124 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 
age. There is generally a distinct ring attached to the 
stem above the middle. This ring is formed by the break- 
ing of a “veil” which in earlier stages covered the gills, 
extending from the margin of the cap to the stem. Any 
one can readily become familiar with this species and, know- 
ing it, may easily recognize related forms. 
Agarics with White Spores 
Among the numerous forms of this group which are 
eaten in various parts of the United States, only two genera 
occur about St. Louis in such abundance as to. encourage the 
amateur to search for them. 
Pleurotus ostreatus, Pleurotus sapidus, and Pleurotus 
salignus are edible species between which it is not necessary 
to atinpuish. All three grow on the sides of rotting logs 
or trunks of dying deciduous trees, such as maple or willow. 
They are especially common in low woods which are some- 
times inundated, like those at the end of Creve Coeur 
Lake towards Coleman. Any similar locality will afford just 
as favorable a collecting ground for these species, and fructi- 
fications may be frequently seen on dying trees in Forest 
Park and elsewhere in St. Louis. 
These species of Pleurotus lack a stem, that is, the cap 
is sessile, growing directly from the log or tree trunk. 
Furthermore, the cap is halved lengthwise and_bracket- 
shaped, so that all gills of full length extend approximately 
from the tree trunk to the margin of the cap. The fructi- 
fications are large—from two to six inches broad—and often 
clustered together in an imbricate manner, with one fructi- 
fication above another, making a mass of from one to sev- 
eral pounds. The caps are whitish, gray, and ashy to 
smoke-brown, but all have white gills and spores either 
white or slightly lilac. Pains should be taken to secure 
specimens which are not over-mature and yet fully grown. 
Young fructifications of fungi are never unwholesome in 
the sense that we regard immature fruit, but there may be 
considerable economic waste in harvesting young specimens 
. which in perhaps 24 hours would double in volume and 
weight. Pleurotus is firmer than Coprinus and may be 
prepared for the table like the market mushroom. 
Lepiota naucinoides is a white agarie with umbrella- 
shaped cap about three inches in diameter, rounded at the 
apex. It is more likely to be found in the fall in grass 
which has been allowed to become about six inches long 
rather than in that kept closely cropped. It has been col- 
lected abundantly in the vicinity of St. Louis, in corn fields . 
