Mineral Agaric, a marly earth, akin in color and texture to the vegetable of that name.

AGARICl'S, the genus of fungi which comprises the common mushroom, A. campestris (see Mushroom), many of the toadstools, and a few poisonous species. The genus is distinguished by the radiating gills bearing the spores on the under side of the pileus or cap. Several hundred species have been described, most of them edible, some easily cultivated. - The name is often applied to the more solid portions of fungi of other families, as the birch agaric, polyporus betulinus, which is cut in strips and used to sharpen delicate instruments. From P. formentarius amadou is prepared by cutting the fungus into slices and steeping in a solution of saltpetre; it then makes excellent tinder. In medicine several species of polyporus were formerly much used as cathartics under the name of agaric, but have given place to better remedies. The powdered pileus of P. igniarius is mixed with snuff by the Ostiaks of the river Obi to improve its narcotic properties. Both in the pulverized form and when beaten into thin sheets it is used as lint. When old the polypori often attain a diameter of two or three feet, and become quite hard and woody.

An approximate analysis shows much resinous matter and a peculiar substance called fungine (see Fungi), but less nitrogenous matter than is usual in this order of vegetables. As they grow on the stems of many trees valued for their timber, and as their presence indicates decay, which they hasten by penetrating the wood with their mycelium, the portion answering to roots, it is desirable, in order to stop the progress of decay, to remove the external fungus and destroy the mycelium by a strong solution of sulphate of copper.