P R E F A C E .
one fpecies often happens to have been figured or
defcribed ten times over. It is indeed eafier to
defcribe or draw an individual variety, than to
afcertain to what fpecies it belongs, while it may
be compared to fo many in different authors.
When they are more clearly afcertained, we
lhall poffibly be able to cultivate the ufeful
kinds; for only one, the common Mujhroom, or
Agaricus campefiris, is at prefent cultivated. Some
I am fure would be admired as ornaments; others
are already made ufe of for culinary and ceconomical
purpofes, more particularly in foreign
countries. Some I am perfuaded would affift in
dyeing. Several of the Sphaerias yield the fineft
black I ever met with. The Lycoperdons afford
in their ripe flate different browns very copioufly,
in a fine impalpable powder, fit for immediate
drawing when mixed with a little gum
arable water. I intend when I figure fome of
the Lycoperdons to ufe their own powder to
reprefent itfelf.
T A B. 1.
AGARICUS VOLV.^CEUS Bulliard t. 262.
F o u n d in great plenty in the bark-beds of hothoufes
about London in the year 1785. The Rev. Mr.
Relhan, fo well known by his Flora Cantabrigienfis, difcovered
it in Dr. Harwood's bark-bed at Cambridge laii
year 1794, and, confidering it as a great curiofity, very
kindly favoured me with fpecimens. The fame year I
met with it growing in a lane at Peckham, inclining
to the appearance of Bulliard's A. vaginatus. On the
21II of Auguft 1795 I found in Earl Spencer's park at
Wimbledon a fpeciraen refembling that figure which
is juft difengaging itfelf from the volva, but four times
as large, with a lighter coloured pileus, but gills correfpouding
in colour to thefe; it grew on a very
rotten ftump of a Lime-tree.
T A B. II.
AGARICUS CEPyESTlPES.
A. LUTEUS With. vol. 3. 344.
A . GRETA CEUS Bulliard t. 374.
N O T uncommon in bark-beds about London, moftly
found of a chalky white, efpecially when in a half dry
ftate, to which Bulliard's name alludes. At Sir A. Hume's
at Wormley-bury in 1793 I obferved the bark-bed full
of it, all perfeftly yellow, agreeing with Dr. Withering's
denomination. As the white and yellow kinds
differ in nothing but colour, and are imdoubtedly the
fame fpecies, I have named it from the form of the
ftalk (like that of an onion) which «ill always characterize
this fpecies.