CRYPTOGAMIA. FUNGI. Agaricus, 
203 
Pileus pale buffy brown, convex, irregular, a sudden depression of the 
border at some distance from the centre, often giving the appearance of a 
large rounded boss in the middle: central colour generally deeper, one 
inch to one inch and three quarters over; edge turning up with age. 
Stem solid, white, changing to watery brown, cylindrical, but thicker and 
flattened just under the pileus, very tough, mostly crooked, twisted when 
dry, rarely central, one inch and a half high, thick as a crow quill. 
(Distinguished by the tough stem, not disposed to split, and the soft 
leathery texture of the pileus. Purt. E.) 
(Fairy-ring Agaric. Ag. collinus. Pers. E.) Ray Syn. 6. 27. Ag. pra- 
tensis. 25. Huds. (Sowerby. E.) Ag- coriaceus . 12. Lightfoot. Ag. pseu - 
domouceron. Bull. But neither of these names could be preserved, having 
been, and not improperly, previously applied to other species. 
Edgbaston, hedge banks, pastures, in small or large patches, particularly in 
fairy rings. Abounds in upland pastures, and sheep commons. Mr. 
Stackhouse. June—Oct. 
Var. 2. Gills cream colour: pileus buff: stem mealy. 
Pastures, Edgbaston. 20th May, 1792. 
Sometimes the pileus measures three inches in diameter. 
In fairy rings on the ground sloping down to Hockley Pool, and on a piece 
of grass land sloping to the south in the pleasure ground of Mr. Boulton, 
at Soho. 2d June, 1792. 
*Var. 3. Pileus yellow brown, more fleshy, more regularly convex. Mr. 
Woodward. 
Bolt. 151. 
Mr. Woodward observes that this variety is found in groves; that the stem 
retains its usual colour and toughness. He says also that this species 
has a much higher flavour than the common mushroom, but probably 
from its leathery nature is indigestible, except in the form of powder, in 
which it is admirable. I have seen the pileus and gills of this Agaric 
very brittle and tender when fully saturated with moisture in rainy 
seasons, and in that state it is sufficiently digestible. It is not, as Mr. 
Lightfoot has supposed, the Mouceron of the French, though often used 
in France instead of that.f 
I am satisfied that the bare and brown, or highly clothed and verdant cir¬ 
cles in pasture fields, called Fairy Rings, are caused by the growth of 
this Agaric. We have many of them in Edgbaston Park, on the side of 
afield sloping to the south west, of various sizes ; but the largest, which 
is eighteen feet diameter, and about as many inches broad in the peri¬ 
phery where the Agarics grow, has existed for some years on the slope of 
an adjoining pasture, facing the south. The soil is thin, on a gravelly 
bottom. The larger circles are seldom complete. The large one 
just now described is more than a semi-circle, but this phenomenon is not 
strictly limited to a circular figure. Where the ring is brown and almost 
bare, upon digging up the soil to the depth of about two inches, the spawn of 
the Fungus will be found of a greyish white colour; but where the grass 
has again grown green and rank, I never found any of the spawn existing. 
t Mr. Bulliard informs us that it is used in ragouts, that its flavour is equal to that 
of the true Mouceron, but that it is more tough. (Certain varieties of Ag. semiglobatus , 
(a highly deleterious species,) have been occasionally mistaken for this less noxious 
fungus: much discrimination is necessary to proceed safely with such experiments. 
Mr. Sowerby justly observes, that the poisonous Agaric above named, ( Ag. virosus of 
that author,) is seldom formed like the Scotch Bonnet , is always more brittle than the 
edible one, and more varied. E.) 
