REPORT OF THE STATE BOTANIST. 159 
the enlargement in thé flowering stem of an onion. The plants some- 
times occur in tufts or clusters of many individuals. When very young 
the pileus is ovate and of a uniform color, but the surface soon 
breaks up into minute scales which rest upon a white or whitish 
ground color. In drying the lamelle generally assume a dingy or 
smoky hue, but the pileus does not generally change color. Two forms 
occur in hot-houses, the one having a white, the other a yellow pileus. 
The striations of the margin are rather deep and close and give a 
somewhat plicate appearance to that part of the pileus. The form that 
grows in the open air has shorter striations on the margin, and the 
stem is not so regularly enlarged in the middle, the enlargement being 
mostly near the base and sometimes wanting entirely. Possibly this 
form may be the A. rorulentus Panizzi, but it seems to me too near A. 
cepestipes to be separated. 
AGARICUS AMERICANUS, Pk. 
American Agaric. 
Pileus rather fleshy, at first ovate, then convex or expanded, wmbo- 
nate, more or less striate on the margin, the cuticle breaking up, ex- 
cept on the umbo, into reddish or reddish-brown appressed scales, white, 
flesh white; lamella rather broad, close, free, white, narrower toward 
the stem and there sometimes anastomosing; stem tapering upward, 
enlarged at or a little above the base, hollow, white, annulus rather large, 
but thin and flabby, sometimes separating from its attachment to the 
stem, occasionally evanescent ; spores subelliptical, uninucleate, ,0003' 
— .0004' long, .0002’ — .0003’ broad. 
Plant sometimes ceespitose, 3’— 5’ high; pileus 1.5’ —4’ broad ; 
stem 2” — 5” thick. 
Lawns and grassy places, sometimes on decaying wood. July and 
August. 
This species has many points of resemblance to the preceding one 
but it islarger, with a stouter stem anda more fleshy pilens, with much 
broader and more distinct scales. The stem is enlarged as in that species 
but the enlargement is generally at or near the base. When bruised 
the flesh changes color and in drying the whole plant assumes a dull 
brownish-red or smoky-red hue, a character by which the species may 
be easily distinguished. The European species, A. Badhami and A. 
meleagris, change color under similar circumstances, but the latter be- 
comes red and the former saffron-red. ‘They also differ in other re- 
spects from our plant. This has been found by Miss Banning near 
Baltimore, Maryland, with a pileus sometimes seven inches in diameter. 
She has observed that it sometimes exudes a reddish juice when cut or 
