Fungi. 
_ tab. 222. 
46 
functions of their nature. Among the French wri- 
ters, many subdivisions have been adopted,. but al- 
most all of them are artificial, founded upon characters 
either difficult of detection, or inconstant and fugaci- 
ous. This will be better illustrated, by stating the 
characters of those subdivisions, as they appear, for ex- 
ample, in the Flore Francaise, which are as follows: 
1. Pleuropus. Destitute of a wrapper or volva, stem 
wanting, or lateral, or eccentric. The sessile species 
are usually coriaceous ; those having a stem are fleshy, 
with an irregular pileus. As an example, we may re- 
fer to the Agaricus quercinus of Sowerby, tab. 181. 2. 
Russula. Destitute of a wrapper, stem central, gills 
equal among themselves, and not terminating in a col- 
lar surrounding the stem, as Agaricus pertinaceus, Flor. 
Fran. No. 369. 3. Lactarius. Destitute of a wrapper, 
stem central, gills unequal, juice milky, generally white, 
sometimes yellow or red, e.g. Agaricus deliciosus. Sower. 
4, Coprinus. Destitute of a wrapper, stem 
central, naked or furnished with a ring; gills unequal, 
dissolving into an inky fluid when old ; cap membrana- 
ceous, e.g. Agaricus cylindricus. Sower. tab. 189. 5. 
Pratella. Destitute of a wrapper, stem central, naked, 
or furnished with a ring; gills turning black, but not 
dissolving as they grow old; cap fleshy. e.g. Agaric: s 
cyaneus of Withering. 6. Rotula. Destitute of a wrap-« 
per, stem central, gills equal, ending in a collar sur- 
rounding the stem, e.g. Agaricus rotula. Sower. tab. 
95. 7. Mycena. Destitute of a wrapper, stem central, 
hollow, gills not blackening with age, cap not umbili- 
cated, e.g. Agaricus pratensis. Sower. tab. 247. 8. Om-« 
phalia, Destitute of a ‘wrapper and ring, stem hollow 
or solid, cap umbilicated, gills generally decurrent, and 
not blackening with age, e. g. Agaricus dryophilus. 
Sower. tab. 127. .9. Gymnopus. Destitute of a wrapper 
and ring, .stem solid, cap-fleshy, gills not blackening 
with age, and either decurrent on the stem, as Agari 
cus miniatus, Sower. tab. 141, or adhering to the stem, 
as Agaricus roseus, Sower. tab. 72, or having the gills 
loose, as Agaricus aurantius. Sower. tab. 381.10. Cor- 
tinaria. Destitute of a wrapper, stem central, gills 
not blackening with age, but covered when young 
with amincomplete curtain, which leaves upon the stem 
a filamentous ring, e.g. Agaricus collinitus.. Sower. tab. 
9. 11. Lepiota. Destitute of a wrapper, stem central, 
gills not blackening with age, covered when young 
with a curtain, which rends, and leaves on the stem a 
ring, €. g. B sh aes cepestipes. Sower. tab.2. 12, dma- 
nita, Furnished with a wrapper or merabranaceous co- 
vering, which envelopes the mushroom when young, 
afterwards rending, and sometimes leaving its remains 
upon the cap. Of these, some have the wrapper im- 
perfect, as Agaricus verrucosus of Bulliard, tab. 316 ; 
while in others it is complete, as Agaricus bulbosus. 
Sower. tab. 130. 
With regard to the wrapper, the volva of some au-~ 
thors, but not of Linneus, it appears to belong but to 
a very few species ; and even in these, to be sometimes 
so imperfect as to lead authors to deny its existence. 
It seems to be confined to the plants with solid stems 
only ; nor has it been found attendant even upon these 
when the gills are decurrent. It envelopes the whole 
ee in ‘its early stage, and afterwards bursts asunder, 
leaving its remains in the form of warts upon the cap 
in some instances, and in others disappearing entirely. 
On a character so uncertain, is the genus Amanita of 
Persoon founded. 
The cap, or pileus as it is called, is the most obvi- 
ous part of the mushroom ; but itis apt to vary both 
FUNGL 
in shape and colour. The last character is very. uncer 
tain ; the former is alittle more permanent. The cap is, ' 
either conical, convex, flat; or concave and funnel-shaped, 
It is constantly varying in the same plant, but is pret- 
ty uniformly the same in the same species, when the 
plant is in perfection ; that.is, when fully or nearly ex 
panded, and before it exhibits symptoms of decay. In 
some mushrooms, both the cap and the stem exhibit a 
viseidity or clamminess on the surface. This character, 
however, is not much to be depended on, as in dry. 
weather some of the viscid spaces shew no symptoms 
of a moist or even adhesive substance; and in a moist 
atmosphere, many, at other times dry to the feel, be« 
come more or less viscid. 
The stem is less variable than the cap. . Its shape, 
the proportion of its length to its breadth, and of both 
to the cap, afford tolerable distinctive marks; and its 
colours, though subject to change, are perhaps rather 
more fixed than those of the cap. But the most per- 
manent characters afforded by the stem, depend upon its 
position and internal structure. The Agarics are either. 
destitute of a stem, the cap sitting close upon the root, 
or the stems are central’ or Jateral. .. When the stem is 
cut across with a sharp knife, it appears hollow or tu« 
bular in some species. The tube is not always propor- 
tioned to the size of the stem, though it is uniform | 
throughout its whole length. _ It is sometimes entirely 
empty, sometimes loosely filled with a pithy substance ; 
but its regularity is not affected by that circumstance, 
In many species, the stem when cut appears solid, 
varying greatly, however, in the degree of solidity. It 
may be as solid as the flesh of an apple, or as spongy 
as the pith of elder; but still it is solid, that is, there 
is no regular hollow pervading its whole length, though 
the more spongy aids larger stems sometime show ir- 
regular and partial hollow places from the shrinking of 
the pithy substance as the plant grows old; but this can 
never be mistaken for a regular, uniform, and native 
hollowness. : et ae 
The gills are the flat thin plates found on the under 
side of the cap, and attached to it. They are of a tex 
ture evidently different from that of the stem or the 
cap, and vary much in their respective lengths. . Each 
gill consists of two membranaceous plates, between 
which the seeds are formed. They are always attached 
to the eat and sometimes to that only, They often 
also adhere to the stem, and frequently extend along it 
downwards. ‘These fixed and decurrent gills are at. 
tached to the stem by their ends, which are next the 
centre of the cap, and not by their edges, as is some« 
times the case in some of those species whose caps are 
nearly cylindrical. Among those which have loose 
gills, (or not attached to the stem), there are a few spe« 
ciesin which these organs terminate in a collar; not une 
aptly to the nave of a wheel, the hollow cen« 
tre receiving the stem like an axle. The number of 
gills varies even in the same species. Sometimes they 
are all equal in length, at other times there are between 
the primary gills which extend from the margin to the 
centre of the cap, a few secondary ones, reaching from 
the circumference a short way inwards. Those gills 
which have four in aset, are by far the most. common ; 
but in those which have four in a set when young, the 
gills very often increase to eight when fully, expanded, 
some of the longer gills bearing from the stem. Cha 
racters taken from the number of the gills, are there- 
fore very uncertain and variable. The colour, of the 
gills is an obvious, and fortunately, at the same time, 
a permanent circumstance; and when: we reflect, that 
