116 UNCERTAIN APPEARANCE OF THE FUNGI, 



observed in September on the edges of heaps of 

 manure, and in pasture grounds, most beautifully 

 delicate, almost like coloured water just congealed, 

 trembling in the air from the slightness of its form, 

 its sober tints softly blending with each other, 

 lined and pencilled with an exactitude and light- 

 ness that defy imitation. The verdigris agaric 

 (agaricus aruginosus) is found under tall hedge- 

 rows, and near shady banks, and few can exceed 

 it in beauty when just risen from its mossy bed in 

 all the freshness of morning and of youth, its pale 

 green-blue head varnished with the moisture of 

 an autumnal day ; the veil irregularly festooned 

 around its margin, glittering like a circlet of eme- 

 ralds and topazes from the reflected colours of the 

 pileus. But it is by examination alone that the 

 beauties of this despised race can be perceived, not 

 by a partial and inadequate description. 



The certain appearance of many of the fungi 

 can by no means be relied upon, they being as 

 irregular in their visits as some of the lepidopterous 

 class of insects. It is probable that decayed vege- 

 table matter is in most cases the source whence 

 this race of plants arises, while a certain degree 

 of moisture and temperature, acting in concord 

 with a precise state of decay, appears necessary 

 to influence the sprouting of the seminal or ra- 

 dical matter. The beautiful floriform hydnum 

 (hydnum floriforme] is very irregular in its ap- 

 pearance, whence it is a species seldom found by 

 the botanist. The mitred helvella (helvella mitra) 



