or Mushroom, a genus of the order of fungi, belonging to the cryptogamia class of plants. Species. Botanical writers enumerate 55 species belonging Agaricus, longing to this genus; of which the most remarkable or Mushroom.

are the following. 1. The chantarellus, or champignon mushroom, has a turban-shaped hat, rather flat; with branched yellow gills running down the pillar; the pillar short and naked, mostly of a pale yellow, but sometimes of a deep and even saffron colour. They are excellent food, and have a fine flavour. Of this species there are two varieties; one called the common, and the other the cup, mushroom; these have the border of the hat not circular, but running into angles; reflected upwards, in form of an inverted cone, or drinking-glass; yellow, and when full grown with a tinge of red; the stalk very short and thick. They are found in the meadows and pastures, and in woods. The French and Italians eat them.—2. The variegatus, or variegated mushroom, has a very long variegated stalk and broad hat. It is of a finer flavour than the common mushroom.—3. The muscarius, or reddish mushroom, has a large hat almost flat, either white, red, or crimson, sometimes beset with angular red warts; the gills white, flat, and inversely spear-shaped; the pillar hollow, the cap fixed to the middle of the pillar, limber, and hanging down. This species grows in pastures, and is said to destroy bugs effectually if the juice is rubbed upon the walls and bed-pots. The inhabitants of the north of Europe, whose houses are greatly infested with flies at the decline of summer, infuse it in milk, and set it in their windows, and the flies upon tasting the least drop are instantly poisoned. An infusion of common pepper in milk answers the same purpose, but the flies through time become wise enough not to taste it; and though vast numbers are at first destroyed, it is impossible to clear a house of these insects by this means.—4. The campestris, or common mushroom, has a scaly, whitish, and convex hat; the gills of a brownish red; the pillar cylindrical, above the cap smooth and white, below it ash-coloured. The degree of convexity and colour of the gills of this mushroom depend upon its age. At its first appearance it is smooth, and almost globular; the edges of the hat press upon the pillar; and the gills, which are then almost white, are covered with a white membrane extending from the edge of the hat to the summit of the pillar. In this state it is called a button: by degrees it expands, the membrane bursts, the edges of the hat remove from the pillar, and the gills are exposed to view, of a bright flesh colour; this, however, soon fades, and sinks at length into a dark brown or chocolate. The hat now loses its convexity, and becomes almost flat, rough, and scaly. Of this species there are several varieties; particularly one with a broad hat, white above; the gills very numerous, and of a pale red or flesh colour; the stalk short, and pretty thick. It is found in parks and lands that have been long unploughed, commons and poor lands, in pastures, and in woods. This species constitutes one of the corner-stones of modern luxury; either dressed in substance, or boiled up with wine and spices under the name of catchup. The seeds are contained in the substance of the gills; each of which is composed of two layers, and between these layers are the seeds, which fall to the ground when ripe. Some of them in their fall are attached upon the cup, and detained on its woolly surface, where, by the assistance of a microscope, they may be easily found.—5. The viridis, or green mushroom, is large, and of a whitish green; the flesh is of a fine flavour. It grows in woods.

Vol. I.

