[Plate IV., Figs. 3, 4, and 5.]
Section Psaliota, Fries. Subdivision Pratella, ibid.
Agaricus Georgii, Withering.
“L’Agarico esquisito è un fungo sano, oltremodo delicato e di facilissima digestione.”—Vitt.
“Its flavour is far inferior to that of the common mushroom.”—Berkeley.
This fungus, called also the Horse Mushroom, from the enormous dimensions[161] to which it sometimes attains, is for the most part shunned by the English epicure; it is also this species from which many persons report themselves to have suffered indigestion attended with violent colicky pains, when they have eaten it by mistake for the Ag. campestris. It is sold, under the name of White Caps, for making ketchup; but, notwithstanding its foreign name and reputation, most persons will agree with Mr. Berkeley, in holding both its flesh and its juices as greatly inferior to those of the Ag. campestris. Our other name for it, that of St. George’s Agaric, can have no reference to the time of its appearance, as it is seldom met with in England till after that saint’s day; it has, moreover, the same name in Hungary, where the inhabitants look upon it as a special gift from Saint George.
Its botanical characters are the following:—
Pileus at first conico-campanulate, covered with floccose shreds, which are very fugacious; when fully expanded, minutely squamulose, of a beautiful white, shining and smooth; turning yellow when bruised, and sometimes exuding a yellow juice (Sibthorpe). Gills numerous, broad, attenuated both ways, but most so behind, free, of a pallid hue (grey flesh-colour), during the growth of the fungus; later, clouded brown-black; the imperfect gills obtuse behind. Stem long, subcylindrical, slightly thickened at the base, white without, stuffed within. Ring tumid and reflected over the stalk. Flesh of both pileus and stalk compact, fibrous, and fragile. Flavour and smell strong, and, according to Vittadini, agreeable, but according to English perception generally the reverse. Persoon pronounces this fungus to be superior to the common mushroom in smell, taste, and digestibility, on which accounts, he says, it is generally preferred in France. It is to be cooked in the same way as that, and, if eaten in moderation, will seldom be found to incommode the stomach or offend the palate.
Locality.—Pastures, amidst thickets, under trees, generally in large rings, reproducing itself every year in the same situations.