801 



Extracts from the Proceedings of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club. 



" Description of an Agaric netv to the British Flora. Agaricus ca- 

 peratus. — Pileus convex, orbiculate, obtusely umbonate, even, very 

 dry, of a uniform gall-stone yellow, usually paler about the top, 

 covered with a mealy powder of the same colour, which, in some 

 places, is gathered into an imperfect scaliness, the margin inflected, 

 entire or more or less sinuated : veil as thick as writing paper, per- 

 sistent, stretched between the margin and stem, to which it is closely 

 attached, thickly covered with the same powder as the pileus, but 

 more distinctly squammulose : ^esh thick, solid and firm, white, not 

 changing colour, mild and insipid in taste. Gills numerous, adnate, 

 four in a set, dry and smooth, sienna-yellow, juiceless : sporules el- 

 liptical, very light honey-yellow. Stem cylindrical, as thick as a 

 man's thumb, erect and solid, the root rounded but not bulbous, 

 whitened with the mycelia, the shaft of the same colour as the pileus, 

 paler on the lower half, covered with the ochraceous powder or 

 slightly squammulose, the flesh white, yellowish under the epidermis ; 

 the portion of stalk within the veil is pale, a very little fibrilose, but 

 not powdered. Diameter of the pileus 3 inches ; height of the stem 

 5 inches, the diameter nearly an inch ; breadth of the gills 2-lOths. 

 From the woods at Anton's-hill, Sept. 16, 1845. 



" This truly magnificent agaric was ascertained satisfactorily to be 

 the Agaricus caperatus of Fl. Dan. t. 1675, by the Rev. M. J. Berke- 

 ley, to whom a specimen was sent. It is not the Agaricus caperatus 

 of the English Flora, nor the Agaricus pudicus of Bulliard ; and is a 

 beautiful addition to the already extensive list of British species, for 

 which we are indebted to the researches of Miss Anne Hunter, an 

 honorary member of the Club. The spores, Mr. Berkeley says, are 

 very peculiar. ' Its greatest peculiarity,' says Miss Anne Hunter, 

 *is its being so profusely covered over its pileus, curtain, and stem, 

 with a yellowish powder, in such quantities as to make it disagreeable 

 to gather, as gloves and everything it came in contact with was 

 covered. And I am much struck with the toughness and perma- 

 nency of the curtain, which remains after the pileus has attained its 

 full size.' 



" When small and young the pileus is obtusely campanulate, but in 

 other respects it does not differ from the mature plant. Miss Hunter 

 has found it on one spot only in the wood behind the house of An- 

 ton's-hill, and there sparingly. Like most of its genus it is eaten 

 greedily by slugs and the maggot of a dipterous fly; and it seems to 



