16 



A PLAIN AND EASY ACCOUNT 



or upon decaying wood, and whether rooting or not. 

 It should carefully be noted if the stem is stout or 

 slender, bulbous or fusiform, scaly, downy, or smooth ; 

 whether central in its inser- 

 tion, eccentric, lateral, or 

 almost obsolete ; what is the 

 colour of the pileus, gills, and 

 stem, the form of the pileus 

 in the young as well as the 

 mature plant ; and what is the 



nature of the surface of the pileus, whether downy or 

 smooth, dull or shining, viscid or dry. Then, by 

 cutting the pileus and stem down the centre, the 

 texture of both, their colour, and 

 also whether the stem is fibrous, 

 stuffed (i.e., filled with a spongy 

 or cottony mass) or fistulose 

 * (i.e., hollow) (a b). The form and 



position of the gills must also be noted. If their interior 

 extremities are distant from the stem, they are remote 

 (c) ; reaching the stern, but not attached thereto, free 

 (d) ; but if attached, they are 

 then termed adnate (e). If the 

 gills run duwn the stem, they 

 are said to be decurrent (/"). 

 Their opposite or outer ex- 

 tremity may be forked, or their interior toothed or 

 emarginate (a); and the whole surface of the gills 

 may be narrow or broad, and they may be closely 

 packed side by side, or distant. And, finally, the 



