Page:Coloured Figures of English Fungi or Mushrooms.djvu/682

 TAB. CCCCVI

Linn. Syst. Veg. ed. 13. 1029. Bulliard t. 294& 471 With. vol. 4. 465.

Pers. Syn. Meth. Fung. 139.

I happened to leave this out of the first part of this work I cannot tell, as I have never been in want of specimens, either from the walls of Hyde Park, or from a wall near the halfway-house to Greenwich; besides having received fine specimens from Norfolk long since by favour of Dr. Sutton.

The former ones are generally like the smaller and smoother ones figured, and have peduncles nearly solid or full of pith, Whereas in the stems of the latter ones the pith is loose, or like a string running through a tube—see Bulliard 471. These had, generally, roughish cracking squamæ on the peduncles, which expand at the top close to the head, and some squamæ at the bottom of the head expand opposite to them, forming a confused and peculiar sort of neck, sometimes rerpresenting a double annulus. The peduncles of these were generally of more equal thickness than in the former, with the addition of a broad base. The stalks of the others taper a little towards the top.

My friend Mr. A. Menzies found many specimens of a gigantic representation, as it were, of this species at Owhyhee, the peduncles of which are about twice as long, and four times the thickness, with a head in proportion. I think the peduncle, however, is more woody, and the stem is sometimes truly squamose, the squama pointing upwards. Are these sufficient distinctions to characterize it as a species?