6. The seruginosus or verdigrise mushroom, is of moderate size, and covered with a mucus of a verdigrise colour. It is only to be found in the garden belonging to the company of apothecaries at London, and in St James's park. It has also been observed in a gravel-pit in the middle of September.—7. The Clypeatus, or long-stalked mushroom, has an hemispherical hat tapering to a point, and clammy; the pillar long, cylindrical, and white; the gills white, and not concave; dusted with a fine powdery substance on each side; the root bulbous, long, and hooked at the end. It is found in September, in woodlands and pastures. This species is thought to be poisonous; and we have the following account of the symptoms produced by eating it, in Dr Percival's Essays. "Robert Usherwood, of Middleton, near Manchester, a strong healthy man, aged 50 years, early in the morning gathered and ate what he supposed to be a mushroom. He felt no symptoms of indisposition, till five o'clock in the evening; when, being very thirsty, he drank near a quart of table-beer. Soon afterwards he became universally swollen, was sick, and in great agonies. A severe vomiting and purging succeeded, with violent cramps in his legs and thighs. He discharged several pieces of the fungus, but with little or no relief. His pains and evacuations continued, almost without intermission, till the next night; when he fell into a sound sleep, and awakened in the morning perfectly easy, and free from complaint."—Many of the different species of this genus grow on cows or horses dung, on dunghills, on rotten wood, in cellars, or on the trunks of trees; of which the most remarkable is, 8. The quercinus, or agaric of the oak. This is of various sizes, sometimes not exceeding the bigness of the fist, sometimes as large as a man's head. It takes at least an year or two to grow to its full size. There are two kinds of it, called by the ancients mas and feminia: the male is dark coloured, hard, heavy, and woody; it is sometimes used by the dyers, as an ingredient in the black dye. The female, or officinal agaric, is covered with a hard blackish rind like the other; but when the cortical part is pared off, the internal substance appears quite white; by age it changes a little yellowish. It should be very light, porous, easy to break, and free from any hard pieces or compact veins. It tastes at first sweetish in the mouth, but presently becomes very bitter and nauseous. It is an article in the Materia Medica *; but deserves the name of a poison, rather than of a medicine.

Culture. Only the fleshy kinds of mushrooms are cultivated; and the following method is used by the gardeners who raise them for sale.—If the young mushrooms cannot be procured from gardens, they must be looked for in rich pastures during the months of August and September; the ground must be opened about their roots, where it is frequently found full of small white knots; which are the off-sets, or young mushrooms. These must be carefully gathered in lumps, with the earth about them: but as this spawn cannot be found in the pasture, except at that season when the mushrooms are naturally produced, it may be searched for at any time in old dung-hills, especially where there has been much litter, and it hath not been penetrated by wet so as to rot: it may also be found very often in old hot-beds; or it may be procured by mixing some long dung from the stable, which has not been thrown... thrown on a heap to ferment, with strong earth, and put under cover to prevent wet getting to it. The spawn commonly appears in about two months after the mixture is made; but proportionally sooner the more effectually the air is excluded, provided the mixture is not kept so close as to heat. Old thatch, or litter which has lain long abroad so as not to ferment, is the best covering. The spawn has the appearance of white mould shooting out into long strings, by which it may be easily known wherever it is met with.—The beds for receiving the spawn are now to be prepared. These should be made of dung in which there is plenty of litter, but which should not be thrown on a heap to ferment: that dung which has lain spread abroad for a month or longer, is best. The beds should be made on dry ground, and the dung laid on the surface; the width at the bottom should be two and a half or three feet, the length in proportion to the quantity of mushrooms desired; then lay the dung about a foot thick, covering it with strong earth about four inches deep. Upon this lay more dung, about ten inches thick; then another layer of earth, still drawing in the sides of the bed, so as to form it like the roof of a house; which may be done by three layers of dung, and as many of earth. When the bed is finished, it must be covered with litter or old thatch, both to prevent its dying too fast, and to keep out wet. In this situation it ought to remain eight or ten days, when it will be in a proper temperature to receive the spawn; for this is destroyed by too much heat; though, before planting, it may be kept very dry, not only without detriment, but with considerable advantage.—The bed being in a proper temperature for the spawn, the covering of litter should be taken off, and the sides of the bed smoothed; then a covering of light rich earth, about an inch thick, should be laid all over the bed; but this should not be wet. Upon this the spawn must be thrust, laying the lumps two or three inches asunder: then gently cover this with the same light earth, above half an inch thick; and put the covering of litter over the bed, laying it so thick as to keep out wet, and prevent the bed from drying. In spring or autumn the mushrooms will begin to appear, perhaps in a month after making; but when the beds are made in summer or winter, they are much longer before they produce. In any season, however, they ought not to be hastily destroyed; since mushroom-beds have been known to produce very plentifully, even after the spawn has lain in them five or six months. When the beds are destroyed, the spawn should be carefully preserved, and laid up in a dry place, at least five or six weeks before it is again planted.—The difficulty of managing mushroom-beds is, to keep them always in a proper degree of moisture. In the summer season they may be uncovered to receive gentle showers of rain at proper times; and in long dry seasons the beds should now and then be watered, but much wet ought by no means to be suffered to come to them. During the winter season they must be kept as dry as possible, and so closely covered as to keep out cold. In frosty, or very cold weather, if some warm litter, shaken out of a dung-heap, is laid on, the growth of the mushrooms will be promoted: but betwixt this and the bed, a covering of dry litter must be interposed; which should be renewed as it decays; and, as the cold increases, the covering must be thickened. By attending to these directions, plenty of mushrooms may be produced all the year round. One bed will continue good for many months.

