38 A PLAIN AND EASY ACCOUNT 



brown colour, often cracked when mature. The stem 

 is similar in colour, tapering towards each extremity, so 

 as to be fusiform or spindle-shaped, and generally 

 twisted or split. The gills are nearly free, pale, and 

 often spotted. There is considerable variation in the 

 size and form ; but our plate represents its ordinary 

 character (PL 5). 



The succeeding group (Collybia) has also its edible 

 representative, albeit a small one, and scarcely worthy 

 of any eulogium. Any one who has been in the habit 

 of noticing with any interest this singular class of 

 plants, will have met with a very common species of 

 this sub-genus with a rooting stem, to which the name 

 of A. radicatus has been given. It is on account of 

 this deviation in its habit from the ordinary growth of 

 agarics that we refer to it, and not on account of any 

 suspicion that it will ever prove valuable for any pro- 

 perty which it may possess. 



Another species of this same sub-genus, A . velutipes, 

 may be found growing in tufts on old stumps long after 

 the frosts of winter have commenced ; indeed, we have 

 found it flourishing through the whole of the past 

 winter, its bright yellowish cap and dark velvety stem 

 making it an object of interest amid the desolation of 

 this inclement season. The singular A. tuberosus, 

 which is produced from little dark elongated tubers 

 found on decaying agarics, is also a member of this sub- 

 genus. 



The Nagelschwamme of the Austrian markets 

 (A. esculentus) is common in the fir plantations of 



