108 FUNGI. [Agaricus. 



sporules elliptic. Stem \h — 3 inches high, 2 — 3 lines thick, subflexu- 

 OLis, equal or subbulbous, solid, but sometimes decidedly hollow, juicy, 

 white or faintly shaded with buff, fibrillose, under a lens subpubescent ; 

 ring near the top deflexed and striate, or attached in fragments to the 

 edge of the pileus. Root strong, white, branched. Smell like that of 

 A. oreades, but sometimes unpleasant. I find what appears to be only 

 a variety, growing in bogs amongst wet Hi/jmiim cuspidatum, at King's 

 Cliffe in May. It accords almost exactly with Bulliard's figure of 

 A. sphaleromorphus, t. 540. f. 2,* except that the stem is not so 

 decidedly clubshaped. — As Fries in his Elenchus supposes that it 

 may prove a new species of his tribe PhcBotiis, I subjoin a description : — 

 Pileiis 1 — 2 inches broad, at first nearly hemisphserical, soon expanded 

 and even subdepressed, siibviscid, carnose, yellowish-tan, when old 

 watery yellow-olive, the margin umber from its transparency, in con- 

 sequence of which the colour of the gills is partly seen through the 

 flesh. In very young specimens, there are some slight vestiges of the 

 ring ; otherwise it is quite smooth. Gills at first nearly of the colour 

 of the pileus, then purplish-umber or pinkish and clouded ; the edge 

 fringed with white appendages, rounded behind, subadnate with a tooth ; 

 sometimes the tooth appears as though the gills had started from the 

 stem and in so doing had drawn with them a thin glutinous membrane, 

 an appearance exactly represented in Sow. t. 408./! 1. In old speci- 

 mens, when the pileus is depressed, the gills become very ventricose 

 and rounded, but there is still the tooth ; they then become much 

 darker, but not so dark as in Bulliard's, t. o40. f. 1. Sporules bistre, 

 with a very slight ferruginous tinge. Stem 2 — 3 inches high, 2 lines 

 thick, nearly 4 at the base, slightly clubshaped, below subflexuous, 

 white, more or less tinged with the colour of the pileus, fibrillose under 

 a lens, minutely downy at the very base ; at first stuffed then minutely 

 fistulose. Ring perfect, erect or deflexed, striate. Another state or 

 species occurred in Kensington Gardens and at Beeston, Notts., in 

 Oct. and Nov., agreeing exactly with A. mutabilis, Fl. Dan. t. 1008, 

 f. 2, which is quoted by Fries under A. sagatus, but as he describes it 

 as having free gills and my plant has them subadnate like those of 

 A. prcecox, I think it better to consider it merely a state of the present 

 species, than run the risk of a mistake. 



288. A. semiglohdtus^ Batsch, (Jiemisphcerical Agaric) ; pileus 

 hemisphserical even viscid yellow, gills adnate clouded with 

 black, stem fistulose smooth dotted with black above. Batsch, 

 Cant. 1. /. 110. Sow. t. 248. (m j^^^t). With. v. 4. p. 240. 

 Pers. Syn. p. 407. Fr. Syst. Myc. v. 1. ;:>. 284. Grev. Fl 



Ed. ;?. 391. Sc. Crypt. Fl. t. 344 A. lustre, Bull. t. 566. 



/. 4. — A. glutinosus, Curt. Lond. t. 194. — A. virosus, Sow. t. 407. 

 / 7, 8, 11—14. Purt V. 2 S^Q. n. 952. 



Rich meadows, especially on horse-dung. Ma}^ — Nov. Extremely 

 common. — Pileus ^ — 1 inch or more broad, hemisphserical, yellow or 



* There is some confusion in the citation of this and the next accompanying 

 figure, JBull. t. 540. /. 2, in consequence of the references at the foot of tlie 

 plate being transposed. De Candolle's description of A. sphahroynorphus, 

 *' lamelles atteignant a peine le pedicule," evidently belongs to A. melanospermus. 

 Fries following the reference and not the figures themselves, has quoted under 

 A. melanospermus, the figure of A, sphaleromorphus. 



