AGARICUS SURRECTUS. 385 



nature is symptomatic of decay ; but in this in- 

 stance we find an exception to a pretty general effect, 

 for the decay of the apple does not always commence 

 at the spot, which does not even apparently contri- 

 bute to it for the whole fruit will shrivel up in 

 time by the escape of its juices, without any decay 

 by mortification. Though we are not able always 

 to ascertain the purposes of Nature, yet this little 

 cryptogamous plant affords a strong example of her 

 universal tendency to produce, and every vegetable 

 substance seems to afford a soil for her productions. 

 We have even an agaric, with a bulbous root and 

 downy pileus*, that will spring from the smooth 

 summit of another (agaricus caseus}, which has a 

 uniform footstalk, though not of common occur- 

 rence. Thus a plant, that itself arises from decay, 

 is found to constitute a soil for another ; and the 

 termination of this chain of efficiency is hidden 

 from us. 



* This agaric is, I believe, unnoticed. I have called it Agaricus 

 surrectus. 



Pileus convex, expanding, covered with a pile of short, white 

 hair ; centre depressed ; faintly tinted with yellow ; from one to 

 three inches in diameter. 



Laminae loose, irregular, generally four in a set, rather numer- 

 ous, broad, white, changing to buff, and then pink. 



Stipes solid, tapering upwards, rather thick immediately below 

 the pileus, three inches high, thick as a reed, white, and often 

 downy, wrapper at the base. 



Many of this species of singular plant I found in October, 1819, 

 springing from a confluent mass of A. caseus. Bolton's^. pulvina- 

 tus is something like our plant ; but he describes his under side as 

 perfectly flat, and represents a singularity in the termination of his 

 laminae, which is not observable in our A. surrectus. 



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