4o AÑ HISTORY OF AGARICS,
XLV. AGARICUS Jiipitatus,~ pileo puhinato grifeo, lamellis• trifidis
mollis. angujiis albidis, Jiipite bulbofo crájfo Jpongiojb.
S O F T A G A R I C.
T A B. XL.
•TpHE root is bulbous, foft, and fpongyj emitting ihort
daWny, almoft imperceptible,'fibres, by which it adheres
to dead and putrid vegetables, particularly oak leaves : there is
no volva.
The item is foft, light, fpongy, and brittle; the thicknefs
of one's thumb, of a dead white, round, and perfectly upright
it is about three inches high, and deftitute of curtain.
The gills are narrow, arched, arranged in three feries*
numerous, thin, delicate, and of a dead white, inclining a little
to a pale yellowiih hue; they are of a foft, dry, light fubftance;
the third feries is very~£hort, as expreíféd in the plate.
The pileus is at firft of an oblong figure, when full grown .
becomes almoft flat, but rifing round the fides in form of a
cuihion, the rim is--confíantly inflected. The furface is of a
clóthy touch, fmooth, and foft; it is of an invariable pale moufe- ~
colour^from its firft appearance to the utter decay of the plants
it is three inches in diameter. The fleih or fubftance of the
pileus is dry, foft, brittle, and incapable of being divided into
filaments; it cuts like cream-cheefe, the colour and fubftance
of which it not unaptly refembles.
Grows in the dry parts of woods, and in pafture grounds
about Halifax, not unfrequently.
It differs from the Agaricus piperatus, in being deftitute of
milk, in its foft fubftance, and bulbous root, and in that the
gills are in three regular and diftinél feries. The two.Iaft circumftances
diftinguiih it from the Agaricus integer alfo. •