OF BRITISH FUNGI. 25 



or Agaricus, as it was afterwards written, became, to a 

 certain extent, generic for Polyporus, and it is so used 

 by Micheli, Ray, and others, the word Fungus being 

 generally applied to what, after Linnaeus, we now call 

 Agaricus. It is to be regretted, that when that great 

 author reformed the system of botany, he too often took 

 any names which offered themselves in the older 

 authors, without giving himself the trouble to inquire 

 whether they belonged really to the plants to which 

 they were attributed, and thus the familiar name of 

 Agaric is now applied to plants which should never 

 have borne it. Our earlier herbalists rightly applied it 

 to corky arboreous fungi ; as Agaric of the oak, Sec. In 

 like manner the Greek Hydnum, instead of being a 

 conspicuous pileate fungus, such as we now recognize 

 under the name, was originally a kind of truffle ; and 

 many other instances of similar misnomers might be 

 adduced. It is, however, now too late to mend such 

 matters, and we may be glad to substitute such a word 

 as Agaric for Toadstool, which is not only disgusting 

 in its real etymology, but helps to keep up the feeling 

 of contempt with which a most interesting class of 

 plants is too frequently regarded/' 



The Agarics constituting such a large and important 

 genus, it has been found convenient to arrange them in 

 five very natural series, according to the colour of the 

 spores. In the first series, termed Leucospori, the 

 spores are white ; of which Agaricus procerm may be 

 taken as an example. In the second series, called Hypo- 

 rhodii, the spores are salmon-coloured ; of which Agari- 



