220 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



and they continued to appear periodically on the same spot until I 

 vacated the premises in 1898, during which time we were sufficiently 

 supplied with mushrooms of a fine quality, grown on the premises. 



Subsequently I heard it reported that the same species had been 

 found somewhere in* France, and also a statement that it had occurred 

 near Maldon in Yorkshire. These are the only instances of its appearance 

 I have heard of. 



About the year 1886 coloured figures of this species were published in 

 "Illustrations of British Fungi" (plate 522) from specimens collected at 

 Neasden in September 1881, and these are the only coloured figures 

 which 1 have seen, and they had been submitted to and approved by the 

 Rev. M. J. Berkeley himself. 



After a long interval, Mr. Wharton, the son of my late friend, called on 

 me early in September 1908, bringing with him a box containing about 

 a dozen young specimens of Agaricus elvensis. When I expressed my 

 surprise and inquired where he found them, he smiled and said : " Of 

 course in our garden at Kilburn. We have always thrown all fragments 

 of Agarics into our garden, and these have flourished for years under the 

 drip of a pear tree." 



This then is the important cultural fact which I wish to accentuate, 

 that, in spite of innumerable failures to cultivate mushrooms from spores, 

 this species has in two well-authenticated instances been propagated from 

 fragments thrown away upon the naked soil, and has continued to 

 flourish for many years. It may well be suggested that this large and 

 finely flavoured species, in the hands of an enterprising cultivator (could 

 the stock be obtained), would make a grand new diversion in the culture 

 of mushrooms. 



The original description of this species was thus stated : 



" Caespitose, pileus from subglobose to hemispherical, fibrillose, broken 

 up into large persistent brown scales, areolate in the centre, margin 

 thick, covered with pyramidal warts ; stem fibrillose below, ring very 

 large, areolato-verrucose beneath ; gills free, brownish flesh colour." 



It is usually gregarious, growing from eight to ten in a dense clump. 

 When mature the pileus is from four to six inches in diameter, and fully 

 an inch thick in the flesh in the centre of the pileus. The younger 

 specimens at the circumference mature gradually as the central speci- 

 mens are removed, and thus a cluster may continue to furnish fully 

 developed specimens for a week or ten days. The cap differs from that 

 of the common mushroom in being darker in colour, almost purplish 

 brown, uith the surface broken up, except just in the centre of the disk, 

 into large conical brown scales, which give to the cap a remarkable 

 appearance, so that it is easily recognised. The stem is thick, exceeding 

 an inch, attenuated downwards, often six or more inches in length, and 

 furnished with a large dependent ring, which is warted on the under side 

 and is thicker than usual in the common mushroom, as is also the 

 separable cuticle of the pileus. When cut through the pileus and stem, 

 (the latter is solid), the flesh is firm, and at first of dirty white, not 

 changing colour, or but slightly, on exposure to the air. It has a slight 

 " raushroomy " odour, and the flavour when cooked has been strongly 

 ended by all who have tasted it, some having declared it superior 



