THE STINKING PHALLUS. 



and hence I have called it a "stainer." Every 

 part discharges this ichor, but it 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, pre- 

 carious, mutable, or fugacious, is seen by the wan- 

 dering naturalist alone, and we must leave these 

 mysterious but beautiful productions of nature to 

 their solitudes and woods*. (See Plate 7.) 



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 persons, in their 

 country walks at this period of the year, must have 

 been occasionally surprised by a sudden disagree- 

 able 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 odour 



* Pileus conical, one inch occasionally in diameter pale 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. 



