_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. ACRID RUSSULÆ. RUSSULÆ ACRES, AUCT. _Agaricus alutaceus_, Persoon. Three acrid _Russulæ_ remain to be described, _Ag. alutaceus_, _Ag. emeticus_, _Ag. sanguineus_; all three common, though not perhaps so common as the mild ones, and all to be avoided. The first, _A. alutaceus_, Fries, is ranked by Vittadini among the safe kinds, he even affixes a misplaced note of admiration after his epithet “esculentus!” and describes it even when raw as “a dainty food, possessed of a most agreeable flavour.” Mr. Berkeley, who reports it esculent when _young_, remarks that individual specimens occur, which prove almost as acrid as the _Ag. emeticus_ itself; my own experience of it in England is, that whether young or old, it is always acrid when raw.[170] I have never tried it dressed, which might possibly extract its noxious qualities, as Vittadini reports to have been the case with a caustic variety which he subjected to this test; but since even then, on his own showing, it proved indigestible, I would advise no one to try this species, especially when there are so many others, the good qualities of which are known.