92 THE STINKING PHALLUS. 



flows rather more copiously from the roots : in general 

 appearance like A. varius. It may possibly be passed 

 over as that species ; but this is a race which being 

 local, precarious, mutable, or fugacious, is seen by the 

 wandering naturalist alone, and we must leave these 

 mysterious but beautiful productions of nature to their 

 solitudes and woods.* 



As weeds will grow with flowers, the unsightly with 

 the beautiful, so do we meet with here much more 

 abundantly that extraordinary and offensive production 

 the stinking phallus (phallus impudicus). They do not 

 dwell near each other, however ; this being found in 

 the month of June on many of our hedge-banks. The 

 smell it discharges has been thought to be like that 

 arising from some decayed animal substance ; but it is 

 of a much more subtle kind, as if the animal fetor had 

 been volatilized by carbonate of ammonia. Many per- 

 sons in their country walks, at this period of the year, 

 must have been occasionally surprised by a sudden'dis- 

 agreeable smell of this nature, and probably concluded 

 that it proceeded from some dead animal, when most 

 likely it was produced by this fungus : yet to find it is 

 not always an easy matter ; for the odor is so diffused on 

 all sides, that it rather leads us astray from the object 

 than aids our search, the plant being hidden frequently 

 in the depth of the hedge. I have at times found it by 

 watching the flight of the flies, which are attracted by 

 its fetor. This strong smell is supposed to reside in 

 the green gelatinous substance which is attached to the 

 cell of the pileus ; but the odor is at times discharged 

 by this phallus, before the stem has arisen from the egg- 

 like wrapper by which it is inclosed. This is a very un- 

 pleasant plant to delineate, as its odor, wh-en in a room, 

 is so very offensive, that few persons would willingly 

 tolerate its presence ; and its growth is so rapid in an 

 increased temperature, that the form and appearance 



* Pileus conical, one inch occasionally in diameter ^paje gray 

 becoming ocherous, summit orange, flesh thin. 



Lamellae fixed, white, four in a set, stained in places. 



Stipes fistular, long, chestnut at the base, upwards pale brown ; 

 root long, trailing, woolly. 