In the Ephemerides of the Curious we find mention made of a stone, called by Dr John George Wolckamerus, who saw one in Italy, Lapis Lyncarius, which never ceases to produce in a few days mushrooms of an excellent flavour by the most simple and easy process imaginable. "It is (says he) of the bigness of an ox's head, rough and uneven on its surface, and on which also are perceived some clefts and crevices. It is black in some parts, and in others of a lighter and greyish colour. Internally it is porous, and nearly of the nature of the pumice-stone, but much heavier; and it contains a small piece of flint, which is so incorporated with it as to appear to have been formed at the same time the stone itself received its form. This gives room to judge, that those stones have been produced by a fat and viscid juice, which has the property of indurating whatever matter it filtrates into. The stone here spoken of, when it has been lightly covered with earth, and sprinkled with warm water, produces mushrooms of an exquisite flavour, which are usually round, sometimes oval, and whose borders, by their inflexions and different curvatures, represent in some measure human ears. The principal colour of these mushrooms is sometimes yellowish, and sometimes of a bright purple; but they are always disseminated with different spots, of a deep orange colour, or red brown; and when these spots are recent, and still in full bloom, they produce a very agreeable effect to the sight. But what appears admirable is, that the part of the stalk which remains adhering to the stone, when the mushroom has been separated from it, grows gradually hard, and petrifies in time, so that it seems that this fungites restores to the stone the nutritive juice it received from it, and that it thus contributes to its increase." John Baptist Porta pretends, that this stone is found in several parts of Italy; and that it is not only to be met with at Naples, taken out of mount Vesuvius; but also on mount Pantherico, in the principality of Arellino; on mount Garganus, in Apulia; and on the summit of some other very high mountains. He adds, that the mushrooms which grow on those sorts of stones, and are usually called fungi lyncarii, have the property of dissolving and breaking the stone of the kidneys and bladder; and that, for this purpose, nothing more is required than to dry them in the shade, and being reduced to powder, to make the patient, fasting, take a sufficient quantity of this powder, in a glass of white-wine, which will so cleanse the excretory ducts of the urine, that no stones will ever after be collected in them. As to the form of those mushrooms, their root is flaky, uneven, divided according to its longitudinal direction, and composed of fibres as fine as hairs, interwoven one with another. Their form on first shooting out resembles a small bladder scarce then larger than the bud of a vine; and, if in this state they are squeezed between the fingers, an aqueous subacid liquor issues out. When they are at their full growth, their pedicle is of a finger's length, larger at top than at bottom, and becomes infinitely flenderer in proportion as it is nearer the earth. These mushrooms are also formed in an umbrella, and variegated with an infinity of little specks situate very near one another. They are smooth and even on the upper part, but Agaric, but underneath leafy like the common mushrooms. Their taste is likewise very agreeable, and the sick are not debarred eating of them when they have been dressed in a proper manner. Curiosity having prompted some naturalists and physicians to submit these stones to a chemical analysis, in order to be more competent judges of the uses they might be put to in medicine, there first came forth, by distillation, an insipid water, and afterwards a spirituous liquor. The retort having been heated to a certain point, there arose an oil, which had nearly the smell and taste of that of guaiacum; and a very acid salt was extracted from the ashes.

Mineral Agaric, a marley earth resembling the vegetable of that name in colour and texture. It is found in the fissures of rocks, and on the roofs of caverns; and is sometimes used as an astringent in fluxes, hemorrhages, &c.