42 
CURIOUS MUSHROOMS. 
of the common mushroom (now preserved in spirit in the British 
Museum) which had no stem, and looked at first, till cut, like a 
small globular puff-ball. He also tells me that he has found three 
mushrooms growing one above the other, but without a socket; in 
fact, monstrosities of this species usually occur with pileus affixed to 
pileus, or stem to stem. The peculiarity in this case is the junction 
of pileus to stem. 
The Clouded Mushroom (Ag. nehularis) is occasionally found 
proliferous, bearing on its upper surface miniature copies of itself, 
the stems of which grow out from the pileus of the mother. The 
same species also at times (even while in full vigour) bears on its 
pileus specimens of a very different agaric, Ag. Loveianus. It is 
questionable whether this latter is a true case of parasitism, but 
there is no such doubt in regard to Nyctalis 'parasitica and 
N. asterophora (in my opinion these two species are in reality 
identical), which are often found to completely overrun stems, 
gills, and pileus of various species of decaying Kussula (B. nigricans , 
adusta, fcetens), growing forth indifferently from any part. 
The instance, however, from which the photographs were taken 
differs from all these cases in the fact that the upper specimen was 
but slightly, yet firmly, attached to the lower one. The socket of 
the former tightly clasped the apex of the latter, yet when they 
separated spontaneously on drying, very few marks of the attach¬ 
ment were left behind, although the umbo was rather discoloured. 
It would almost seem as if the two opposed surfaces had been held 
together by friction only. Yet the very striking umbo or boss of the 
lower pileus (so unlike anything normally met with in Ag. campestris) 
proves that the connection was formed while the latter was very 
young, and the two specimens must have gone on growing nearly 
simultaneously, although I have no doubt that the upper agaric 
was the oldest. It seems probable that the true explanation of the 
phenomena is this:—After the upper was partly formed the lower 
began to grow exactly beneath its stem, and in developing carried 
the other up into the air. Had the accidental adhesion been less 
tight, the few connecting hypliae would have snapped, and the rider 
would simply have tumbled off his horse. 
February, 1893. 
