STUDIES AND ILLUSTRATIONS OF MUSH- 

 ROOMS: No. I. 



BY GEO. F. ATKINSON. 



With the pubhcation of this bulletin it is proposed to begin a series 

 of short illustrated articles on the fleshy fungi belonging chiefly to the 

 so-called mushroom family. While there are several thousand differ- 

 ent species of plants belonging to this group, which are more or less 

 striking because of size, color, or form, they seem to have attracted 

 very little attention from people generally. There is no reason why 

 persons who have no technical knowledge of the science of botany 

 should not know a dozen or more of the different common species, 

 which appear through different seasons, in the same way that they 

 come to know some of the common birds which visit us each summer. 



In cities and in the larger towns there is a growing number of 

 persons who are able to recognize, with a fair degree of certainty, the 

 plant which is usually understood to bear the name of *' the 

 mushroom,'^ and which appears chiefly during late summer and 

 autumn in lawns, pastures, and similar open places in fields.* This 

 plant sometimes occurs in great abundance, and the eagerness with 

 which it is sought, by those who know its value as a food or relish, 

 testifies to its importance as an article of diet. 



If the worth of mushrooms as food was properly appreciated, even 

 by the inhabitants of small villages and of the country, the ability to 

 recognize several of the common species would not be difficult to 

 acquire by those who would give an amount of attention to the sub- 

 ject equal to that which they bestow upon some other natural objects. 



One reason why so little is known even of the common species is 

 brcause in many neighborhoods there is no one who can recognize 

 several of them, and thus impart the information concerning the kinds, 

 and their prominent characters, to others. A slight degree of interest 



■••111 the collection of some of the material and in making some of the 

 photographs with which 'diis bulletin is illustrated, I have been assisted by 

 Mr. H. Hasselbring, a student of botany. 



