Studies and Illustratiuns of Mushrooms: I. 



1 1 



we shall see the curious way in which the gills and the ring are formed. 

 The photograph shown in figure 91 represents five of these stages. 

 In the smaller ones the young gills in the sections resemble two eyelets. 

 These have been covered over on the outside by the mycelium grow- 

 ing downward from the cap, and upward from the stem, the ends of 

 the thread interlacing to form a veil which extends all around the stem 

 covering the constricted portion at the junction of the stem with the 

 button. If we cut across the button at this point the gills would show 

 as a ring with the veil outside. 



92. — Ai^aricits campestris. A^early mature platits^ showing veil 

 still stretched across the gill cavity. 



As the plant grows all these parts increase in size, the gills extending 

 downward by the growth of the mycelium in radiating lines to form the 

 plates. As the cap expands the veil is stretched and a cavity appears 

 between the free edges of the gills and the veil. If we now look at 

 figure 92, which is from a photograph of the underside of two nearly 

 mature plants, we can see the veil stretched over the gills from the 

 margin of the pileus to the stem. Here we can see how delicate the 

 texture of the veil is, and how easily it is torn. During these stages 

 the gills are pink in color, except in the very youngest, when they are 



