218 
CRYPTOGAMIA. FUNGI. Agaricus. Solid and Loose. 
; W3HITE, : 
names could be preserved, having been, and not improperly, pre- 
viously applied to other species... = 
Edgbaston, hedge hanks, pastures, in small or large patches, 
particularly in fairy rings. .Abounds in upland pastures, and 
sheep commons. Mr, StackHouse. .... _..June—Oct. 
~. Var. 2. Gills cream colour: pileus buff: stem mealy. 
Pastures, Edgbaston. eS)" 20th May; 1792. 
Sometimes the pileus is as much as 3 inches in diameter, 
“Tn fairy rings on the ground sloping down to Hockley Pool, 
‘and ona pee of grass land sloping to the South in the pleasure 
ground of Mr. Boulton, at Soho, 2d June, 1792. 
*Var. 3. Pilcus yellow brown, more fleshy, more regularly 
convex. Mr. Woopwarp. ‘ 
Bolt. 151. 
_ Mr. Woodward observes that this variety is found in groves; 
that the stem retains its usual colour and toughness. He says 
also that this species has a much higher flavour than the common 
mushroom, but probably from its leathery nature is indigestible, 
except in the form of powder, in which it is admirable, I have 
seen the pileus and gills of this Agaric very brittle and tender 
when fully saturated with moisture in rainy seasons, and in that 
state it is sufficiently digestible. . It is not, as Mr. Lightfoot has 
supposed, the Moucerox of the French, though often used in 
France instead of that. Mr. Bulliard informs us that it-is used 
in ragouts, that its flavour is equal to that of the true Mouce- 
ron, that it is more tough. 
I am satisfied that the bare and brown, or highly cloathed 
and verdant circles, in pasture fields, called Fairy Rings, are 
caused by the growth of this Agaric. We have many of them 
in Edgbaston Park, on the side of a field sloping.to the South 
West, of various sizes; but the largest, which is 18 feet di- 
ameter, and about as many inches broad in the periphery where 
the Agarics grow, has existed for some years on the slope of an 
adjoining pasture field, facing the South. The soil is thin, on 
a gravelly bottom. The larger circles are seldom compleat. The 
large one just now described is more than a semi-circle, but this 
phenomenon is not strictly limited to a circular figure. Where 
the ring is brown and almost bare, upon digging up the soil to 
the depth of about 2 inches, the spawn of the Fungus will be 
found, of a greyish white colour, but where the grass has again © 
grown green and rank, I never found any of the spawn existing. 
A similar mode of growth takes place in some of the crustaceous 
Lichens, particularly in the L. centrifugus. 
‘As this Agaric may be procured plentifully, and as its fine 
flavour will probably soon introduce it to our oathes, Cpeiicalarly 
in catsups and in powder, forms in which its toughness is no 
objection to its use; I imagine it may be of some consequence 
