THE INTELLECTUAL OBSERVER. 



APRIL, 1865 



NOTES ON FUNGI.— No. II. 



WHITE-SPOKED MUSHEOOMS (THE EING-BEAEEES). 



BY THE EEV. M. J. BERKELEY, M.A., E.L.S. 



(With a Coloured Plate.) 



Oe the six divisions of the great genus Agaricus mentioned in 

 my last article, that which is characterised by the spores or 

 reproductive organs being white is one of the most important, 

 from the number of esculent species which it comprises, 

 though it does not include the true mushroom. Only one or 

 two indeed ever appear in our markets, but the merits of 

 several of the species are becoming more widely known every 

 day, and on the Continent they yield an abundant supply of 

 good and wholesome food. 



The white-spored mushrooms, or Leucospori, are divided 

 by Fries into eight sub-genera, Amanita, Lepiota, Armillaria, 

 Tricholoma, Clitocybe, Collybia, Omphalia, Mycena, and Pleu- 

 rotus, on each of which I shall have to make a few observa- 

 tions. The three first and a few species of the last division are 

 in general characterised by the presence of a veil covering the 

 gills and stretching from the stem to the edge of the pileus, either 

 in an ascending or descending direction. It is true that in one 

 section of Amanite there is no veil, but then there is a distinct 

 universal wrapper, or, as it. is called by mycologists, a volva, 

 which alone separates the division from all the rest, for the 

 universal veil in Lepiota is not distinct from the pileus. The 

 first question then to be asked on examining a white-spored 

 Agaric is, has it, or has it not a volva, distinct from the cuticle 

 of the pileus. If the former is the case, we have an Amanita, 

 and may at once proceed to discover to what species it 

 belongs. 



There is, indeed, some difference in the appearance of this 



VOL. VII. — NO. IIT. M 



