250 
melleus. 
CRYPTOGAMIA. FUNGI. Agaricus. Hollow and 
Fixed. Brown. 
Grits fixed, dark brown, mottled, turning black, in pairs. 
Pitzus conical, pointed, mouse-coloured, sleek and satiny, } to 
1 inch from the base to the apex of the cone. 
Stem hollow, cylindrical, firm, mouse-colour, darker below, 3 
; to 6 inches high, thick as a crow quill. 
_ Curtain extremely delicate and fugacious, for a short time 
fringing the edge of the pileus. 
This, though one of our most common, and when in perfec. 
tion-a beautiful species, does not appear to be figured by any one. 
Ina fine summer morning it is covered with a bloom like that 
ona plumb, frequently with a glittering spangled appearance, 
which, aided by the regularity of its form and the delicate 
fringe of the curtain, make it an object which the eye contem- 
plates with pleasure. When gathered, the top of the stem is 
apt to bend at a right angle, so that the apex of the cone points 
horizontally. ‘The bloom soon vanishes, and the whole turns 
black in decay. In its general habit and the firmness of its 
stem, it approaches the Ag. varius. 
"Ag. varius. Bolt. Grass plats and new-mown fields, July. 
Var.4. Gills grey to blue black, 4 or 8 in a set: pileus 
conical, pale brown, apex chesnut : stem dark mulberry, 
cylindrical, . 3 
Scheff. 202. : : 
Guts slightly fixed: grey to blue black, numerous, 4 or 8 in © 
a set. 
Piteus pale brown, conical, scored, apex reddish, polished, = 
inch from the edge to the point of the cone. 
Stem hollow, cylindrical, dark blackish red or mulberry co- 
a stiff, juicy, 3 to 4 inches high, thick as a crow 
quill. 
The peculiarities of this variety were probably occasioned © 
by the watery situation in which it grew. : 
Ag. morus. Bot. arr. ed. ii, In wet gravel where no grass 
grows, by the side of the Horse Stew, in Edgbaston Park, un- 
der a large oak tree. Oct. 1791. 
Sometimes on cow-dung, and when protected by long grass 
the stem is covered with a white hoariness which readily rubs _ 
off, and the remains of the curtain forms a beautiful festoon 
round the edge of the —_ _ When very young the gills are 
brown, but they soon change to dark grey and become mottled. 
Ac. (separ) Gills pale brown, 4 in a set: pileus pale | 
: uff, centre deeper, rather conical : stem whitish, 
_ crooked : curtain fugacious. : 
Scheff. 45. 
Guts fixed by small claws to the stem, pale watery brown, -t 
in a set, 
