Page:Coloured Figures of English Fungi or Mushrooms.djvu/330

 will more readily split than separate, till in advancing to decay, the pileus expanding, some occasionally split and some separate elastically, so as to disperse the feed from their pores, hi wet weather they decay at the edges into an inky fluid, like the following species. TAB. CLXXXIX. With. v. 4. 286. Schæff. 46, 47, & 48. Curt. Lond. fasc. 2. t. 73.

growing occasionally every where, more particularly among garden sweepings, and other rubbish in damp places, Angle, or in chillers. Stipes hollow, containing a pith resembling a thread of cotton. The pileus is more cylindrical than any other Agaric at present known, even in the general appearance; and I once saw it at Sir Abraham Hume's, Bart. Hertfordshire, full four inches long, and only one and a half in diameter. Some of the plants are eighteen inches high, in the advanced state decaying at the edges of the pileus, the feeds with the gills dropping off in a fluid state. The annulus is remarkably permanent, though small. TAB. CXC. Schæff. 18, 19, 32, &: 33. With. v. 4. 271. Huds. 612. Curt. Lond. fasc. 4. t. 69.

plant, varying but little except in proportion. The stipes is somewhat fibrous and brittle. The gills are less brittle, and join to the pileus half an inch from the stipes. The pileus is tough and spongy, especially when dry ; the annulus double; the outermost resembling the coating of the pileus, the inner its spongy substance : so also are the scales of the pileus.