Part 40

E. Fischer, etc. "Gasteromycetae," Saccardo, Sylloge Fungorum. Vol. vii, part i. Padua, 1888.

Chas. H. Peck. "United States species of Lycoperdon."

Geo. Massee. "Monograph of the British Gasteromycetes." Annals of Botany, Nov., 1889. "Monograph of the Genus Lycoperdon" in Journal Royal Micro. Soc. London, 1887.

C. Bambeke. Morphologie du Phallus impudicus. Gand, 1889.

A. P. Morgan. "North American Geasters" in American Naturalist. Roy. 8vo. 1887.

L. and C. Tulasne. "Essai d'une Monographie des Nidulariees." Ann. des Sci. Nat. 8vo. Paris, 1844.

M. C. Cooke. The Myxomycetes of Great Britain. Plates. 8vo. London, 1877. The Myxomycetes of the United States, by the same author. New York, 1877.

Geo. Massee. A Monograph of the Myxogasters. Col. plates. Roy. 8vo. London, 1892.

A. De Bary. "Die Mycetozoon" (Schleimpilz). Plates. 8vo. Leipzig, 1864.

J. Rostafinski. Sluzowce, Mycetozoa Monografia. Plates. 4to. Paris, 1875.

Geo. A. Rex. New American Myxomycetes. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., part iii, Dec. 16, 1890, pp. 436-438.

Balliet Letson. "Slime Molds." The Ornithologist and Botanist. Vol. i. Binghamton, N. Y., Nov., 1891, p. 85. 1 col.

Thos. H. McBride. "The Myxomycetes of Eastern Iowa." Bulletin from the Laboratories of Natural History of the State University of Iowa. Iowa City, Iowa, 1892.

AGARICINI.

Subgenus Lepiota Fries. Veil universal and concrete, with the cuticle of the pileus breaking up in the form of scales. Gills typically free, often remote, not sinuate or decurrent. Stem generally distinct from the hymenophore. Volva absent. Habitat terrestrial, mostly found on rich soil or in grassy places. (In Saccardo's Sylloge, Lepiota is given generic rank.)

The Lepiotas have a wide geographical distribution. No less than 225 species have been recorded as found in different parts of the world. These are pretty evenly divided between the torrid and temperate zones. They are generally smaller than the Amanitas, less fleshy and somewhat dry and tough. The flesh is soft and thready, not brittle. In the plants of most of the species the cap is rough, the cuticle being broken up into tufts or scales. These tufts are readily distinguished from the warts which characterize certain species of Amanita, being formed from the breaking up of the cuticle with the concrete veil, while the wart-like excrescences seen upon Amanita muscaria, for example, are composed of fragments of the volva, which is always found enclosing the very young plants of the genus Amanita.

A few of the species are characterized by a smooth cap; in some instances it is granulose or mealy. Usually the cuticle is dry, but in a few of the species it is viscid. The stem is generally long and hollow, and, being of different texture from the flesh of the cap, is easily separated from it, often leaving a distinct socket at the junction of stem and cap. It is sometimes smooth, sometimes floccose. In some species it is bulbous at the base, in others not. The ring which encircles the stem is at first continuous with the cuticle of the cap, breaking apart with its expansion. It is sometimes movable, sometimes evanescent.

The species generally are considered edible, or innoxious. None are recorded as dangerous. A mycophagist from Augusta, Ga., reports, however, that the members of a family in that vicinity were made quite ill from eating the Lepiota Morgani, a greenish-spored species of Lepiota, while he himself ate of the same dish, experiencing no unpleasant effects. I have had no personal experience with this species.

Two edible species of Lepiota, which are widely commended as of good quality, and which are sufficiently abundant to have value as esculents, are figured in Plate XI. A third, Ag. (Lepiota) cepaestipes, var. cretaceus--Lepiota cretacea, figured in Plate XI-1/2, is an exotic species found in greenhouses. It is of very delicate flavor.

PLATE XI.

FIGS. 1 to 4.--=Ag. (Lepiota) procerus= Scop. (=Lepiota procera=). "Parasol Mushroom."

EDIBLE.

Cap at first ovate, then expanded, showing distinct umbo, cuticle thick, torn into evanescent scales; gills remote from the stem, free, white, or yellowish-white; stem long, slender, variegated with brownish scales, hollow or slightly stuffed, bulbous at the base, and bearing a well-defined thickish ring, which in the mature plant is movable. Spores white, elliptical. The color of the cap varies from a light tan or ochraceous yellow to a dark reddish-brown. The surface showing beneath the lacerated cuticle is of a lighter hue than the cuticle, and is silky and fibrillose, giving the cap a somewhat shaded or spotted appearance. The flesh is dry, soft and thready, white. Taste and odor pleasant.

Cap from 3 to 5 inches broad; stem from 5 to 10 inches high.

This species is commonly found in pastures and in open grassy places; sometimes in open woods near cultivated fields, usually solitary or in very small clusters. It is a favorite among mycophagists. Lepiota racodes closely resembles Lepiota procera, and by some botanists the two are regarded as forms of the same species. In L. racodes the pileus is at first globose, expanded, and finally depressed in the centre; the cuticle is thin and broken into persistent scales; the whole plant smaller than L. procera. Flesh slightly reddish when bruised. Edible. There is also a white variety (puellaris) with a floccose squamose cap.

PLATE XI.

FIGS. 5 to 9.--=Ag. (Lepiota) naucinus= Fries (=Lepiota naucinoides= Peck). "Smooth White Lepiota."

EDIBLE.