Agaricum est sicut fungus: i.e. this is what agaric is: a thing which is similar to a fungus. It is found in Babylon and is of two forms, i.e. the male and female. The form of the male is long and not so brittle or so bright as the female form. The feminine form of it is bright, light, fragile, and is knotty on the outside and in the inside. It contains something which resembles hair. The male form is uniform, and not so brittle or so light-colored as the other. This is how it should be chosen: it should be bright, and easily broken. The male form of it is no good. However, Avicenna says that both of them are very bad. This is how the statement of Avicenna is interpreted; namely, as regards to the land where he actually was, for it was malignant and harmful there. Moreover, according to Johannes Ibn Mesue this is a most beneficial medicine since it purges every member of the body in general.
Nature: hot in the second degree, and dry in the third degree. It purges phlegm from the stomach primarily and melancholia secondarily; and for that reason is suitable, together with a draught in which saxifrage, i.e. meadow saxifrage, has been boiled, for quotidian fever caused by natural phlegm, and for dysentry or dysuria caused by phlegm . Together with a draught in which ragwort is boiled, it promotes the catamenia .
Dosage: the maximum amount which it is proper