Agaricus.] fungi. 3 



Woods and pastures. Aug.— Oct. Not uncommon.— Pileus 4 inches 

 or more broad, plane, slightly depressed in the centre, scarcely umbonate, 

 fleshy, except at the extreme margin which in consequence is elegantly 

 grooved ; viscid when moist, beautifully shining when dry ; at first there 

 are a few broad scales, the remains of the volva, but these soon vanish ; 

 the Epidermis easily peels off. Gills free, ventricose, broadest in front, 

 often imbricated, white. Sporules wlute, round. Stem 6 inches -or 

 more high, i — 1 inch thick, attenuated upwards, obtuse at the base, 

 where it is furnished with a volva which is adnate for about an inch and 

 then, in general, closely surrounding it like a sheath, but sometimes the 

 margin is expanded, marked within at the base with the grooves of the 

 pileus ; brittle, sericeo-squamulose, scarcely fibriilose, but splitting with 

 ease longitudinally, hollow, or rather stuffed with fine cottony fibres, 

 the very base solid, not acrid, insipid ; smell scarcely any. Eaten in 

 Russia, but according to some accounts, poisonous. — The volva is easily 

 overlooked if care be not taken to dig up the very base of the stem, as 

 it is apt to be entangled in the grass. Its peculiar character is evidently 

 owing to the elongated form of the young pileus. This state is admir- 

 ably figured by Bulliard who established the species. But, occasionally, 

 forms occur in which the volva is more like that in some of Schoeffer's 

 figures. It occurs of various colours ; the more general one is a mouse- 

 grey. Bolton figures a tawny variety agreeing with A.fulvus, Schceff. 

 t. 95. Others are figured by Schoeffer of abluish and bay hue. Batsch has 

 a white and Haller a green variety. — I once found in a grassy riding in 

 Shorne Wood Kent, Aug. 6, 1832, a species apparently distinct, but as 

 I have never met with it since, and had no opportunity of making a 

 drawing, I do not venture to propose it as such. Pileus nearly 4 inches 

 broad, "slightly fleshy, the margin grooved, without scales, of a gre}-- 

 umber. Gills broad (\ an inch or more) obtuse at each end and ventri- 

 cose, at first white, yellow in decay, subdeliquescent and foetid. Stem 

 3 inches long, ^ an inch thick, stuffed, but by no means cottony 

 within, scaly, the' scales pointing downwards, equal except at the base, 

 which is thickened and furnished with a thick ample volva rugulose 

 without, smooth within. Bolton's description of his A. pulvinatus, 

 especially as regards the inside of the stem, agrees better with this than 

 with the common state of the species. 



3. A. nivalis, Grev. (alpine Agaric) ; pileus smooth, the 

 margin sulcate, gills somewhut distant, stem stuffed, volva loose. 

 Grev. Scot. Crypt. Fl. t. 18. 



Highland pastures and the summits of mountains. Scottish Alps. 

 Aug. Not uncommon. — " White. Pilciis 2 — 3 inches broad, ovate in 

 the volva, then convex, at length plane and subumbonate, the centre 

 subochraceous; at first warty then quite smooth. Flcsli white, very 

 thin on the margin. Gills subdistant, broad in front, narrow behind, 

 entire. Stem 3 — 5 inches high, 3 — 4 lines thick, naked, stuttbd with 

 spongy fibres, bulbous at the base, with a constriction where the volva 

 becomes free. Vulva loose, persistent." Grev. l. c. — Very near to A. 

 vaginalus, the only marks of distinction being the greater distance of the 

 gills and the greater compactness of the stem. In the last character 

 it agrees with the plant found at Shorne, mentioned above. Nothing is 

 known of its (jualities. Fries in his Iml. Alph. p. 3?, considers it the 

 same as A. vaginatus. 



