Agarwood

“ Some species appear to confine themselves to particular trees, some to come up by preference on soil in garden pots. Certain species have a solitary, others a gregarious habit, and, of the latter, Agaricus grammopodius, Bull, [236] Agaricus gambosus, Fr., Marasmius oreades, Fr., and some others grow in rings. Hence it will be seen that, within certain limits, there is considerable variation in the habitats of the Agaricini. ”

“ All succeed well in loam and sand in equal parts, with a little leafmold in the case of the small varieties.
The more common species are propagated by suckers from around the base of the established plants. A few kinds having no suckers must be grown from seed.
As to watering, they demand no special care. Agaves will not stand frost to any extent.
When the head throws up its great stem and blooms, it may exhaust itself and die; but this may be far short of a century. Some species bloom more than once. ”

“ It is certainly fallacious to suppose it takes them a hundred years to flower. Agaves succeed well potted in good loam and river sand, to which may be added a little peat and leaf mould for some of the smaller-growing kinds. The drainage should be good, as they enjoy a liberal supply of water during the summer season, but during winter considerably less will be required. They can be increased by suckers when these are to be obtained, and also by seeds, to secure the production of which, in the species that do not yield suckers, the flowers should be carefully impregnated. ”

“ The best quality of this wood, once much valued in Europe as incense, is the result of disease in a tree of the N. O. Leguminosae, the Aloexylon agallochum, Loureiro, growing in Camboja and S. Cochin China, whilst an inferior kind, of like aromatic qualities, is produced by a tree of an entirely different order, Aquilaria agallocha, Roxb. (N. O. Aquilariaceae) , which is found as far north as Silhet. [2]
Eagle-wood is another name for aloes-wood, or aloes (q.v.) ”

“ One of the prettiest of wayside plants is the golden-starred Agrimony, growing on the waste green flanks of the road and making it beautiful. It is a perennial plant, with a short woody rootstock, and “interruptedly pinnate” leaves, somewhat resembling those of the Silver-weed, the leaflets increasing in size as they near the terminal leaflet. The flowers are borne on that kind of inflorescence called a raceme, in which each flower is attached to the central stem by a stalk of its own. ”

“ He burst through that first thicket and crossed a game trail and clattered into another mogote. Black chaparral this time, and stabbing junco and maddening prickly pear. Then an open patch. And another ramadero. White brush and golden huisache that filled the air with a vague, viscid odor of honey. Then that was gone and the spines of the agarita tore at his face. He broke through the agarita into a game trail that wound its secretive way through the mogotes, and he stumbled down that till it petered out into more mesquite. ”

“ Agaricus Campestris, Field Agaric, or Common Mushroom, rises from the ground in its perfect form, with an erect robust stipes or stem, one inch or more high, crowned with a round, convex, thick, fleshy, white head or hat, pileus, with lamellæ, or gills, underneath, of a reddish flesh colour; it is supposed the flower and seed, if any, are concealed between the lamellæ. When the plant arrives at full growth, the head expanding almost flat, forms a large flap, and falls on the ground over the supposed seed. ”

“ The Agaricus arvensis (horse mushroom) is a species very nearly allied to the meadow mushroom and frequently grows with it, but it is coarser and has not the same delicious flavor. It is usually much larger, often attaining enormous dimensions; it turns a brownish yellow color as soon as broken or bruised. The top in good specimens is smooth and snowy white; the gills are not the pure pink of the meadow mushroom, but a dirty brownish white, ultimately turning brown. ”

“ The fragrant and luscious “Chantarelle,” the “rare Morel,” and the sweet and tender giant puff-ball, are almost universally kicked aside or altogether neglected. Amongst the species supposed to be popular is Agaricus personatus, said to be sold in Covent Garden Market. I have never seen it there, or heard of its presence. In the West of England and some other places I have heard these plants called “Blue-its” (Blewits) , in reference to the blue colour round the upper part of the stem. It is a most substantial and delicious species, and should be better known ”

