64 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



Death of Dr. Hill. — Rev. Ellsworth Jerome Hill, 

 widely known, especially to students of mosses and ferns, 

 died at his residence in Chicago, January 22, 1917, at the 

 age of 84 years. For half a lifetime. Dr. Hill has botanized 

 in the Northern States and has long been an authority on 

 various crircal families of plants. As an aid to his studies 

 he K rough t together an exceptionally fine botanical library 

 and an herbarium of some 16,000 sheets, the latter now 

 deposited at the University of Illinois. A list of 162 titles 

 comprise his written contributions to botany. Dr. Hill 

 belonged to the old school of botanizing botanists, now 

 nearly passed away, and was as familiar with plants in the 

 field as in the herbarium. His kindly nature and unassum- 

 ing manners made him a most welcome tramping com- 

 panion, and though no longer with us, he will not soon 

 be forgotten. 



Distinguishing Mushrooms. — Amateur mycophagists 

 are always looking for short cuts to naming the fungi, but 

 these all too frequently prove to be merely short cuts to 

 the cemetery. There is no infallible test by which the 

 edible mushrooms may be distinguished from the poison- 

 ous ones. The silver spoon test, the vinegar test, the 

 peeling test, the changing color test all fail when least 

 expected. The only sure way to recognize the fungi is to 

 study them as one would study other plants, until they 

 may be certainly recognized. A recent circular from the 

 National Government helps in this by giving one way for 

 distinguishing the common meadow mushroom from a 

 near relative, the highly poisonous Amanita which greatly 

 resembles it. The gills of the mushroom are pink or 

 brown at maturity; those of the Amanita are always white. 

 There are, however, edible species of mushrooms with 

 white gills but these may be distinguished from Amanita 



