10 STRUCTURE OF AGARICS. 



name of vessels ? This does not appear to us exact, because if the 

 cells which form them are very long, it is yet possible to find, from 

 time to time, that some are divided transversely. We have seen 

 them in Lactarius deliciosus, but they are to be perceived in other 

 species ; the Lactarii affording an opaque, resinous juice, which fills 

 the cells, and it is not easy to discover the real nature of the cel- 

 lular tube. In Fistulina buglossoides, which contains an abundant 

 red juice, the juice is more fluid, is not so concreted, and is con- 

 tained in the special varicose and sinuous tubes, like the laticifers, 

 but perfectly furnished with transverse divisions. These cells have 

 not always a distorted or varicose disposition, they are often recti- 

 linear, like those figured by Hoffmann (Icon. Analy. Fung., i.,tab. 

 2, f. 5) but on approaching the lamella? the same series of cells is 

 curved, and recurved, thus showing that here the milky secretion 

 appears more abundant ; one sees more numerous drops after the 

 section. This only really exists, not when one has cut a greater 

 number of laticiferous cells, but when one has cut the same one 

 many times. It is, at least, this which we have seen very well in 

 Lactarius deliciosus. As to the importance of the liquid, it is 

 difficult to judge, because numerous Agarics are deprived of this 

 proper juice, at least it can only be admitted that, if existing at 

 all, it is not equally visible, because of its containing resinous or 

 fatty bodies, which may be seen. One finds this same milky juice 

 in the organs of the hymenium, for if the lamella? are cut when a 

 Lactarius begins to ripen, one sees in the basidia, the cystidia, and 

 the sterile cells of the hymenium, the concrete matter of the lati- 

 ciferous cells. 



The exterior surface of the cap, or of the stipe, is sometimes 

 furnished with productions which contribute to give them a parti- 

 cular appearance, at times these are rather large hairs, simple or 

 branched, in which are accumulated granulations which are only 

 slightly disseminated in the exterior cells of the parenchyma 

 ( Agaricus phaiocephalus, Bull., Agaricus setiger, Fr., Agaricus ter- 

 reus, Scha?ff., and a great number of others). At other times 

 these hairs are not visible to the eye, and give simply a dull aspect 

 to the surface on which they occur. In fine, one finds at times 

 some cells which belong to this kind of production, but which, in 

 lieu of preserving the elongated cylindrical form of the parenchy- 

 matous cells, dilate and become spherical, like the primitive vege- 

 table cell. The surface always takes a more or less characteristic 

 pulverulent or pruinose aspect. Agaricus chrysoplia?us, Schasff., 

 offers a very good example ; its cells are large, and filled with grey- 

 brown granulations of the same nature as those which colour the 

 exterior cells of the cap. In Agaricus micaceus, Bull., these same 

 cells take still more considerable dimensions ; they are filled with a 

 clear liquid, and send out luminous rays, so as to take the appear- 

 ance of sheets of mica, from which the name of the Agaric is 

 taken. These cells have greater analogy, as for their structure and 



