BRITISH FUNGI. 
325 
thrown out to draw moisture from the air for that nourishment 
which the plaster could not afford. A watery texture marks 
the sub-genus Hygrophorus, but they do not melt entirely away 
like their relative the Goprinus. 
The green-tinted Agarics which adorn the sward upon the 
chalk downs belong to this family ( H . psittacinus) , as do also 
the gaudy orange conical ones which flourish in meadows in 
autumn (H. conicus). These same chalk downs are the grand 
locale for the Marasmias oreades , the mysterious cause of those 
fairy rings concerning which so much romance and sentiment 
has been told and sung. It is a pale, unassuming looking 
fungus, and perfectly wholesome ; but who would like to dine 
on fairy rings ! Surely, as a just punishment, they would be 
bewitched, and, at the least, pixy-led. Yet this very plant used 
to be sold in a dry state in Covent Garden Market. 
Varying from the true Agarics in having the hymenium in 
veins, instead of upon lamellae, the group of Ccmtliarellus is yet 
very nearly allied to them. The Chanterelle, once so much 
prized, and still used in France, is frequent in our woods from 
Berkshire to the Northern Highlands. The groups, so variable 
in form but so rich in colour, of the Cantharellus cibarius form 
attractive objects beneath the overshadowing oaks, while the 
darker hue and elegant form of the G. cornucopioides wins en- 
thusiastic admiration from the naturalist wandering in autumn 
and early winter among the mossy woods of Herefordshire — it 
is well named after the cornucopia, which its contour exactly 
resembles. The rare Lentinus flabelliformis, stemless and 
■with fleshy lamellae, once rewarded my search in Wiltshire, 
growing round the base of a turnstile post upon the greensand 
formation. The Lenzites betulinus, similar in form, but of a 
corky texture, is frequent upon stumps of birch in that same 
neighbourhood; its zones of olive and green and its downy 
pileus render it an ornament to the otherwise naked stumps. 
There is a group of Agarics with milky juice ; these are very 
poisonous. I remember blistering my lips with only touching 
them with the biting juice. Old Gerarde recommends us to 
confine ourselves to the “ Meadow Mushroom ” for dietetic pur- 
poses, adding, “It is ill trusting any of the rest;” and until our 
knowledge is more extended, and our observation more on the 
alert, I think we had better follow his counsel, although we 
cannot agree with his quotation from Pliny, that “ mushrooms 
grow in showers of raine, they come of the slime of trees.” 
In the next group to the Agarics we find the hymenium in 
tubes or pores, more or less broken ; hence the group receives 
the name Polyporei. We find Fungi, yellow, brown, white, or 
tawny ; and, upon administering our accustomed kick, we see a 
spongy under-surface appear, instead of the lamellas of the Agaric. 
