CRYPTOGAMIA FUNGI. 183 



" You demy-puppets > that 



By moon-shine do the green sour ringlets make, 



Whereof the ewe not bites, and you, whose pastime 



Is to make midnight mushrooms." TEMPEST. 



47. A. ovatus, clustered ; stalk cylindrical, white ; pileus ovate, 

 light brown, smooth, plaited ; gills very close, even, white, chan- 

 ging to brown and black. WITH. iv. 327- HOOK. Scot. ii. 24. 

 Ag.Jimetarius, Sow. Fung. t. 188. Ag. atramentarius^ GREV. Fl. 

 Edin. 394. 



Hob. At the foot of hedges and gate-posts. Aut. 



Stalk white, silky, cylindrical, as thick as a swan's quill, fis- 

 tular. Pileus ovate, obtuse, light brown or earthy, smooth, 

 generally plaited, and more or less unequal at the edge. 

 Gills so close as not to separate without tearing, even and 

 hoary at the edges, ventricose, at first pure white, beco- 

 ming in their decay purplish-brown and black. Dissolves 

 slowly into a black liquor. 



48. A. congregatus, clustered; pileus campanulate, gall-stone- 

 yellow, furrowed ; gills rather distant, whitish, changing to black ; 

 stalk cylindrical, white, smooth, fistular. WITH. iv. 315. Sow. 

 Fung. t. 261. HOOK. Scot. ii. 23. Ag. striatus, BOLT. Fung. t. 54, 

 bad. Ag. micaceus, GREV. Crypt. Fl. t. 76 ; Fl. Edin. 394. 



Hob. At the bottom of gate-posts, and about the roots of 

 felled trees, frequent. Aut. 



The figures of SOWERBY and GREVILLE are beautiful and 

 characteristic delineations of this species when in its finest 

 state, but it will generally be found less tufted and small- 

 er. I have often seen it scarcely clustered, but merely 

 gregarious, occupying a space of 1 or 2 square yards. The 

 pileus is very thin, and the furrows do not reach the rounded 

 top, which is smooth When young it often " appears as 

 if spangled with minute particles of mica," whence one of 

 the names which has been conferred upon the plant ; and 

 in decay it tears and turns up, and slowly dissolves into an 

 inky fluid. 



49. A. stercorarius, stalk tapered upwards, smooth, fistular, 

 white ; pileus ovate becoming expanded, revolute and torn, white, 

 cottony ; gills distant, black. WITH. iv. 309. Sow. Fung. t. 262. 

 JIooK. Scot. ii. 23. Ag. ephemerus, GREV. Fl. Edin. 395. 



Hab. On dunghills frequent in autumn. 



