Subgenus 19. Dermocybe.
Bot. Char. Pileus slightly fleshy, convex when young, at length umbonate, chestnut colour, from one to three inches broad, glabrous; gills rather broad, easily detached from the stem, ventricose, changing from light-purple to a ferruginous hue; stem rather thin, from one and a half to three inches long, hollow, silvery, light-lilac or white; veil delicate, composed of floccose threads; in taste, when raw, it somewhat resembles the Ag. oreades, but it has no smell.
This Agaric may be distinguished from others by its chestnut or bistre colour; it is probably not uncommon; growing all the summer and autumn in woods, and under trees in meadows. Mr. Berkeley reports it esculent; I have no experience of it.
AGARICUS PIPERATUS, Scop.
Subgenus 7. Galorrheus.
“Ed è veramente commestibile e saporoso quando se ne levi il latte.”—Bendiscioli.
Bot. Char. “Pileus infundibuliform, rigid, smooth, white; gills very narrow, close; milk, and the solid blunt stem, white. In woods, July and August. Pileus 3-7 inches broad, slightly rugulose, quite smooth, white, a little clouded with umber, or stained with yellow where scratched or bruised, convex, more or less depressed, often quite infundibuliform, more or less waved, fleshy, thick, firm but brittle; margin involute at first, sometimes excentric, milk-white, hot. Gills generally very narrow (1/20 of an inch broad), but sometimes much broader, cream-colour, repeatedly dichotomous, very close, ‘like the teeth of an ivory comb,’ decurrent from the shape of the pileus, when bruised changing to umber. Stem 1-3 inches high, 1½-2 inches thick, often compressed, minutely pruinose, solid, but spongy within, the substance breaking up into transverse cavities.”[194]
Though very acrid when raw, it loses its bad qualities entirely by cooking, and is extensively used on the Continent, prepared in various ways. It is preserved for winter use by drying or pickling in a mixture of salt and vinegar (Berkeley).
I have frequently eaten this fungus at Lucca, where it is very abundant, but as it resembles the Ag. vellereus in appearance, with the properties of which we are unacquainted, too much caution cannot be exercised in learning to discriminate it from this and neighbouring species.