142 BKPOKT OF THE STATE BOTANIST. 



Agaricus placoinyces Peck. 

 Flat cap Mushboom. 



Plate 9. Figs. T to 12. 



Pileus thin, at first convex, becoming flat with age, whitish, 

 brown in the center and elsewhere adorned with minute brown 

 scales ; lamellae close, white, then pinkish, finally blackish-brown ; 

 stem smooth, annulate, stuffed or hollow, bulbous, white or 

 whitish, the bulb often stained with yellow ; spores elliptical, 

 ,0002 to .00025 in. long. 



The Flat cap mushroom is a rare but a beautiful species. Its 

 cap is convex or somewhat bell-shaped when j^oung, but when 

 mature it is nearly or quite Hat. Its brown center and its nu- 

 merous minute brown scales on a whitish background give it a 

 very ornamental appearance. It becomes darker with age. 



Its gills, which in the very young plant are white or nearly 

 so, pass througli the usual shades of pink and brown with advanc- 

 ing age. 



The stem is rather long and swollen into a bulb at the base. 

 It sometimes tapers slightly toward the top near which it bears 

 a thin flabby membranous collar. It may be either stuffed with 

 a pith or hollow. It is white or whitish, but the bulb is some- 

 times stained with yellow. 



Cap two to four inches broad, stem three to live inches long, 

 one-fourth to nearly one-half an inch thick. 



It grows in the borders of hemlock woods or under hemlock 

 trees from July to September. It has been eaten by Mr. C. L. 

 Shear, who pronounces it very good. I have not found it in suffi- 

 cient quantity to give it a trial. This mushroom is very closely 

 related to the "Wood mushroom or Silvan mushroom, Agarieus sil- 

 vaiicus, a species which is also recorded as edible, but which is 

 apparently more rare in our State than even the Flat cap mush- 

 room. This differs from the Silvan mushroom in its paler color, 

 in having the cap more minutely, persistently and regularly scaly, 

 and in its being destitute of a prominent center. In the Silvan 

 mushroom the scales, when present, are few, and they disai)pear 

 with age. 



Having had no op])ortunity to make the drawings of the 

 I'leeding mushroom, ^ya/'t6"M« hcnwrrhoidariu-s, and of the Silvan 



