420 FUNGUS-FLORA. 



Caespitose, very irregular, often eccentric, lobed ; habit 

 almost that of Pleurotus ostreatus. Stem elongated or short, 

 reddish- white. Pileus greyish-livid then rufescent, often 

 marked with darker spots. Eeadily distinguished from C. 

 decastes by the flaccid, often excentric pileus, and the 

 yellowish flesh-coloured, somewhat fibrillose stem and gills. 

 (Fries.) 



Clitocybe elixus. Sow. 



Pileus 2-4 in. across, flesh thick at the disc, becoming thin 

 towards the margin, at first umbonate, then flattened and 

 depressed, margin more or less wavy, minutely downy and 

 streaked, disc smoky-bun , margin paler, marked with dingy 

 spots ; gills decurrent, distant, whitish ; stem 1-1^ in. high, 

 |- in. thick, sometimes more, about equal, coloured like the 

 pileus, solid ; spores elliptical, white, 7 x 4 //,. 



Agaricus elixus, Sowerby, Fung., t. 172 : Cke., Hdbk., 

 p. 51 ; Cke., Illustr., pi. 280. 



In woods. 



Solitary. Pileus becoming pale and slightly silky ; gills 

 unequally decurrent, connected by veins. (Fries.) 



Pileus 2 in. broad, at first very strongly umbonate, ob- 

 conical, at length flat or even depressed, with the border 

 flexuous, not the least involute in any stage of growth ; disc 

 fuliginous, very minutely virgate; border whitish, with 

 dingy sodden spots. Stem 1 in. high, f in. thick, or 

 2 in. high and -f in. thick; sometimes short and stout, 

 sometimes much elongated, dingy like the pileus, clothed 

 with matted down which reaches up to the base of the gills, 

 often smooth at the base, which is buried amongst leaves and 

 attached to them by the downy mycelium; solid, mottled 

 within, slightly discoloured beneath the cuticle ; gills very 

 distant, decurrent, white, interstices more or less veined. 

 Spores elliptic ; spicules long. Much eaten by slugs. This 

 is certainly quite a distinct species from Ag, camanophyllus, 

 to which Fries refers it. The gills are by no means thick ; 

 they are narrow and white, not glaucous. The whole plant 

 in moist weather is like a sponge sodden with water. It 

 does not appear to me to have any affinity with Hygrophorus. 

 "When young the pileus has quite the form of Gomphidius 

 glutinosus. (Berk.) 



