510 Notices of British Fungi. 



is so little developed as to be nothing more than a slight incrassa- 

 tion of the base of the stem. In the second case, the perfect fungus 

 is not developed till the ensuing year, when a crop springs up from 

 the tubers, which are in general buried by fallen leaves or moss. 

 The Agaric then springs indifferently from the apex, or any other 

 part of the tuber, and occasionally more than one pileus is produced. 

 It is to be observed that this Agaric often grows upon real Scle- 

 rotia, as it does upon other fungi ; and the tuberiform state is merely 

 to be regarded as a form arising probably from excess of nourish- 

 ment. While on this subject it may not be amiss to state that the 

 tubers of Typhula phacorhiza and gyrans are true Sclerotia. The 

 former I find on Sclerotium complanatum and scutellatum, the latter 

 upon Sclerotium semen. 



* 45. Ag. racemosus, Pers. Disp. Meth. Fung. t. 3. f. 8. Sow. 

 t. 287- — King's Cliffe, Northamptonshire. Respecting this most sin- 

 gular production I have stated in the English Flora, in conformity 

 indeed with a notion expressed by Fries, that I suspect it to be a 

 monstrous state of the foregoing, which has frequently a branched 

 stem. Having lately had the good fortune to meet with a few spe- 

 cimens, I am satisfied that it is distinct, as it turns almost black in 

 drying. My specimens have not the pileus developed, and if it had 

 not been for its being figured in that state, I should without hesi- 

 tation have considered it a branched stilbum, so completely has it 

 the characters of that genus, the little heads being hyaline gelati- 

 nous, and consisting of minute elliptic granules. 



* 46. Ag. vulgaris, Pers. Tent. Disp. Meth. p. 25. Ic. Pict. t. 19, 

 f. 3. Fr. Syst. Myc. V. i. p. 156. — On fir leaves, Sherwood Forest, 

 October 1836. This species, it should be observed, is included in 

 Loudon's list given in the Hortus Britannicus. 



* 47- Ag. pterigenus, Fr. Syst. Myc. V. i. p. 160 — The fungus 

 described under this name in the English Flora is, as stated there, 

 only a variety. The true plant, than which nothing can be more 

 elegant, occurred in tolerable abundance in October last at Lambley, 

 Notts, on dead stems of Aspidium filix mas. The colour varies in 

 different individuals from bright orange- red to rose-colour, occa- 

 sionally the upper part of the stem is brown. The gills are orna- 

 mented with a bright orange margin. The pileus in the young 

 plant is oblong, oval, obtuse, minutely furfuraceous at the apex, 

 marked with darker slightly anastomosing veins, which at length, in 

 consequence of the quicker growth of the subjacent stratum, and 

 the collection of the veins themselves into bundles radiating from 



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