AGA 
gills are white, brown, red, buff, yellow, 
■grey, green, and purple. As this ingenious 
author has formed a system, that serves to 
facilitate the investigation and description 
of the several species of Agarics, we shall 
here give a brief sketch of the principles 
upon which it is founded. Agarics are 
composed of a cap or pileus, with gills un- 
derneath, and are either with or without 
stems. The stems are either central or 
lateral. They have also a root, which is 
more or less apparent, and some of them, 
in their unfolded state, wholly enclosed in a 
membranaceous or leather-like case, called 
a wrapper. Some of them have also a cur- 
tain, or thin membrane, extending from the 
stem to the edge of the pileus, which is 
rent as the pileus expands, and soon va- 
nishes ; but the part attached to the stem 
often remains, and forms round it a ring, 
which is more or less permanent, as its sub- 
stance is more or less tender. Of all the 
species of Agaric, one only has been se- 
lected for cultivation in our gardens, viz. the 
A. campestris, or common mushroom, or 
champignon. The gills of this species are 
loose, pinky red, changing to a liver colour, 
in contact with the stem, but not united to 
it; very thick set, irregularly disposed, some 
forked next the stem, some next the edge 
of the pileus, some at both ends, and in 
that case generally excluding the interme- 
diate smaller gills. The pileus is white, 
changing to brown when old, and becoming 
scurfy ; regularly convex, fleshy, flatter with 
age, from two to four inches, and some- 
times nine inches, in diameter, and liquefy- 
ing in decay; the flesh white. The stem is 
solid, white, cylindrical, from two to three 
inches high, half an inch in diameter ; the 
curtain white and delicate. When this 
mushroom first makes its appearance, it is 
smooth and almost globular ; and in this 
state it is called a button. This species is 
esteemed the best and most savoury of the 
genus, and is much in request for the table 
in England. It is eaten fresh, either stewed 
or boiled, and preserved either as a pickle 
or in powder ; and it furnishes the sauce 
called Catchup. The field plants are better 
for eating than those raised on artificial beds, 
their flesh being more tender ; and those 
who are accustomed to them can distinguish 
them by their smell. But the cultivated 
ones are more sightly, may be more easily 
collected in the proper state for eating, and 
are firmer and better for pickling. The wild 
mushrooms are found in parks and other 
pastures, where the turf has not been plough- 
AGA 
ed up for many years ; and the best time for 
gathering them is August and September. 
AGATE, a fossil compounded of various 
substances, as chalcedony, cornelian, jas- 
per, hornstone, quartz, &c. These different 
fossils do not all occur in every agate, com- 
monly only two or three. There are differ- 
ent kinds of agate, as the fortification, the 
landscape, the ribbon, the moss, the tube, 
the clouded, the zoned, the star, the frag- 
ment, the punctuated, the petrefaction, the 
coral, and the jasper agate. No country 
affords finer agate, or in greater abundance, 
than Germany : it is found in great quantity 
at Oberstein, where several thousand per- 
sons are employed in quarrying, sorting, 
cutting, and polishing it. It is also found 
in France, England, Scotland, and Ireland, 
and very beautiful in the East Indies, where, 
however, it is confounded with onyx. It is 
cut into vases, mortars, snuff-boxes, and 
sometimes into plates for inlaying in tables. 
Very handsome specimens are made into 
seals, and the smaller pieces are used for 
gun flints. It was highly valued by the an- 
cients, who executed many fine works in it : 
these, however, are only to be found in the 
cabinets of the rich. The collections of 
Brunswick and Dresdenar are remarkable 
for beautiful specimens of this kind. 
AGA1HOPHYLLUM, a genus of the 
Dodecandria Monogynia class and order : 
calyx very minute, truncate ; petals six, in- 
serted into the calyx ; drupe somewhat glo- 
bular ; nut half five-celled, one-seeded ; 
kernel five-lobed. One species, viz. A. aro- 
maticum, a tree in Madagascar, with an 
aromatic rufous bark. 
AGAVE, in botany, a genus of the Hex- 
andria Monogynia class and order, of the 
natural order of Coronaria; : it has no calyx ; 
the corolla is one-petalled and funnel-shaped ■ 
the stamina are filiform ; the anthers li- 
near ; the pistillum is an oblong gerrnen ; 
the style filiform ; the stigma headed and 
three-cornered, the pericarpium is oblong, 
and the seeds are numerous. There are 
seven species, of which we shall notice the 
A. Americana, or great American aloe, 
whose stems, when vigorous, rise upwards 
of twenty feet high, (one in the King of 
Prussia’s garden rose to 40 feet,) and branch 
out on every side, so as to form a kind of 
pyramid, composed of greenish yellow flow- 
ers, which stand erect, and come out in 
thick clusters at every joint. The seeds do 
not come to maturity in England. When 
this plant flowers, it makes a beautiful ap- 
pearance ; and if it be protected from the 
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