86 BEAUTIES OF THE FUNGI RACE. 



of some old copse in Monmouthshire, deep in the val- 

 ley, calm, serene, shaded by the pensile, elegant, au- 

 tumnal-tinted sprays of the birch, the ground enamelled 

 with every colored agaric, from the deep scarlet to pal- 

 lid white, the gentle gray, and sober brown, and all 

 their intermediate shadings. Fungi must be considered 

 as an appendage and ornament of autumn ; they are 

 not generally in healthy splendor until fostered by the 

 evening damps and dews of September, and in this sea- 

 son no part of the vegetable world can exceed them in 

 elegance of form, and gentleness of fabrication : but 

 these fragile children of the earth are beauties of an 

 hour : 



" Transient as the morning dew, 



They glitter and exhale," 



and must be viewed before advancing age changes all 

 their features. There is a pale gray fungus (agaricus 

 fimiputris) that may very commonly be observed in 

 September on the edges of heaps of manure, and in 

 pasture grounds, most beautifully delicate, almost like 

 colored water just congealed, trembling in the air from 

 the slightness of its form, its sober tints softly blending 

 with each other, lined and penciled with an exactitude 

 and lightness that defy imitation. The verdigris agaric 

 (agaricus aeruginosus) 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 var- 

 nished with the moisture of an autumnal day ; the veil, 

 irregularly festooned around its margin, glittering like 

 a circlet of emeralds and topazes from the reflected 

 colors 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 vegetable 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 neces- 