“ Some species, too, are peculiar to certain woods, such as beech woods and fir woods, and their distribution will consequently depend very much on the presence or absence of such woods. Epiphytal species, such as Agaricus ulmarius, Agaricus mucidus, and a host of others, depend on circumstances which do not influence the distribution of flowering plants. It may be assumed that such species as flourish in pastures and open places are subject to fewer adverse conditions than those which affect woods and forests. ”

“ A mile's walk through unkempt pastures and straggling thickets brought her to an open dale set beneath the shoulder of a wooded hill. On the grass slope over against her she saw the hermitage--a grey cell of unfaced stone standing in a garden in a grove of ancient thorns. By the rivulet that ran half hid by undergrowth a figure in a brown cassock was drawing water. Passing down over the water, Igraine overtook the recluse halfway up the slope to the hermitage garden. ”

“ In the Saccardian system, all the subgenera of Agaricus having been elevated to generic rank, the term Agaricus is limited to a very small group which includes the subgenus Psalliota of Fries, the species being characterized by fleshy caps, free gills, ringed stem, and dark brown or purplish brown spores. ”

“ What is certain is, that our [327] mushroom, which can kill men as well as flies, belongs to the genus Agaric, so numerous in species that it can be formed into a family, that of the Agariceæ. The Agarics, of which the esculent mushroom (Agaricus edulis) represents the type, are easily recognised by their more or less fleshy pileus, or cap, garnished underneath with lamellæ, or gills, which radiate from the centre to the circumference, when the pedicel is in the centre. ”

“ Make the rows two or three plants wide at the centre, narrowing to a single plant at the point, using scarlet or pink, and filling in the space between the scallops and the straight edge of the bed with solid white. Or a double scallop, one beginning in the centre of the other, may be made of scarlet and buff, or pink and buff, filling in the large spaces between with white and the small spaces with Cope’s Favourite Ageratum. The dwarf Ageratums grow very evenly and are admirably adapted for carpet bedding. Seed of the dwarf Phlox germinates very slowly. ”

“ In England, we find the agates greenish white, lemon colour, or dark grey; and on the island of Iona, hard by the ruined monastery, they are picked up of a soft green hue, and as clear as a chrysolite. The best lump of agate I ever saw came from an unfrequented bay in the Isle of Wight; the colours were dullish, but in texture it approached an oriental onyx, and it weighed above a pound. I know of no equal specimen in the collection of the British Museum.
CARNELIAN, which is our purest form of chalcedony, is undoubtedly a more beautiful stone than the agate. ”

“ By the hedge the agrimony frequently lifts its long stem, surrounded with small yellow petals. One day towards autumn I noticed a man looking along a hedge, and found that he was gathering this plant. He had a small armful of the straggling stalks, from which the flowers were then fading. The herb had once a medicinal reputation, and, curious to know if it was still remembered, I asked him the name of the herb and what it was for. He replied that it was agrimony. "We makes tea of it, and it is good for the flesh," or, as he pronounced it, "fleysh." ”

“ At Agate the millions of Menoceras bones and lesser numbers of the bones of other animals were swept for a few hundred meters downstream and into some sort of backwater or river lake—possibly a great meander, or an oxbow lake. There, like a gigantic mass of jackstraws, they were piled in a tangled mat 30 centimeters (12 inches) 37 thick, covering an unknown number of hectares. All we really know is that they were moved far enough to get thoroughly jumbled, but not far enough to be badly broken or much eroded by the action of the water. ”

“ I noticed the Agaric of the Spruce Fir (Agaricus Fl. Lapp. n. 517) , a flat sessile species, which is the chief remedy used by the Laplanders against gnats, by smoking themselves as well as their reindeer with it. When these insects become very numerous and troublesome, they force the reindeer from their pastures. Even those which have been a whole year away from home are obliged to return. The Laplanders lay small piles of this fungus, every morning and evening, upon the fire in their huts, by which means only they are enabled to sleep at their ease. ”

