TOADSTOOL OR* MUSHROOM. 



THALLOPHYTES; FUNGI; BASIDIOMYCETES. 



PRELIMINARY. 



IN making this study almost any common species of 

 the group will serve as a type. The outline is prepared 

 with especial reference to the ordinary species of the 

 genera Agaricus and Coprinus. The plants may be 

 found readily in rich earth in warm, wet weather, or 

 immediately following a warm rain. Those forms 

 which grow from the ground rather than those upon 

 trees, stumps, etc., will usually answer best for laboratory 

 work, though representatives from different substrata 

 should be examined. All stages, from those just emerg- 

 ing from the ground to those quite old, should be obtained 

 for laboratory study; also some of the material on which 

 the plants are growing. 



LABORATORY WORK. 

 GROSS STRUCTURE. 



Examine a fully formed "toadstool"; also one in which the 

 top is not yet easily distinguished from the stalk, and observe: 



1. The stalk or stipe. 



2. The expanded top, the pileus, on the under side of which 

 are: 



59 



