TOADSTOOLS AND THEIR KINDRED. 



^17 



The Parasol Agaric. Of this esteemed mushroom, Cooke re- 

 marks that it is in high request in Italy and France, and is also eaten 

 in Austria, Germany, Spain, and England. It is easily identified. It 

 has a fleshy cap, ovate when young, then bell-shaped, and afterward 

 expanded and blunt-pointed. The extreme forms are shown in Fig. 8. 

 The cuticle is more or less brown, and torn into patches or scales, ex- 

 cept over the apex, these scales separating toward the margin. Flesh, 

 white. Gills unconnected with the stem, and fixed to a collar on the 

 cap around its toj). Ring, persistent, loose on the stem. Stem six or 

 eight inches high, tapering upward from a pear-like bulb at the base, 

 hollow, with a loose pith, whitish brown, but more or less variegated 

 with small and close-pressed scales. 



Fig. 8. The Parasol Agaric (Agoi'icus procerus). 



Whenever a mushroom on a long stalk, enlarged at the base, pre- 

 sents a dry cuticle, more or less scaly, is darker colored over the 

 blunt apex, has a movable ring and white gills, it must be the parasol 

 agaric, and may be eaten without fear. Robinson. 



Chantarelle [Cantharellus ciharrius). Of this species Cooke says : 

 " It has a most charming and enticing appearance and odor. It is 

 almost universally eaten in all countries where it is found, England 

 excepted." Trattinnich says of it, " Not only this same fungus never 

 did any one harm, but might even restore the dead." 



When young, its stem is white and solid, but becomes hollow and 

 yellow. It is tapering, and passes into the substance of the cap, 

 which is of the same color. The cap is lobed and irregular in shape 

 (Fig. 9) ; its margin, at first curling inward, becomes expanded and 

 wavy. The gills, or veins, as they are called, in this species, are thick, 

 crooked, not compact, running some way down the stalk. Flesh white, 

 fibrous, dense, with a fruity odor. Color, yellow, like yelk of eggs; 



