498 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



which had some of the features of the cultivated Mushroom, and yet 

 others which pronounced it to be quite distinct. This was certainly 

 upwards of thirty years ago, and nothing was heard of it again for many 

 years. Ultimately a friend of mine, who was much interested in edible 

 Fungi, found some large Agarics growing under the drip of Oaks near the 

 Neasden reservoir, and immediately summoned me to report upon them, 

 which we did by cooking them for supper, as they proved to be Agaricus 

 elvensis, and our unanimous verdict was that they were the most delicious 

 Mushrooms w r e ever tasted. 



Afterwards, in the same season and in successive seasons, we visited 

 the same spot and collected the same species. It was some two or three 

 years after these events that I discovered, in early autumn, under the drip 

 of a Pear tree in my garden in Upper Holloway, some tufts of Mushrooms 

 which were breaking through the soil. These were watched day after day 

 with great interest until mature, when they were identified as Agaricus 

 elvensis, the Mushroom of Neasden reservoir, and the successive crop 

 supplied our table for weeks. 



The immediate question which suggested itself was, how came this 

 Agaric into my garden in a London suburb, when it had previously been 

 only known at first in the Midlands and afterwards at Neasden ? The 

 only solution I could suggest was that I must have thrown some portions 

 of the Neasden specimens into the garden, as I always did of all edible 

 species which I collected, in the hope that some one of them might 

 some day naturalise itself. This was the only key I could suggest to the 

 mystery, for the same species came up in the same spot for three or four 

 years, but diminishing yearly in size and number until they entirely dis- 

 appeared. Supposing this to be the true solution, it appears to me to 

 suggest strongly that this species, if taken in hand, might possibly be 

 brought under cultivation. 



Now I must be permitted to describe in a few words the salient features 

 of this new species : 



(a) It was distinctly and decidedly ca^spitose, so that six or eight 

 individuals were developed in each clump or tuft, some two or three 

 arriving at maturity at the same time, others succeeding and expanding 

 in the course of two or three days. 



(b) Each pileus, when fully grown and expanded, would reach from six 

 to eight inches in diameter, and the flesh of the pileus at the centre in 

 lull-grown specimens quite an inch in thickness, firm, turning slightly 

 brown when cut or broken. 



(c) The whole surface of the pileus clad with dark brown pointed 

 scales, which stood out like conical warts at the margin ; the whole fungus, 

 including the thick solid stem, of a brownish colour. 



Anyone comparing this description with his recollection of Agaricus 

 oampeHria will at once concede that it is something quite different, and 

 must, if species go for anything, be regarded as distinct. 



It may be added that it has been found somewhat recently in France, 

 and I have seen remarkably characteristic drawings of French specimens. 



