It is found abundantly in many places, generally growing in rings, and re-appearing for many successive years on the same spot; and, though sometimes met with in old pastures, is generally found in thickets, under trees.
Agaricus Personatus.
Blewits. Blue Hats. Cooke.
This is one of the species occasionally sold in Covent-Garden Market, London. When mature, it has a soft, convex, moist, smooth pileus, with a solid, somewhat bulbous stem, tinted with lilac. The gills are dirty-white, and rounded towards the stem.
The Agaricus personatus constitutes one of the very few mushrooms which have a market value in England. It is quite essential that it should be collected in dry weather, as it absorbs moisture readily, and is thereby injured in flavor, and rendered more liable to decay.
Agaricus Prunulus. Vitt. M'Int.
This is found only in spring, growing in rings on the borders of wood-lands; at which time abundance of its spawn may be procured, and may be continued in the same way that the spawn of the common cultivated Mushroom is; namely, by transplanting it into bricks of loam and horse-dung, in which it will keep for months.
This mushroom is used both in its green and dried state. In the latter it constitutes what is called "Funghi di Genoa," and is preserved by being simply cut into four pieces, and dried in the air for a few days; when it is strung up, and kept for use.
Agaricus Oreades.
Fairy-ring Agaricus.