214 FUNGUS-FLORA. 



times ventricose or irregular, stuffed, whitish ; ring apical, 

 torn ; spores elliptical, almost ferruginous, 89 X 56 p.. 



Agaricus durus, Bolton, Fung. Halifax, t. 67, f. 1 ; Cke., 

 Hdbk., p. 142 ; Cke., Illustr., pi. 423. 



On the ground in gardens, &c. 



The root consists of a number of fibres issuing from the 

 hard compressed bottom of the stem. The stem is round, 

 solid, 2 in. high, and of a pale whitish-buff colour. 

 The curtain is very delicate and tender ; it is white, and 

 breaks and vanishes in the infancy of the plant. The gills 

 are extremely numerous, deep, semi-oval, and regularly 

 arranged in three series ; they are thin and of a pale greyish 

 colour. The pileus is convex, even, and smooth at the rim ; 

 the surface smooth, of a pale dusky yellow, and feels like 

 vellum; ihe substance of the whole plant very hard and 

 brittle. (Bolton.) 



Pholiota praecox. Pers. 



Pileus 1^3 in. across, fleshy, soft, convex, soon plane, ob- 

 tuse, almost glabrous, even, whitish then tan-colour, moist 

 but not viscid in rainy weather, becoming pale ; gills ernar- 

 ginate, adnexed, crowded, 3 lines broad, white then brownish ; 

 stem 24 in. long, 3-4 lines thick, cylindrical, mealy and 

 pubescent then glabrous, fragile, whitish, filled with pith 

 then hollow ; ring white, reflexed, entire ; spores brownish, 

 8-13 X 6-7 p. 



Agaricus praecox, Persoon, Syn., p. 420 ; Cke., Hdbk., p. 1 42 ; 

 Cke., Illustr., pi. 360; Fries, Hym. Eur., p. 217. 



Amongst grass, &c., in gardens. In spring. 



Spores fuscous-brown ; pileus yellowish- white ; gills with 

 a subdecurrent tooth. Var. minor, pileus scarcely 1 in. across, 

 ring torn, appendiculate. (Fries.) 



Pholiota sphaleromorpha. Bull. 



Pileus li 2 in. across, flesh thin, convex then plane, even, 

 yellow ; gills arcuato-decurrent, dry, yellowish- white then 

 becoming brownish; stem 3-4 in. long, 2-4 lines thick, 

 incrassated at the base, silky, yellowish, stuffed then be- 

 coming partly hollow ; ring ample, distant, entire, rnern- 

 branaceous. 



Agaricus sphaleromorphus, Bull., Champ., t. 450, f. 1 ; Fries, 

 Hym. Eur., p. 217. 



