] 82 CRYPTOGAMI A FUNGI. 



Sow. Fung, t. 190. HOOK. Scot. ii. 23. GREV. Wern. Mem. iv. 

 352; Fl Edin. 370. Ag. annulatus, LIGHTF. Scot. 1025. BOLT. 

 Fung. t. 23. 



Hab. Grassy banks and near woods. Sea banks a little 

 beyond Spittal quarry. .Aug. 



A very large and well proportioned species, not liable to be 

 mistaken for any other. Edible. 



45. A. aruginosus, stalk cylindrical, greenish-blue, downy ; pi- 

 leus obtusely conical, greenish-blue, slimy ; gills light pink-brown, 

 numerous but not close, ventricose WITH. iv. 294*. Sow. Fung. 

 t. 264. GREV. FL Edin. 391. 



Hab. Blackadder plantations. Sept. 



Stalk as thick as a goose quill, 2 inches long, thicker at the 

 base, marked with the remains of the delicate cob- like veil, 

 hollow. Pileus 1 inch in diameter, often blotted with yel- 

 low. Allied to Ag. psitticinus. 



46. A. cylindricus, stalk white, cylindrical, somewhat bulbous ; 

 pileus cylindraceous, white, flocculent and scaly ; gills close, even, 

 white changing to pink and black. WITH. iv. 321. Sow. Fung. 

 t. 189. HOOK. Scot. ii. 23. Ag. fimetarius, LIGHTF. Scot. 1021. 

 BOLT. Fung. t. 44. Ag. comatus, GREV. Fl. Edin. 393. Crypt. 

 Fl.i. 119. 



Hab. Meadows, grassy lanes near villages, and sometimes 

 in woods. 



This fine species is often gregarious, but never grows in 

 clusters. When full grown, it is about a span high. On 

 its first eruption from the soil it very much resembles an 

 egg in shape and colour, but the pileus soon separates from 

 the stalk, becomes cylindrical, then campanulate, and more 

 or less stained with pinkish -brown and black, the first 

 symptoms of its rapid decay, when it dissolves into a black 

 ink-like fluid. " A young plant," says Dr WITHERING, 

 " put into water, and covered with a glass bell, grew 3| 

 inches in 24 hours," a rapidity of growth sufficiently re- 

 markable, yet equalled by several other species. Indeed, 

 the rapid growth of mushrooms in general, is so well known 

 as to have become proverbial, and there has been a time 

 when supernatural agency was deemed necessary to ex- 

 plain the phenomenon 



