67 



dry them before they are cooked. In the following paper I have 

 brought together all the species of fungi occurring in the neighbour- 

 hood of Bath belonging to the oi'ders Agaricini, Foli/porei, Hydiiei, 

 Auricularini, Clavariei, and Tremellini. I commence with the 

 Agaricini, remarking on such as are peculiar in their structui'e, or 

 useful as articles of food, or to be avoided on account of their 

 noxious qualities. The order Agaricini belongs to the family of 

 Hymenomycetes, fungi characterized by spores attached to little 

 spicules, and seated on a naked, fructifying membrane, which is 

 generally inferior, or turned downwards. In this order the 

 Hymenium is spread over plates, or gills easily divisible into two. 

 Fries describes nearly 1000 species of the genus Agaricus alone, 

 and, to facilitate the work of the botanist amidst such a mass of 

 materials, has divided that genus primarily by the colour of the 

 spores. A mature Agaric placed for an hour on bits of bla^-.k and 

 white paper, will shed its spores upon them, and their colour will 

 be seen at once. He separates the genus Agaricus from other 

 genera of the order by characters often very difficult to be 

 recognized, and they are perhaps more readily distinguished by 

 their habit than by technical differences. In Agaricus the 

 gills are membranaceous, persistent (not melting), the trama, or 

 substance intermediate between the sporiferous membranes, is 

 continuous with that of the pileus, or cap, and the edge of the 

 gills is acute. Fries places the white-spored species first, and the 

 section Amanita at their head as the most highly developed form. 



FAMILY HYMENOMYCETES. 



Order I. Agaricini. 



Genus 1. Agaricus. * 



Series 1. Leucospori. Spores ivhite. 



Siib-genus I. Amanita, t Veil universal, distinct from the cuticle 



of the pileus ; hyraenophorum distinct fi-om the stem. 



1. Agaricus phalloides. Fries. Bulliard, Herbier de la Fi-ance, 



t. 577. Kromb., Abbildungen der Schwoemme, t. 69 ; figs. 10-17- 



Common in woods and open places. Warleigh Down. This is a 



• Agaricus, from Agaria, a region of Sartnatia. 

 t Amanita, a name given by Galen to some esculent fungus, 



