AND PRESERVATION 203 



be taken, the nature of which will vary somewhat in the various 

 groups represented. 



In collecting any fleshy fungi, care should be taken to obtain all 

 the fleshy structure, because some very important characters are 

 derived from the basal parts. They should never be gathered for 

 scientific purposes by breaking them off above the ground. The 

 entire basal portion should be removed with a knife or small 

 trowel. Of course the date of collecting and the locality will be 

 added to the specimen by any intelligent collector, but it is always 

 desirable to add the local environment, of the specimen by stating 

 in what soil it grows — sand, clay or leaf-mold — and whether the 

 plant grows in open pastures, marsh, grassy woods, or deep forest; 

 sometimes the character of the timber, especially pine land is to 

 be noted, also whether the fungus grows singly or in clusters. But 

 above all these matters of environment, certain data concerning 

 the physical properties of the fresh plant are absolutely essential 

 to a correct understanding of the species. Dried specimens of 

 fleshy fungi without notes are often worse than useless for they 

 suggest many times highly interesting and often undescribed species 

 without sufficient data to enable one to characterize them properly, 

 and, ordinarily, the species of fleshy fungi had better be left un- 

 described than be named exclusively from the dried plant. The 

 summary of characters to be noted in the Agaricaceae may be 

 tabulated as follows : 



1. Taste. — Bitter, acrid, peppery, mealy, nutty? (One need 

 feel no fear in tasting any of the fleshy fungi for they are cleanly, 

 and the only inconvenience ever experienced is the peppery taste 

 of certain species of Lac tar ms and Russtda which is temporarily 

 about as unpleasant as tasting a particle of red pepper, but other- 

 wise harmless.) 



2. Surface of Pileus. — Dry, hygrophanous or viscid? 

 Smooth, granular, scaly, shining, striate, unbonate, umbilicate ? 

 Color and size ? 



3. Lamellae. — Color when young, and when mature ? Close 

 or distant ? Narrow or wide ? Entire, heterophyllous, or anas- 

 tomosing ? Decurrent on the stem, adnate, sinuate, or free ? 



4. Spores. — (Best collected by removing the pileus and plac- 

 ing it lamellae downward on paper or glass under a tumbler or 

 bell jar. If a microscope is at hand to examine the spores they 

 can be best collected on a slide.) Color, shape and size ? 



