NOTABLE PHENOMENA. 117 
number of edible Agarics have the peculiar odour of fresh meal, 
but two species, Agaricus odorus and Agaricus fragrans, have a 
pleasant anise-like odour. In two or three species of tough 
Hydnum, there is a strong persistent odour somewhat like melilot 
or woodruffe, which does not pass away after the specimen has 
been dried for years. In some species of MJarasmius, there is a 
decidedly strong odour of garlic, and in one species of Hyyro- 
phorus, such a resemblance to that of the larva of the goat 
moth, that it bears the name of Hygrophorus cossus. Most of 
the fleshy forms exhale a strong nitrous odour during decay, 
but the most powerful we remember to have experienced was 
developed by avery large specimen of Chotromyces meandriformis, 
a gigantic subterranean species of the truffle kind, and this 
specimen was four inches in diameter when found, and then 
partially decayed. It was a most peculiar, but strong and 
unpleasantly pungent nitrous odour, such as we never remember 
to have met with in any other substance. Peziza venosa is 
remarkable when fresh for a strong scent like that of 
aquafortis. 
Of colour, fungi exhibit an almost endless variety, from white, 
through ochraceous, to all tints of brown until nearly black, or 
through sulphury yellow to reds of all shades, deepening into 
crimson, or passing by vinous tints into purplish black. These 
are the predominating gradations, but there are occasional blues 
and mineral greens, passing into olive, but no pure or chloro- 
phyllous green. The nearest approach to the latter is found in 
the hymenium of some Boleti. Some of the Agarics exhibit 
bright colours, but the larger number of bright-coloured species 
occur in the genus Peziza. Nothing can be more elegant than 
the orange cups of Peziza aurantia, the glowing crimson of 
Peziza coccinea, the bright scarlet of Peziza rutilans, the snowy 
whiteness of Peziza nivea, the delicate yellow of Peziza thele- 
boloides, or the velvety brown of Peziza repanda. Amongst 
Agarics, the most noble Agaricus muscarius, with its warty 
crimson pileus, is scarcely eclipsed by the continental orange 
Agaricus cesarius. The amethystine variety of Agaricus laccatus 
is so common and yet so attractive; whilst some forms and 
