JJ34 Mycological Bnllctin Nos. 59 and 60 [Vol. IV 



This was formerly called HclvcUa csculcuta. It is often very irregular 

 and attached to the stem in two or three places. It is easily recognized 

 from its bay-red color and its brain-like folds. 



It .grows beside old stumps and prefers a sandy soil. It is said to be 

 injurious to some people. I have eaten it without any bad results, but I 

 was careful to use only young and fresh specimens. I should advise not 

 to eat it unless carefully parboiled. It is considered dangerous. 



NOTES FROM MUSHROOM LITERATURE. 1. 

 ]V . A. KcUcnnan. 



A summary of interesting articles on Mushrooms found m various 

 periodicals and brief quotations will occupy some space in the Bi'LLf.tin 

 when available. We call attention first to a note published in Torreya 

 recently by Mr. C. C. Hammer. These are his words : 



"A Note regarding the Discharge of Spores of Pleurotus ostreatus. — 

 A few evenings since a friend brought me a fine plant of the above 

 species, consisting of about twenty-five pileoli, growing from a common 

 base and arranged in the form of a large rosette, about twelve inches in 

 diameter and of about the same height. Knowing the plant to be very 

 fresh, not yet forty-eight hours old, I decided to keep it and cook it upon 

 the following day. For the night it was left upon my study table, 

 in the same position in which it grew (gills downward). Early the next 

 morning my attention was called to the plant by my wife who asked me to 

 come and observe it. It happened to be exposed to a very strong morning 

 sunlight, which ^r.tered the window three or four feet away. The spores 

 were arising from the plant like tiny spirals of smoke or steam, to the 

 height of two or three feet, making to us a very strange sight. At first 

 I doubted if the "smoke" were really spores, but after a careful microscopic 

 examination of some which were caught upon a slide, this point was defi- 

 nitely settled. Perhaps other agarics spore in a similar manner, but never 

 having had conditiors favorable before I cannot say. Certainly the fact was 

 interesting to me and for this reason I publish it. I have upon numerous 

 occasions observed the momentary expulsion of spores from fungi such as 

 Bulgaria rufa and Sarcoscypha iloccosa, but with these plants the snore- 

 discharge seems to recur when they are first touched, and then only." 



Another. — New species of ]\f"'^hrooms have bren de.'^^cribed by 

 Professor Atkinson in the Jourral i f Mycology, some of which should be 

 recounted here : — 



"Preliminary Note.s on Some New Species of Fungi. — Agaricus 

 CRETACi'.u.us, Atkinson, n. sp. — Plants gregarious, sometimes a few joined 

 at the base; 5-8 cm. high, pileus 4-7 cm. broad, stems 0-10 mm. in thickness. 

 PiLEU.s white convex to expanded, thin, smooth, sometimes inclined to be 

 slightly viscid in wet weather, when leaves cling to the surfnce; sometimes 

 with slight yellowish stains, flesh white with a tinge of pink sometimes. 

 CiiLi.s narrow, .'!-4 r^m., narrowed behind, free, first vvhite, then pink, and 

 Inter dark greyish brown, not becoming blackish. The caps are sometimes 

 fully expanded when the gills .show only a slight tinge of pink. Spores 

 4-5x.'}M. Stem tapering from the enlarged Ivtse, white, smooth above the 

 annulus, chalky white below and covered with minute powdery scales often 

 arranged in irregular rorcentric rings below; stem solid but the center Ic^s 

 dense. Annui.us persistent, white, smooth above, the lower surface wiMi 

 very fine floccosc scales similar to those on the stem from which the an- 

 nulus was separated. Odor and taste of almonds, as in A. arvcnsis. Gr-^w- 

 ing in leaf mold, woods, Cascadilla creek, Ithaca, N. Y. C. U. herb. No. 

 5359, collected by Geo. F. Atkinson, September 7. 1900. 



"Amanita fi.avoconia, Atkinson n. sp.— -Plants usually scattered, 

 sometimes greg.-.rions. C,-\2 ctii. high, pileus I'.-S cm. Iim.-ul stems 4-1.") nun. 



