BROWN MUSHROOMS. 4 1 



distinguish them. There is a variety of the common 

 mushroom described by Berkeley, under the name of 

 rufescens, which is said to grow in pastures, the flesh 

 of which turns a bright red when bruised. The gills 

 of this variety are described as quite white when 

 young. We have never seen anything like this, and 

 suspect that it may have been some accidental 

 variety, or at any rate such a rare occurrence that it 

 has never appeared again. 



WOOD MUSHROOM (Agaricus silvaticus).— -This is 

 by no means uncommon in woods, but scattered and 

 solitary, or seldom more than two or three together. 

 It is hardly like the ordinary mushroom in appear- 

 ance, and hence is often a puzzle to young fungus 

 hunters. The stem is thin and lanky, usually a little 

 thickened at the base, and, when cut, it exhibits a 

 hollow, like a tube, down the centre. The pileus is 

 brown and fibrous, or covered with little darker 

 scales, and the flesh is thinner than in any of the 

 species we have as yet enumerated. The most 

 common size is for the pileus to-be about three inches 

 across, and the stem five or six inches high, and 

 scarcely half an inch thick, except at the base. The 

 ring round the stem is thin, like a membrane, becoming 

 dark brown, and situated at a considerable distance 

 down the stem, so that it is at length but little above 

 the middle, between the under side of the cap and the 

 ground. The gills are thin and crowded, and have 

 rather a reddish tinge at first, but very soon turn 



