MUSHROOMS. 



455 



Fig. 1938. Ontario Ladies' College. 



has been found in the neighborhood of 

 Whitby. Last week I received a basket 

 of mushrooms from a friend, containing^ 

 two specimens, in which I felt greatly inter- 

 ested. One of these was a white gilled 

 mushroom called the Lepiota nancinoides, 

 an edible species just about as highly prized 

 as the well known pink gilled mushroom, 

 Agaricus campestris, and yet so much alike 

 in its gills and cap the deadly white 

 Amanita, that it is desirable to devote at 

 least one article to a clear and definite 

 account of the well marked peculiarities of 

 the whole .Amanita class. I have been 

 pleased to learn that l;he honored President 

 of the Fruit Growers' .Association has become 

 an interested student of micology, and that 

 he has had the good fortune of gathering a 



large puff ball and practically testing its 

 esculent properties, and that he has done 

 me and the readers of this journal the favor 

 of having this magnificent " fruit " photo- 

 graphed to illustrate this article. On this 

 account I shall begin with the puff ball. 

 Without attempting to discuss this subject 

 in a thorough or exhaustive manner, I 

 would say that the puff ball belongs to the 

 large class of plants known as Fungi, to 

 which also belong the rust, the smut, the 

 mould, the yeast plant, the bacteria, etc. 

 It belongs also to the division Gasteromy- 

 cetes, or stomach fungi, so called because 

 the hymenium or spore bearing surface is 

 enclosed in a more or less spherical case 

 called the peridium, whi^h ruptures at 

 maturity and expels the spores in the form 



