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XXIV. Notes on British Fungi. By FREDERICK CURREY, M.A., F.R.S., F.L.S. 
' (Plate LI.) 
Read June 2nd, 1864. 
AGARICUS ESCULENTUS, Wulf. 
This plant is not uncommon in fir-woods in many different parts of England. In some 
specimens sent to me this spring (1864), by the Rev. G. H. Sawyer, I noticed that the 
gills were studded all over with thickly set vesicles, plainly visible under a common 
lens. These vesicles, when highly magnified, presented the appearance shown in Pl. LI. 
figs. 1 & 2. Fig. 2 seems to be the more advanced state; and at this period the granular 
matter, which in fig. 1 is more generally diffused, becomes accumulated at the apex of 
the vesicle. I did not ascertain whether any septum or membrane is interposed between 
the granular crown and the lower, more transparent portion of the vesicle. Both in the 
earlier condition (fig. 1) and in the more advanced state (fig. 2), a number of clear sphe- 
rical spaces are apparent in the contents of the vesicle; but whether these are cells or 
merely cavities in the contents, I am unable to say. A second supply of specimens sent 
me by Mr. Sawyer, at a later period, exhibited the same features in the gills; and I have 
since examined specimens from Yorkshire, and from Weybridge in Surrey, with the same 
results. Tt will be interesting to ascertain whether the phenomenon is constant. The 
function of the vesicles cannot at present be determined. They resemble the bodies 
observed in the hymenium of the Coprini and in some Agarics, as well as in Merulius 
and Boletus; but this similarity affords no assistance in determining their nature, for the 
functions of these bodies are as yet quite unknown. Close examination of specimens of 
Ag. esculentus, at different periods of growth, may lead to interesting results. It should 
be borne in mind that Dr. de Bary states that he has observed the growth of asci upon 
the gills of Ag. melleus; and if his observation is correct, it is possible that these vesicles 
of Ag. esculentus may be of a similar nature. Figures of the hymenium of several of the 
fungi in which the vesicular bodies occur, may be seen in the third volume of Corda’ 
* Icones Fungorum, and a dissertation on their probable nature is to be found at p. 44 
of the same volume. They are mostly, according to Corda's figures, considerably smaller, 
in proportion to the basidia, than the vesicles of 4g. esculentus. 
M. de Seynes, in his recent work ‘ Essai d'une Flore mycologique de la région de 
Montpellier et du Gard,’ has some remarks upon the nature of the so-called cystidia well 
deserving of consideration. I give his observations in the note below *. I may observe 
- the vesicles of 4g. esculentus are plainly visible even in dried specimens. 
* “Le cystide est une cellule généralement plus grande que le baside, et qui varie beaucoup dans ses formes : nais- 
sant du parenchyme au méme niveau ou un peu plus bas que les autres éléments de l'hyménium, on le voit s'élever 
directement et solitaire, tantót comme une simple cellule stérile un peu plus grande, tantót en cóne plus ou moins long 
ou effilé, tantôt portant à son extrémité une petite sphère (4g. melinoides, Bull, 4g. sulcatus, Dun.), tantót se 
