Agaricus ruber, Schœffer. Ag. griseus, Persoon.
“L’Agarico Rosso è uno dei funghi più delicati e gustosi che si conoscono.”—Vitt.
Bot. Char. Pileus rather fleshy, at first hemispherical, then obtusely convex, and, when fully expanded, more or less excavated towards the centre. The margins at first even, at length tuberculo-sulcate, that is, marked with lines similar to those left on the skin after cupping. The epidermis dry in dry weather, but very sticky in moist, of various hues, tawny-purple, olive-green, ochraceous-yellow, or several of these united, and generally darkest at the centre; peeling off readily without laceration of the flesh. The flesh white, when cut slightly rufescent, when dry cream-coloured. The gills fragile, cream-coloured, connected below by transverse plaits or veins, thick and broad, but tapering away towards the stalk, really simple, though a few imperfect gills interposed between the entire ones, and attaching themselves to their sides give these sometimes the appearance of being forked; the stalk equal, white, or blotched here and there with purple stains, stuffed, brittle, and Vittadini adds, “long,” which is not my experience of it; when young it is so short as to be entirely hid by the globose head of the unexpanded pileus. The flesh inconsiderable but compact; sporules pale-buff.
The Ag. ruber, the Colombo rossa of the Tuscans, and Rother Täubling of Schœffer, is a complete wood-pigeon in its haunts; it grows very abundantly, may be gathered from July to a very late period in the autumn, and is as delicate and light of digestion as the Russula last described. It may be readily distinguished from Ag. alutaceus by the different colour of its gills and spores, which in that species are buff, but in the Ag. ruber cream-coloured: moreover the greater thickness of the substance of the pileus of Ag. alutaceus, the margin of which is deeply sulcate, even at an early period of its development, and the pungent acrid taste, which is seldom wanting, are further means of distinguishing it from Ag. ruber. Ag. emeticus differs from it in having unequal snow-white gills, and in extreme acrimony of taste.
Agaricus virescens, Schœff.: the Verdette? Ag. bifidus, Bull. Russula æruginosa, Persoon.
“La carne di questo Agarico è tenera e di sapore gratissimo.”—Vitt.
Pileus at first flatly convex; at length depressed towards the centre with an even margin; epidermis whitish, fibrous, continuous and firmly adhering to the flesh, dry, but coated over with a thick stratum of opaque meal, which gradually breaking as the pileus expands maps it in a singular and quite characteristic manner with a series of irregular polygonal figures, in greater or less relief according to the thickness of the coating; its colour varies slightly but is generally made up of some admixture of green and yellow, communicating to the surface, as Bulliard has remarked, a farinaceous or mouldy appearance. The gills of some thickness, very brittle, white, sublanceolate, generally simple, but occasionally forked, the imperfect gills interspersed without order amongst the entire ones; the stalk equal, short, its centre stuffed with cottony fibres: somewhat compact and elastic. According to Thore, as quoted by Persoon, this Agaric may be cultivated.[169]
It is an exceedingly delicate fungus, but not very common in England. The best way of cooking it, according to Vittadini, is on the gridiron; the peasants about Milan are in the habit of putting it over wood embers to toast, eating it afterwards with a little salt, in which way it has a savoury smell, and a taste like that of the Cancer astacus; when fresh it is without odour, but acquires a very strong one while drying, which he compares to that of salt meat. Mr. Berkeley quotes Roques’ authority as to its being eaten in France; Vittadini, without giving any authority, states that it is eaten in England. It loses but little of its volume in drying.