46 Notes on Fungi. 



The prejudice against anything except the common mush- 

 room, and a particular form only of that, is so strong in this 

 country amongst the poorer classes, that there is little pros- 

 pect of their availing themselves of the bountiful feast which 

 is prepared for them in the fields — a prejudice so strong, that 

 even amongst educated people I have known instances in 

 which persons had arrived at thirty years and upwards who 

 had never ventured to taste even a mushroom. There are, 

 however, numerous persons who wish from curiosity or from 

 some better motive to become accurately acquainted with 

 these productions ; and it is with a view to facilitating their 

 studies that these notes are commenced with the genus 

 Agaricus, to the exclusion at present of the more nearly allied 

 genera. 



The genus Agaricus numbers in the Outlines of British 

 Fungology above 350 species, and it is probable that when the 

 British isles have been thoroughly investigated, 150 more 

 may be added to the list. The difficulty of ascertaining any. 

 particular species amongst so large a number, where the dis- 

 tinctions are often very subtle, can scarcely be exaggerated ; 

 and yet a few plain rules will remove a great part of the 

 difficulty. 



The division Agaricini is distinguished from others by the 

 fructifying organs being disposed on certain gill-like plaits or 

 veins on the under surface. In a few rare instances this sur- 

 face, or, as it is called, hymenium, is turned to the light in the 

 course of growth, though originally inferior. Several genera 

 are comprised in the group, distinguished by their corky, 

 leathery, waxy, or extremely deliquescent consistence; by their 

 having a veil attaching the pileus to the stem, appearing to 

 the eye as if composed of threads like those of a spider's web ; 

 by the interior substance of the gills, whether abounding with 

 a milky juice or otherwise, consisting of little vesicles instead 

 of threads ; by the gills being reduced to veins, or by one or 

 two other distinctions which are of little importance as regards 

 British species. The genus Agaricus, comprising the true 

 mushroom, with a multitude of other wholesome species, re- 

 mains characterized by membranaceous persistent (not deliques- 

 cent) gills, their interior substance filamentous and continuous 

 with that of the pileus and their generally acute edge. 



Having then obtained something like a correct notion of 

 what a true Agaric is, and being able at once to distinguish the 

 genera, which might most easily be confounded, as the milk- 

 fungi Lactarii, the rigid brittle- gill ed milkless Eussulse, the 

 spider webbed Oortinarii, with their spores resembling in 

 colour peroxide of iron ; the waxy Hygrophori, which adorn 

 our heaths and open meadows with the most brilliant hues; 



