1899] Fernald,— Ranunculus acris in New England 227 
riance in Peabody by Mr. R. B. Mackintosh. In that town it grows in 
and about the old tanneries, but particularly in certain rather open 
cellars the floor of which is a surface of exhausted tanbark which forms 
a rich soil to the depth of several feet. In this situation the develop- 
ment of the fungus is truly astonishing. In one cellar under an old 
skating-rink it possesses the ground in its fruiting season. For weeks 
in September and October groups, almost groves of it eight or ten 
inches high, with pilei seven to nine inches broad, come up all over 
the ground, particularly about the bases of the cedar posts which sup- 
port the floor above. A scratch in the soil anywhere shows mycelial 
strands extending horizontally at a depth of an inch or two. Some 
specimens collected here had bases as big as a door-knob with the hol- 
low in the interior of the stem almost big enough to admit a lead pencil. 
From this preserve the owner sold last year a number of pounds of 
the buttons to marketmen, but the experiment of introducing the fungus 
upon the market resulted unsuccessfully, the mushroom-buying pub- 
lic being conservative in taste, and also cautiously adherent to tradition. 
Notwithstanding this, and also in spite of Vittadini’s condemnation of 
this Zepiofa as unsuitable for the table, it can be said to be an excellent 
mushroom when properly cooked. Had Vittadini caused it to be placed 
with his favorite condiments in a closed dish, containing sufficient water 
to prevent drying, and had he then kept it in a hot oven for an hour, he 
would probably have had some more enthusiastic remark to make than 
that * having experimented upon it several times, even in considerable 
doses, he had suffered no inconvenience from it." He might have been 
inclined with some Boston mycophagists to rank Zepiota rhacodes with 
Agaricus campestris and Coprinus comatus. 
EXPLANATION OF PLATE II. A natural cluster of about twenty undeveloped fruits 
of Lepiota rhacodes Vitt., found at Allston, Mass., in October, 1899, by Mr. G. B. 
Fessenden, who kindly furnishes the photograph. All of the buttons have advanced 
beyond the stage in which the pileus is covered by the enveloping membrane, traces 
of which may, however, still be discerned in the thin, ragged rim of the cup. 
RANUNCULUS ACRIS, VAR. STEVENI, IN NEW ENGLAND. 
M. L. FERNALD. 
Iw the extensive collection of New England plants recently presented 
to the Gray Herbarium by Mr. Charles E. Faxon, was found a single 
sheet marked by its alert collector, the late Edwin Faxon, ** Ranunculus 
