AGARICEjE 



Context of fruit-body fleshy, putrescent, thai of pileua Bometimes 

 membranous, of stem sometimes cartilaginous or horny; neither 

 leathery, nor vesiculosa Stem central, eccentric, lateral or hik- 

 ing. Gills well-developed, acute on edge. Spores with a hyaline 

 or colored I'pispore; their deposil in mass on white paper yields 

 a series of "prints" of various shades of white, pink, ochraceo 

 brown, purple or black. This scries is arbitrarily divided into Ave 

 ;ni [ficial groups as follows : 



i hi l'.l.i.k s|.ur, .I. i Melanosporae) : Spore-prinl black. 



(b) Purple-brown-spored. i imaurosporae) : Spore-prinl dark 



purple or purple-brown. 



(c) Rusty-spored or ochre-spored. (Ochrosporae) : Spore-prinl 



rusty-yellow, rusty-brown, ochraceous or cinnamon- 

 brown. 

 (di Pink-spored. (Rhodosporae) : Spore-prinl flesh-colored, 



rosy or pale pink, 

 (e) White-spored. (Leucosporae) : Spore-print white. 

 The spore-prim is in many eases indispensable in determining 

 the proper group to which the mushroom belongs. It is obtained 

 easily by cutting off the stem just below the gills and Laying the 

 cap. with gills down, on a piece of white paper and covering it over 

 night with a dish to prevent premature drying. Mushrooms which 

 have been kept on ice do not seem to deposit spores thereafter, 

 nevertheless it is well to avoid too warm a place, else the specimen 

 may putrefy. The color oi the spores may often be detected at the 

 time of collecting by the deposit already made on the ground be 

 neath it or on other mushrooms when growing in a duster. In ma- 

 ture specimens the gills usually become colored by the color of the 

 spores, but when young the gills are generally white; in some 

 species, however, the gills are themselves colored, e. g., Clitocybe 

 illudens and Mycena leijana. After some experience, it is usually 

 possible to determine the group to which a species belongs by means 



of the microscope. The delicate tint of the color for each group is 

 then discernible in the epispore of each mature spore. This method 

 is especially useful in cases where it is a question of the presence 

 of the purple tint of the purple-brown-spored plants; the spore 

 mass or gills often appear entirely dark brown to the naked eye in 



species Whose separate spores have a purple tint under the mil 



scope. 



