imes nearly obsolete. The largest and most common is
the oyster mushroom (_Agaricus ostreatus_, Jacq.[K]), so universally
eaten, that it is included in almost every list and book on edible
fungi; it is the most common species in Transylvania, tons of it
sometimes appearing in the markets. It does not possess that delicate
flavour which is found in many species, and although extolled by some
beyond its merits, it is nevertheless perfectly wholesome, and, when
young and carefully cooked, not to be despised. It must not be
confounded with a very similar species (_Agaricus euosmus_, B.), with
rosy spores, which is unpleasant. _Agaricus tessellatus_, Bull,
_Agaricus pometi_, Fr., _Agaricus glandulosus_, Bull, are all allies
of the foregoing, and recorded as edible in the United States,
although not one of the three has hitherto been recorded as occurring
in Great Britain. To these may also be added the following:--_Agaricus
salignus_,[L] Fr., which is rare in England, but not uncommon abroad
and in the United States. In Austria it is commonly eaten. _Agaricus
ulmarius_,[M] Bull, is common on elm trunks, not only in Britain but
also in North America, and is by some preferred to the oyster
mushroom. An allied species, _Agaricus fossulatus_, Cooke,[N] is found
on the Cabul Hills, where it is collected, dried, and forms an article
of commerce with the plains. Another, but smaller species, is dried in
the air on strings passed through a hole in the short stem (_Agaricus
subocreatus_, Cooke), and sent, it is believed, from China to
Singapore.

The smallest species with which we have any acquaintance, that is
edible, is the "nail fungus" (_Agaricus esculentus_,[O] Jacq.),
scarcely exceeding one inch in diameter of the pileus, with a thin
rooting stem. The taste in British specimens when raw is bitter and
unpleasant, but it is clearly eaten in Austria, as its name testifies,
and elsewhere in Europe. It is found in fir plantations in the spring,
at which season it is collected from the fir woods around and sent to
Vienna, where it is only used for flavouring sauces under the name of
"Nagelschwaemme."

Before quitting the group of true agarics, to which all hitherto
enumerated belong, we must mention a few others of less importance,
but which are included amongst those good for food. Foremost of these
is a really splendid orange species (_Agaricus caesarius_, Scop.[P]),
which belongs to the same subgenus as the very deleterious fly-