XT. LEPIOTAS AXD ARMILLAEIA. 



The genus Lepiota agrees with the geneva. Amanita and A}nan- 

 itopsis in having the gills free from the stem, bnt it differs from 

 them in having no distinct enveloping wrapper in the very young 

 plant, and consequently no warts on the cap and no sheathing 

 membrane or scales at the base of the stem. In some of the 

 species the epidermis of the cap breaks up into small fibrillose 

 fragments, so that the cap is scaly but not warty. 



The Parasol mushroom or Tall lepiota, Lepiota procera, is a 

 conspicuous fungus, which grows in fields, pastures, waysides or 

 thin woods. Its cap, when ver\' young, resembles an egg in 

 shape. It is covered with a reddish-brown epidermis, which 

 breaks up, with its expansion, into brownish spot-like scales. 



These are closer to each other 

 near the centre, more distant 

 and sometimes wanting near 

 the margin of the cap. 

 The centre of the cap rises in 

 a prominent umbo, which re- 

 mains covered with the un- 

 broken epidermis, and is 

 therefore darker colored than 

 the rest of the cap, for the 

 space between the scales is 

 white or whitish, and of a 

 silky or fibrillose texture. 

 Generallv the mature cai- is 

 broadly convex like an o])ou 



Lepiota prooera. L. n.-incinoidCN. Arniillaria mellea. JiaraSol, aud tllis witll tllC 



]>rominent umbo and the long slender stem so simulates an out- 

 spread parasol that it has given rise to the common name of the 

 fungus. The flesh is rather dry and somewhat tough, and of a 

 white color. The gills are also white or yellowish white, and 

 gradually narrowed toward the stem. They do not reach the 

 stem but leave an open space around it, so that it appears to be 

 inserted in a cavity or shallow basin in the lower surface of the 

 cap. The stem is very tall, straight or a little flexuous, swollen 

 or somewhat bulbous at the base, and often variegated by brown- 



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