_Pickled Champignons._--Collect fresh buttons of the fairy-ring agaric and use them at once. Cut off the stems quite close and throw each one as you do so into a basin of water in which a spoonful of salt has been put. Drain them from it quickly afterwards, and place them on a soft cloth to dry. For each quart of buttons thus prepared, take nearly a quart of pale white wine vinegar, and add to it a heaped tea-spoonful of salt, half an ounce of whole white pepper, an ounce of ginger-root bruised, two large blades of mace, and a fourth of a salt-spoon of cayenne pepper tied in a small piece of muslin. When this pickle boils throw in the agarics and boil them in it over a clear fire moderately fast, from six to nine minutes. When tolerably tender put them into _warm_ wide-mouthed bottles, and divide the spice equally amongst them. When perfectly cold, cork well, or tie skins and paper over them. Store in a dry place, and keep out the frost. Full-sized champignons may be pickled exactly in the same way, but will require longer boiling, until indeed they become tender.--_Modified from Miss Acton._ _Champignons quickly Pickled._--Place the prepared buttons in bottles with a blade of mace, a tea-spoonful of pepper-corns, and a tea-spoonful of mustard seed in each, and cover with the strongest white wine pickling vinegar boiling hot. Cork or tie down as before, but do not expect them to keep above three months. _Agaricus procerus_ (the Parasol Agaric). [Illustration: Fig. 31. _Agaricus procerus_ (Scaly Mushroom). Pastures, &c., in autumn; colour, pale brownish buff; diameter, 5 to 12 inches.] _Pileus_ fleshy, ovate when young, then campanulate, and afterwards expanded and umbonate (blunt pointed), from three to seven inches across. Cuticle more or less brown, entire over the umbo, but torn into patches, or scales which become more and more separated as they approach the margin. Flesh white. _Gills_ unconnected with the stem, fixed to a collar on the pileus surrounding its top. _Ring_ persistent, loose on the stem. _Stem_ six or eight inches high, tapering upwards from a pear-like bulb at the root, hollow with a loose pith, whitish brown, but more or less variegated with small and close-pressed scales. Whenever an agaric on _a long stalk_, enlarged _at the base_, presents _a dry cuticle_ more or less _scaly_, a darker coloured _umbonated top_, _a moveable ring_, and _white_ gills, it must be _Agaricus procerus_, the parasol agaric, and it may be gathered and eaten without fear. When the whitish flesh of this agaric is bruised it shows a light reddish colour.