COMMON AMERICAN MUSHROOMS 



585 



reference to it here. After a little study it will be found 

 that the group is not so very complicated, while some 

 of the forms are beautifully colored and furnish elegant 

 subjects for study. 



No account of our mushrooms would be complete were 

 no mention made of the famous Morels (Figs. 5 and 6), 

 especially those constituting the genus Morchella of the 

 family Helvellacea. All the species of this group are edi- 

 ble, and most highly esteemed by epicures and others ; 

 indeed, the Morels are prized above all other spore-sac 

 fungi known to us. There are several genera of them, and 

 no species are better known than the delicious morel, 

 M. deliciosa and M. esculenta. 



The writer has frequently observed these morels grow- 

 ing, in the month of May, in the woods in the neighbor- 

 hood of Washington, D. C, and the specimens shown 

 in the accompanying reproductions of photographs were 

 collected there. Nina Marshall says of them that "all 

 the species, when young, are of a buff yellow, tinged with 



brown, but later they are darker. The stems are rather 

 stout and hollow, white or whitish in some species, and 

 attached to the cap at the apex only; but in others at- 

 tached to the rim as well." Sometimes, in old orchards, 

 after a shower in April, these morels will suddenly 

 spring up in loose groups, the individual plants being 

 a few feet apart, and each specimen from 2 to 6 inches 

 high. There is no mistaking them for any of the poison- " 

 ous species by an intelligent collector, and the time men- 

 tioned is the time to get them. 



Sometimes we meet with mushrooms that are so bril- 

 liantly colored that, when growing in masses and nothing 

 chances to be in the way to obstruct the view, they may 

 be seen in the woods a long ways off. The intense deep 

 orange species, here shown in Figures 8 and 9, is an ex- 

 cellent example of these. This particular fungus is harm- 

 less enough on a clay-bank, but it by no means confines 

 itself to such localities ; for, if the truth be known, it is 

 one of the deadliest of all the parasitic fungi. They sud- 



FIG 12 SPECIMENS OF DIFFERENT KINDS OF TOADSTOOLS 



The caps of some of these are no bigger than o.ne's little finger nail. This is true of those seen here at the top of the figure, that is 

 the little army of brilliant orange mushrooms there figured. This is Omphalia campanellus, and they grow in patches in deep, 

 shady woods, often covering a square yard of ground. The lower three to the right are fine specimens of the Wood Mush- 

 room (edible) Agarius silvicola. The remaining four may be young "Death Cups." These are much larger than Omphalia. 



