138 



MUSHROOMS, EDIBLE AND OTHERWISE 



"little people's" favorite dancing ground. ''They had always fine music among 

 themselves, and danced in a moon shiny night around or in a ring, as one may 

 see to this day upon every common in England where mushrooms grow," quaintly 

 says one old writer. And the Rev. Gerard Smith still further voices the belief 

 of the people as to the nature of these grassy rings : 



''The nimble elves 

 That do by moonshine green sour ringlets make, 

 Whereof the ewe bites not ; whose pastime 'tis 

 To make these midnight mushrooms." 



It is a very common plant, and it will pay any one to know it, as we cannot 

 find anything in the markets that will equal it as a table delicacy. 



Found in pastures and lawns during rainy weather from May till frost. 



Marasmius urens. Fr. 

 The Stinging Marasmius. 



Urens means burning; so called from its acrid taste. 



The pileus is pale-buff, tough, fleshy, convex or flat, becoming depressed and 

 finally wrinkled, smooth, even, one to two inches broad. 



The gills are unequal, cream-colored, becoming brownish, much closer than 

 in the Fairy Ring, hardly reaching the stem proper, joined behind. 



The stem is solid above and hollow below, fibrous, pale, its surface more or 

 less covered with flocculent down, and densely covered with white down at the 

 base. 



It will be well for collectors to pass by this and M. peronatus, or to exercise 

 the greatest caution in their use. They have been eaten without harm, but they 

 also have so long been branded as poisonous that too great care cannot be taken. 

 Its taste is acrid, and it grows in lawns and pastures from June to September. 



Figure 103. Marasmius androsaceus. Natural size. 



Marasmius audrosaccits. Linn. 



Androsaceus is from a Creek 

 word which means an unidenti- 

 fied sea plant or zoophyte. 



The pileus is three to six lines 

 broad, membranaceous, convex, 

 with a slight depression, pale- 

 reddish, darker in the center. 

 striate, smooth. 



The gills are attached to the 



