RARE AGARIC. 91 



dissolution of vegetable matter is effected solely by the 

 agency of insects or parasitic plants, Nature having 

 various ways of accomplishing her purposes ; but only 

 mean to contend that, in numerous cases, these weak 

 instruments are made use of to accelerate the decay 

 and dispersion of it. 



We are not favorably circumstanced for any great 

 abundance of the race of fungi : the old fir grove- 

 which produces such varieties, and the oak and birch 

 copses, which have shed their leaves for ages, and given 

 rise to many, are not found with us ; yet we have a 

 small scattering too, some of which are perhaps not 

 undeserving of notice ; and, though rather partial to a 

 class which has afforded me many hours of gratification 

 and delight, yet, sensible of the little interest they 

 generally create, I must limit my mention to a very 

 few. 



The odorous agaric (agaricus odorus) may perhaps 

 be locally found in plenty, but to me it has always 

 been a plant of rare occurrence. Its colors are delicate 

 and modest, rather than splendid, and a near acquaint- 

 ance only makes us sensible of the justness of its name. 

 We have another scented agaric (agaricus fragrans), 

 much more commonly to be met with, which diffuses 

 its fragrance to some distance: but the former species 

 does not spread its fragrance until brought into a tem- 

 perate apartment, when it fills the room with an odor 

 like that proceeding from the heliotrope, or from fresh 

 bitter almonds, and communicates it to our gloves, or 

 whatever it touches. I have found it sparingly here 

 among dry beech leaves in Wolf-ridge copse. 



There is a rare, local, and I believe unnoticed agaric, 

 trailing its long roots in October among the small de- 

 cayed fragments of some old hedge, elegant in itself, 

 but more remarkable from the colored fluid it contains, 

 which upon being wounded it emits, not as a milky 

 fluid, but like an orange-colored, tasteless, spirituous 

 extract, long retaining its color upon paper, and tinge- 

 ing the hand like the celandine, or blood-wort, (san- 

 guinalis canadensis); and hence I have called it a 

 "stainer." Every part discharges this ichor, but it 



