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. AGARICUS DELICIOSUS. PLATE V., FIG. 4. _Orange Milk Agaric._ Subgenus GALORRHEUS. _Bot. Char._ Gregarious. _Pileus_ from three to four inches across; colour dull orange-rufous, frequently zoned with concentric circles of a brighter hue, fleshy, firm, full of red orange milk, which turns green on exposure to the air (as does the whole plant when bruised); the margin at first involute and downy, then expanded, afterwards depressed. _Gills_ decurrent, forked at the base, always of the same colour as the pileus, rather distant, substantial. _Stem_ from two to three inches high, slightly bent, stuffed in part, scrobiculate (_i. e._ marked with little superficial pits); at the base strigose (_i. e._ covered with short pointed hairs).