Few species of j\garic preserve tlieir eiiaracfers more constantly
than the one ive have just described. D ie remarkable
and numerous longitudinal clefts in the surface of the pileus,
which give it a striped appearance, are usually sufficiently obvious,
before the plant has attained its full size ; and the whole
is remarkably fibrillose,— a circumstance which its dry nature
renders more obvious. Indeed, the group in which it is placed
by F r i e s , is well marked, according to that author, by the
firm, scaly or fibrillose stipes; the pileus being dry, firm, scaly
or silky, with innate longitudinal fibres, The lamellm are also
mosriy denticulate, and discoloured at the margin, as in the
species before us. A ll of them grow on the ground, and are
chiefly of a small size; and though nothing is positively known
respecting their properties, yet it is the general opinion that
they are poisonous. It ought to he mentioned, that the colour
of A . rimosus is a good deal affected by humidity, being
much darker in a moist season, and having in rainy weather
something of that appearance which Dr W i t h e r i n g calls
w a te ry ; which may be understood by observing the difference
between a sponge when saturated with water and in a
dry state.
Fig. 1 Section o f the pileus. Fig. 2. Sporuliferous tubular cells,
rules.— The two last magnified.
Fig. 3. Spo-
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