.};,' BEAUTIES OF THE FUNGI EACE. 119 



in healthy splendour until fostered by the evening 

 damps and dews of September, and in this season 

 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 hedges of heaps of 

 manure, and in pasture grounds, most beautifully 

 delicate, almost like coloured 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 light- 

 ness that defy imitation. The verdigris agaric 

 (agaricus seruginosus) 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 varnished with the moisture of 

 an autumnal day; the veil, irregularly festooned 

 around its margin, glittering like a circlet of eme- 

 ralds and topazes from the reflected colours 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. 



