176 



NATURE STUDY REVIEW 



[8:5— May, 1912 



Fig. 3. — Pleurotus ostreatus (the Oyster Mushroom). The 

 Whole Plant is Whitish. The Gills Run Down the Stem. 



is a good introduction to mushroom-eating for those who wish 

 to add something new to their spring and summer menu-card. 

 The oyster mushroom, if found up on the tree, can not he con- 

 fused with any of the deadly ones. 



And now we will suppose that it is Saturday and that there 

 is no school in session so we can take a longer trip. Of course 

 we must have had plenty of rain. We know of some sheep- 

 pastures, so we make our way across the fields and meadows, 

 our basket on our arm, and with plenty of clean tissue-paper 

 cut into foolscap size so that we can wrap each kind separately. 

 If we want to photograph any of them after we return we also 

 take some empty tin cocoa lioxes in which we can place the 

 fragile ones and keep them u])right and uncrushed. In the pas- 

 tures we look carefully for rounded white caps which hug the 

 ground closely. The mushroom we are searching for is the 

 so-called "Meadow mushroom." If we find any. we dig care- 

 fully below it so as to get stem and all. The stem is sometimes 