“ They are often evanescent and putrescent, sometimes liquefying altogether. Their color is usually different from the upper surface of the cap, not always similar to that of the spores borne upon them, at least in youth; with age, however, they usually assume the color of the mature spore. The change of color of the gills according to the age of the plant is very important in the study of the Agaricini; it accounts for the white gills of certain species in youth, the pink in maturity, and the brown when aged. ”

“ That insect life abounded there was manifest at the most cursory glance, for great clouds of midges or flies could be seen hovering in the air in every direction, while Earle’s surmise as to the presence of alligators was abundantly confirmed by the frequent roaring of the creatures. The forest seemed to grow close up to the margin of the swamp everywhere, a mere narrow strip of open ground some twenty to thirty yards wide, dividing the two. ”

“ As the great family Agamidæ is confined to the Old World, so the Iguanidæ belongs to America, where several species are numerous in the tropics, and reach a size of three to five feet, much of which is tail. They live in trees, feed on vegetation, and haunt the banks of rivers into which they jump on the slightest alarm. ”

“ Our present subject has not entirely escaped from this general contagion, for if we refer to some old and long established growers of the Auricula, we find that one thinks that the rotted down roots of the Willow, is the only matrix in which it will approach perfection; others again suppose, that nothing is so suitable as rushes decomposed into mould, and a portion of the same material cut short in a fresh state, and strewed over the drainage; while some will not believe in any fertilizer, but blood, mixed up with maiden earth, and laid together for a season. ”

“ As the base of the food chain, plants carry the influences of climate on to the plant-eating animals. From the numerous animal fossils found at Agate we have learned most of what is known about the environment of that time. Sediments tell a good part of the story, and floras from other localities help, but much of Agate’s ancient ecology must be inferred from the bones.
Today, standing on the porch of the visitor center or walking along the path to University and Carnegie Hills, visitors find themselves in the midst of the shortgrass prairie. ”

“ For many minutes we waited, but no life was visible about the buttonwood bushes which held the nests—no old birds like fragments of fleecy clouds came floating in over the dark canopy of cypress trees. My companion, wise in the ways of hunters, as well as the habits of birds, suspected something wrong and presently found nearby the body of an Egret lying on the ground, its back, from which the skin bearing the fatal aigrettes had been torn, raw and bloody. ”

“ Some species found in such localities are not confined to them, as Agaricus cœpestipes, Agaricus cristatus, Æthalium vaporarium, &c. It is somewhat singular that certain species have a predilection for growing in proximity with other plants with which they do not appear to have any more intimate relation. Truffles, for instance, in association with oaks, Peziza lanuginosa under cedar-trees, Hydnangium carneum about the roots of Eucalypti, and numerous species of Agaricini, which are only found under trees of a particular kind. ”

“ Some white aigrets—sitting motionless on the surface of the water—white as the flowers of the water-lily, a few water-hens, wild ducks, and huge reptiles which shake the aquatic plants as they pass, and here and there an Indian angler standing up to the middle of his legs in water, are the only living beings to be seen in these solitudes. ”

“ There are many different species of agaves (often called century plants) in the Southwest, several occurring in Big Bend. Plants of this group furnish many important products in Mexico, and were utilized by Indians in various ways. Among the products are fiber, food, drink (mescal) , soap and medicine. Agaves are grown commercially in more than 40 countries. These plants store up food in the root and leaf systems for many years, finally send up one fast-growing flower stalk, mature their seeds, and then die. ”

“ The stems of this species, Agathis australis, rise like massive grey columns to a height of 160 ft., terminating in a succession of spreading branches given off in tiers from the main trunk. The thick narrow lanceolate leaves, with several parallel veins, reach a length of 2 to 3 inches. The female shoots have the form of small and almost spherical cones consisting of a central axis bearing overlapping spiral series of broadly triangular scales (Fig. 16) . Each scale carries a single seed with a large wing attached to one side which facilitates disposal by wind. ”