Notes on Fungi. 37 



sometimes an ingredient in ketchup. A large basket was once 

 sent to me as a present, on the supposition that it was whole- 

 some, but it is scarcely necessary to say that it was at once 

 rejected. 



A. sublateritius is often a great ornament in woods about 

 the trunks of trees from its brilliant colours, but it is not 

 always easily distinguished from similar species, and especially 

 from the bitter A. fascicularis, which in its turn maybe con- 

 founded with other kinds if attention is not paid to the spores. 

 A. capnoides is at once distinguished by its mild smell and 

 taste, but it is of too suspicious affinity to induce a trial of its 

 esculent character, did it occur in sufficient abundance. A. 

 appendiculdtus (No. 4 in our second coloured plate),* which is a 

 very abundant species, is readily distinguished by the abundant 

 white fragments of the veil. 



Psilocybe (from i/a\o?, naked, and kx>@7), a head), as the 

 name implies, is destitute of a veil, except in one or two 

 species, which grow on dung, while its incurved margin dis- 

 tinguishes it from Psathyra {-tyaOvpos, brittle), in which the 

 margin is straight. In either subgenus the species are, for 

 the most part, insignificant, and often difficult to distinguish 

 from the fugitive character of their colouring. We have given 

 a figure of A. bullaceus (No. 5) in our second coloured plate,* 

 more because it is interesting than from its being a very 

 typical species. 



The concluding division, Goprinavli, containing the species 

 with black spores, consists of two subgenera only, Panceolus 

 and Psathyrella. The former, Panceolus (from iravaioXos, varie- 

 gated), is distinguished by its rather fleshy pileus, which is 

 never striate, and the margin extending beyond the gills, 

 which are mottled. The species grow chiefly on dung, A. 

 separatus being often very conspicuous from its shining, 

 smooth, semi- ovate pileus and straight stem. A. fimiputris is 

 often an extremely pretty object, from the edge of the pileus 

 being adorned with little appendages which look like eyelet 

 holes. None of the species are esculent, though they often 

 enter into the composition of ketchup in consequence of their 

 dark spores. 



The remaining subgenus Psathyrella (a diminutive of Psa- 

 thyra) has a membranaceous pileus, and the margin does not 

 reach beyond the gills. The most abundant species is A. dis- 

 seminatus, which springs up wherever wood is buried or on the 

 wood itself in myriads, fading away almost as unexpectedly as 

 it makes its appearance. This sometimes grows on plaster 

 walls, and then springs from a dense mycelium. 



The genus Agaricus comprises now at least 400 British 

 * October, 1865, p. 184. 



