lar has a thick external edge, but its inner edge is so thin that it 

 sometimes breaks loose from the stem and becomes a movable 

 collar like that of the Parasol mushroom. 



This species grows especially in grassy places, such as lawns 

 and pastures, but it is also found in fields, by roadsides and even 

 in thin woods. It occurs from August to jSTovember. 



The Smooth mushroom has a white and generally tender 

 flesh, and is scarcely inferior to the Common mushroom in edible 

 qualities. Some have thought its flavor less agreeable, but 

 others esteem it quite as good. One correspondent writes that 

 "it grows abundantly here, and is one of our finest edible mush- 

 rooms. T have taught our people to eat it, and it is now highly 

 prized in this region." It is sometimes mistaken for the com- 

 mon mushroom, so close is the resemblance between the two in 

 hfil)it, size and color, but the white gills of the one and the pink 

 gills of the other should be sufficient to distinguish them before 

 maturity, and the hollow stem and thick-edged collar of the one 

 and the stuffed stem and thin collar of the other after 

 maturity. The dangerous Vernal amanita, Amanita verna, 

 need never be mistaken for either of these, if the fact is borne in 

 mind that its gills are always ivlvUe, that it has a tall dem with a 

 large ahrupt hulh at its base margined above with the membranous 

 remains of its wtapper. The Smooth mushroom lecarcely differs 

 from the European Lepiota naucina, except in its smoother cap 

 and siibelliptical spores ; the European plant is described as having 

 globose sjiores. 



The "Flaky lepiota," Lepiota excoriata, and the "Bossed 

 lepiota," Lepiota mastoides, have been recorded by Dr. Curtis 

 among the edible mushrooms of ]^orth Carolina. I have seen 

 neither of these species. 



Morgan's lepiota, Ijepiota morgani, a species which occurs in 

 some of the western States, which is very remarkable because of 

 its green spores, is to be regarded as an unwholesome species. 

 Eating it has been followed by severe sickness and vomiting. It& 

 gills, which became green in the mature plant, separate it from 

 all other known species in this counti'y. 



The genus Armillaria commences a series of white-spored 

 agarics, in which the gills are attached to the stem. In this 

 respect it differs from the preceding genera, and in its collar- 

 bearing stem it differs from those which follow. 



We have a single very common and very variable edible spe- 

 cies. It is the Honey-colored mushroom, Armillaria mellea. 

 Because of its variabilitv, it is not so easv to describe it as it is 



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