IOO BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. 



gregarious in its habits, a number of individuals 

 being often found together, occasionally in the form 

 of a ring. 



To avoid possible error in reference, it may be 

 intimated that the species mentioned by Dr Badham 

 under the name of Agaricus prunulus is not the 

 present species, but the St George's mushroom. In 

 that work the two are confounded, or united, which 

 we have described above, and he says of them 

 collectively — " It is a very delicate mushroom." An 

 enthusiastic lady, writing of the species, says — "No 

 mushroom is more in harmony with the idea of fairy 

 rings and merry woodland sprites than this. Fre- 

 quenting the precincts of the forests of long ago, it 

 flourishes in the very localities where imagination 

 might suppose the tiny people would linger, and what 

 so suitable for their midnight fetes as the alabaster 

 tables covered with silky white damask, which the 

 caps of the moucerons present ? " Only that this is not 

 the ''mouceron," which again is the St George's 

 mushroom, another case of confusion of names. 



We are not concerned much with the differences 

 between Orcella and Prunulus, and whether they are 

 forms of one species, or whether they are two distinct 

 species. It is sufficient that they are both very good to 

 eat. One writer who considered them distinct, says 

 that " Orcella is a smaller and more delicate fungus 

 than Prunulus. It is thinner and less fleshy, more 

 undulated at the margin, and has a lighter and more 



