TTIK VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



47 



Pterostvlis — conlinued. 



concinna 



nutans 



mutica 



cucullata 



rufa 



parviflora 

 Thelymitra 



longifolia 



ixioides 



August, September 



August, September 



October, November 



September, October, November 



November 



May 



October, November 

 October, November. 



NOTE ON AN EDIBLE MUSHROOM, AGARICUS 

 CAMPESTRIS, L., 



WITH A SECOND SMALLER INVERTED PILEUS ON THE TOP. 



This mushroom was found by Mr. Stewart Neilson, in the grounds 

 of the Royal Horticultural Society's Gardens, on 2nd June, and 

 although he has gathered scores of pounds of mushrooms, this is 

 the first of the kind ever seen by him. The cap of the normal 

 mushroom was 3^ inches across, and about half an inch from 

 the margin on the upper surface there was a large wart-like pro- 

 jection about one inch in diameter. The upper surface of this 

 wart-like projection, which stood out about one-quarter of an 

 inch from the general surface, was very rough, and covered with 

 irregularly arranged and much convoluted short gills. On 

 examination they were found to produce abundance of spores, 

 which resembled the normally produced spores in being oval to 

 elliptical in shape, an average size of 9.5 fx. long by 5.5 fi. broad, 

 but decidedly paler in colour, being of a greyish-brown compared 

 with the nut-brown shade of the other. The specimen grew 

 amongst tall grass, and not in an open meadow, and this may 

 have been an "effort of Nature" to produce spores where they 

 might have a better chance of being spread to a more congenial 

 spot. 



Dr. Masters, in his " Teratology," p. 53, refers to a case, and 

 gives an illustration where one mushroom carries another on its 

 back, as it were ; but they are two adherent mushrooms, and not 

 a double development of gills on the same mushroom as in the 

 present instance. The description of it is short, and may be 

 quoted : — " A not uncommon malformation in mushrooms arises 

 from the confluence of their stalks, and when the union takes 

 place by means of the pilei, it sometimes happens during growth 

 that the one fungus is detached from its attachment to the 

 ground and is borne up with the other, sometimes even being 

 found in an inverted position on the top of its fellow." The 

 twin-like arrangement here is quite distinct from the other, where 

 it was an excrescence — an outgrowth from the mushroom itself — 

 and there was not the slightest indication of the production of a 

 stalk. — D. M'Alpine. 



