xxii I N T R O D U C T I O N .
imbibe a fufficient fupply of moifture, it often falls and diffolvee without
lacerating.
Colour, in Agarics, (efpecially in the perufal of fach authors as have
given defcriptions without figures) has been another fource of much perplexity;
for though the colours in the refpedtive fpecies are not, very
inconftant, yet they are of fuch mixed and indeterminate hues, and
thofe of one fpecies fo nearly verging upon thofe of another, that it is
little lefs than impoflible, to convey clear and diftinä: ideas of them, by
words alone, either in our 'own or any other language. For this reafon
I have been particularly careful in mixing the colours, both in making
the drawings and colouring the prints, to imitate the precife hue of the
objeft, as near as I poflibly could.
The part of an Agaric which is extended from the item to the rim
o f the hat, and which authors diftinguiih by the term velo, I have
named in Engliih curtain rather than veil; becaufe the latter has been already
made ufe of, in our language, to denote an hood or covering on
the fru£tification of moft moifes, which is of a quite diiferent figure from
the curtain of an Agaric, and of which the word veil contains a more apt
idea.—The ufe of this part", in one as well as the other, is to fecure and
conceal thofe hidden operations of nature, which are neceifary to the production
of perfect feeds; but in the moffes it is a dofe hood, in the
Agarics.it is an extended membrane.
The cover, which in fome fpecies furrounds the root, and inwraps
the pileus in its infant ftate, is by Battarra, Scopoly, Scboeffer, Hallar, and
others, termed volva. The excellent Linnaeus, it feems, did not confider
the volva and curtain as diftind: objects, for in the fpecific characters of
the Agaricus mufcarius, we find, fiipite volvato*; in the defcription of
Agaricus extinSlorus; baß crajjus nudus abfque volva\. The term Volva,
is made ufe of in the prefent Work, becaufe no Engliih word occurred to
me, which I thought equally expreffive, of the figure and ufe of that
furrounding
* Sp. PI. 1640 f- Flora Suecäca 1196.
I N T R O D U C T I O N. xxiii
furrounding cover. Spatha, a iheath, is now almoft folely applied to the
lily narcijfus, and other plants of the fame, or a fimilar ftrudture; gluma,
an huik, to the graifes, &c. involuerum, (involuere) to a cover of a particular
ftrudture, found on the top of the items and branches of the umbelliferous
plants, and ferves as a defence to the umbells of flowers,
whether univerfal, partial, or both.
In making choice of fpecimens, I have throughout the work avoided
fuch as were uncommonly large, or fmall in their kinds; and have
drawn and defcribed fuch as were of a middling fize, in refpeft to others
of the fame fpecies. Often, when I have met with a plant in one ftate
only, whether young, middling, or otherwife, I have made anexaft drawing
in that ftate; and finding the plant afterwards in a diiferent ftate, I
have taken another figure, perhaps on the fame or on a feparate paper, and
have always accompanied thefe drawings with defcriptive notes.—In the
Drawing, I have all along endeavoured to give a faithful and accurate imitation
of the obje£t before me, and to reprefent Nature juft as I faw her
in herfelf, with her fimplicity and accidents about her. From a felefted
choice of the above drawings, the figures on the plates were taken; and
from thofe defcriptive' notes, the defcriptions were fele&ed: and there is
not one figure, nor one defcription in" the whole work, which was not
originally drawn and written by my own hand, from an immediate infpedtion
of the refpeitive obje£t, when in a recent ftate; and (except in
a few inftances) gathered, in the natural place of growth, by me.
The Etching of the plates, fuch as it is, is wholly my own performance;
and when a fpecimen fell into my hands, at a time when I had an»
opportunity of etching it, I made the primary outline upon the copper
without any previous drawing, I drew it on the waxed plate, with Vermillion,
in the point of a fine pencil; and when I copied drawings, I
ufed the fame method in laying the outline upon the plate; for befides
that it was more readily done, and more agreeable to me, it prevented
thofe injuries which the wax is liable to in back tracing;, and preferved