134 BKPOET OF THE STATE BOTANIST. 



depending on their place of growth. This arrangement is not as 

 exact and satisfactory as is desirable, but it brings together those 

 species that are most closely related to each other. 



Plants growing in pastures, grassy or open 



places 1 



Plants growing in woods or groves 4 



1 Stem stuffed or solid 2 



1 Stem hollow 3 



2 Gills at first pink, about as broad as the 



thickness of the cap A. campester. 



2 Gills at first white, breadth less than the 



thickness of the cap A. Rodraani. 



3 Collar radiately divided on its lower surface . . A. arvensis. 



3 Collar iloccose on its lower surface A. subrufescens. 



4 Flesh quickly changing to dull red where 



wounded A. hemorrhoidarius. 



4 Fiesh not changing to dull-red where 



wounded 5 



5 Cap with numerous persistent brown scales ... A. placomyces. 



5 Cap without scales or with few evanescent ones. A. sUvaticus. 



Agaricus campester Z.* 

 Common Mushroom. Edible Musukoom. 



Plate 6. 



Pileus silky or squamulose ; lamelke at first a delicate pink, 

 becoming brown or blackish-brown with age ; stem stuffed, glab- 

 rous, white or whitish ; spores elliptical, .00025 to .0003 inch long. 



The Common mushroom, sometimes called the Edible mush- 

 room, as if it was the only edible species known, and also 

 Meadow mushroom in common with A. arvensis, is perhaps more 

 generally used and better known than any other. It is the one 

 commonly cultivated and the one most often seen ou the tables 

 of the rich and of fashionable restaurants and public houses. It 

 is so eagerly sought in some of our cities that it is difficult to find 

 the wild ones near these towns, for they are gathered almost as 

 soon as the}' appear, and the cultivated ones usually bring prices 

 beyond tne reach of the poor. 



• This na'iie is usually written Agaricus campestris, but in SyUoge Fungorum the more 

 classical and grammatical term here adopted ib used. 



