One or two milk-mushrooms, which had better be avoided, bear brimstone-coloured milk, or milk which changes to a brimstone or burnt sienna colour; they are figured on the Poisonous Sheet, figs. 20 and 28; but _Lactarius deliciosus_ can never be mistaken for any other plant if the deep orange (or red) and ultimately green milk is observed. Figs. 20 and 28 are not peculiar to fir woods. =Purple Cobweb-Mushroom.= Fig. 12. (_Cortinarius_ [_Inoloma_] _violaceus._) 420. This is one of the best-marked of all edible fungi, and at the same time one of the very best for esculent purposes. It cannot be called common, although I have often found it close to London. It appears to principally grow in _open places_ in woods. When young, it looks like a bright purple silk ball in the grass, and when gathered the bulbous stem is almost as large as the top itself. There is always a cottony web, like cobweb (which represents the ring), stretching from the edge of the pileus to the stem, and this web soon takes its colour from the red spores, which are plentifully produced, colouring the gills and part of the stalk a red colour, very similar in tint to the rust of iron; when cut, the flesh is of a subdued lilac tint, and firm. Broiled with a steak, this is a most exquisitely rich luxury, much resembling the meadow mushroom in flavour, but altogether firmer, and more meaty and substantial. I am always glad to find this species, and it is next to impossible to mistake it for any other. =Maned Mushroom.= Fig. 13. (_Coprinus comatus._) 374. This fungus should be gathered for the table when the gills are white or just changing to pink, and before they are black, in which latter state (as the plant is ultimately deliquescent), it is unfit for food. If I had my choice, I think there is no species I should prefer before this one; it is singularly rich, tender, and delicious. Those found growing amongst short grass, on lawns, or by roadsides, are best; there is one form of it which grows in dirty, sticky places, in brickfields, dustyards, &c., that I should not like to recommend. When gathered in a rich pasture, it is of snowy whiteness, the top being somewhat fleshy, cylindrical, and broken up into white clothy patches; there is a white, powdery, fragile ring round the hollow stem, which is soon broken, and falls away. _Coprinus comatus_—the “Agaric of Civilization”—is common in all the London parks in October. A closely-allied species, found at the base of old stumps and palings, and on the ground (_C. atramentarius_), is sometimes eaten. I have not tried it, but Mr. Penrose and several friends have a word to say in its favour. =Scaly Mushroom.= Fig. 14. (_Agaricus_ [_Lepiota_] _procerus._) 13.