182 REV. DAVID PAUL. 
genus, that of Pholiota, as containing many handsome forms 
which are easily separated from one another. 
A Pholiota is a brownspored Agaric, and its characteristic 
is, that when the partial veil is ruptured, part of it remains 
on the stem in the shape of a ring. If you find a fungus, 
then, which deposits brown spores from the gills, and has a 
ring on the stem, you know that you have a Pholiota. I 
shall mention only a few. 
The finest of them all is awreus. Unfortunately it is a 
rare fungus, but I have had the good fortune to find it. It 
is surpassed in beauty by no other fungus whatever. The 
pileus may be 6 or 8 inches in diameter and the stem as tall, 
with a large, spreading ring, and the colour of the whole is 
a fine golden-tawny. I saw it at first at a fungus show, 
organised by the Cryptogamic Society at Dumfries some ten 
years ago, and I discovered it afterwards in two successive 
years at Stichill in Roxburghshire. There are only six 
British species of Pholiote that grow on the ground, and this 
is one of them. Another is evebiuvs, which is said to grow 
in woods, but I have found it only among the short grass of 
a lawn. The pileus is very dark, and the ring is set close up 
to the gills. It is not a large fungus, nor very remarkable 
in appearance. Another terrestrial Pholiota is togularis, 
which I have found among short grass on the banks of the 
Tweed. As the illustration will show, it is a beautiful little 
plant, with a finely developed medial ring. Durus and 
precox are other two terrestrial fungi which may both be 
found in early summer, but they are not remarkable. 
Among the Pholiote that grow on wood there are some 
fine species. Every tyro in mycology knows sqguwarrosus, 
common about the roots of ash trees, of a saffron ferruginous 
colour, covered both on stem and pileus with thick-set, 
darker, revolute scales. It is generally very cespitose, and 
a large clump of it has a very handsome appearance. Then 
there is spectabilis, which approaches awrews in colour and 
beauty, with a golden-tawny pileus and a sulphur-yellow 
stem. It is not so large as aureus, but is almost as 
distinguished in appearance, and catches the eye even ata 
distance. It generally grows on beech stumps, but also on 
oak, and cannot be confounded with any other fungus, 
