184 CRYPTOGAMIA FUNGI. 



This offspring of the dunghill has some pretension to beauty 

 on its first appearance, when it resembles an elliptical ball 

 of loose cotton. So brittle and tender that it can scarcely 

 be lifted without injury, and without soiling the fingers. 

 It rapidly rises to the height of 4 or 6 inches, dissolves 

 immediately into a bl ck fluid, and in a few hours returns 

 to the corruption whence it sprung. It has great affinity 

 to Ag. cylindrical and LIGHTFOOT seems to have had both 

 species in view when he assigned " dunghills" as a habitat 

 for the latter. 



50. A. plicatilis, stalk cylindrical, white, smooth, fistular, tender ; 

 pileus mouse-grey, membranous, remarkably thin and pellucid, 

 furrowed ; gills in pairs, broad, distant, grey, becoming black and 

 sooty, loose, their ends forming a ring round the dilated head of 

 the stem WITH. iv. 331. Sow. Fung. t. 364. 



Hob. Old pastures and road-sides. Aut. 



Stalk 3 or 4 inches high, as thick as a crow quill. Pileus 

 about 1^ inch in diameter, convex, as thin as silk paper, 

 the summit brown and smooth. The furrows are not ow- 

 ing to the gills appearing, and the gills themselves are 

 formed by a duplicature of the pileus, for the layers can 

 be easily separated. 



* * * With a lateral stalk or sessile. 



51. A. flabelliformis, stalk lateral, short, whitish, furfuraceous ; 

 pileus leathery, white or brown, furfuraceous ; gills yellowish- 

 brown WITH. iv. 337. HOOK. Scot. ii. 24. Sow. Fung. t. 109. 

 Ag. semipetiolaris, LIGHTF. Scot. 1030. 



Hob. On moss-grown and decaying trees in woods. Hound- 

 wood. 



Gregarious or clustered. Stalk as thick as a crow quill, 

 tough, solid, downy at the base, and dilated at the top. Pi- 

 leus fan-shaped, fissured and concave at its insertion, thin 

 and leathery, scarcely 1 inch in diameter, often dashed 

 with rust-like stains. Gills 4 in a set, scarcely decurrent, 

 rather narrow, of a rich yellowish-brown, forming a fine 

 contrast with the colour of the stalk and pileus. When 

 moist, the hoary whiteness of this agaric disappears, and 

 it becomes nearly a uniform brown. 



52. A. moltis, sessile, ovate, tender; pileus white, downy or 



