42 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



distant, adnate becoming decurrent, white; stem stout, solid, 

 equal, white, roughened with white points at the top; spores 

 white, elliptic, .0003-.0004 of an inch long, .0(>01t)-.00024 broad. 



The blushing hygrophorus is a large and beautiful species, 

 clean and attractive and a fine addition to our list of edible 

 mushrooms. It is gregarious or tufted in its mode of growth 

 and grows most frequently but not always under spruce and 

 balsam fir trees, or where these trees have previously grown. It 

 appears late in the season. Our plant differs in some minor 

 features from the description of the European plant, but in 

 essential characters the agreement is so close that there can be 

 little doubt of its identity. Its fleshy, firm cap is convex or 

 broadly conic wheu young, with the margin involute and often 

 downy and studded with drops of moisture, though the margin 

 in the European plant is described as naked. When mature it 

 is broadly convex or nearly plane, but sometimes has a broad 

 but slight central elevation or umbo. It is very smooth, viscid 

 when moist and of a beautiful, delicate pinkish buff color, some- 

 times slightly tinged with brown or reddish brown in the center. 

 The flesh is white, slightly tinted under the thin, separable 

 pellicle with the color of the cap. The flavor is mild, and it has 

 no very distinct odor. The gills are at first attached to the stem 

 by the entire width of the inner extremity, but, when the cap is 

 fully expanded, they are somewhat decurrent. They are rather 

 wide apart, white and sometimes have a slight salmon-colored 

 reflection. The stem is stout, nearly equal in diameter through- 

 out but sometimes abruptly pointed at the base, solid, white and 

 roughened with white points at the top. These points or dots 

 are apt to become reddish in drying and they sometimes extend 

 nearly to the base of the stem. The stem of the European plant 

 is described as constricted at the top, but figures of it by Euro- 

 pean mycologists do not show this character, from which I con- 

 clude that it is not constant. 



The cap is 2-4 inches broad ; the stem is 2-5 inches long, 6-10 

 lines thick. Fried in butter, it has an agreeable flavor and may 

 easily be placed among the first class mushrooms. 



