CLAVIS AGARICINOUUM. 177 



colours ; gills membranaceous, persistent, with an acute edge ; trama 

 floccose, confluent with the inferior hymenium. Fleshy fungi, putrify- 

 ing, and not reviving when once dried, hence differing from such genera 

 as are deliquescent, coriaceous, or woody. 



Series I. Leucospori, Fr. Epicr. p. 3. — Spores white. 



Subgenus 1. Amanita, Persoon, Syn. Meth. Fung. p. 246 (Plate 

 C. fig. 1). — Veil universal at first, completely enveloping the young 

 plant, distinct and free from the cuticle of the pileus ; pileus convex, 

 then expanded, not decidedly fleshy ; stem distinct from the hymeno- 

 phorum,* ringed or ringless, furnished with a volva,free and lax, connate 

 with the base, or friable and nearly obsolete ; gills free from the stem. 

 — Hab. On the ground, mostly in woods and uncultivated places. 



This subgenus is remarkable for the great development of the veil, 

 which at first entirely envelopes the young plant in a thick clothy 

 wrapper ; as the fungus reaches maturity, the veil is naturally ruptured, 

 and part of it remains in scattered and easily removed patches on the 

 pileus (b), and part forms a more or less complete cup or volva at the 

 base (c) ; when there are no fragments on the pileus, the veil has been 

 ruptured in one place, and the whole mass remains at the base ; this is 

 often the case in Agaricus phalloides, Fr. Some of the species have 

 the stem furnished with a ring (d), which, is part of the veil, whilst three 

 species are ringless (or more properly, the ring is adherent to the stem). 

 In some species the veil is thick and greatly developed, whilst in others 

 it is thin and friable, and both volva and patches are evanescent ; the 

 higher forms of Amanita stand alone ; from the stem being furnished 

 with a volva and ring. Some of the species are edible, others highly 

 poisonous. 



Amanita corresponds with the pink-spored Volvaria, Plate CI. fig. 

 10. The species figured is Agaricm (Amanita) muscarins, L., spores 

 •00032" X -00025". 



Subgenus 2. Lepfota, Fr. Syst. Myc. vol. i. p. 19 (Plate C. fig. 2). 

 — Veil universal, and concrete with the cuticle of the pileus breaking 

 up in the form of scales (f) ; pileus never compact, often very thin, the 

 flesh always soft and tlireadlike, and not only distinct from the stem, 

 but often separated above into a peculiar cup ; stem distinct from the 

 hymenophorum,* generally hollow, full of threadlike fibres, rather sub- 



* Some exceptions may be found to nearly every character amongst Agarics, 

 and this one of a free hymenophorum has two exceptions, one in a variety of 



