex, horizontal, or umbilicated ; the mar- 

 gin frequently lobed or waved, and fometimes deficient on one 

 fide j the colour is conftant, being a kind of mixed grey, be- 

 tween moufe colour and buff"; the fubftance of the flefh is 

 white and brittle. 



When the gills, pileus, or ftem, are wounded, there iflues 

 a white milky fluid, of a hot acrid tafte. This milk, when 

 dried in drops, becomes a brownifh gum, but retains little of 

 its acrimony. 



Grows in the fhady parts of woods, but is rare in this 

 neighbourhood. The fpecimen above-defcribed, grew in 

 Woodhoufe-Wood, in Auguft, 1787. 



This is a fpecies altogether different from the true 

 A . piperatus. See Vol. 1 . P. 2 1 . T. 2 1 . 



