22 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



other structures, however, peculiar to certain groups. These are 

 a volva, a ring, and a veil. Of the volva, or sheath, characteristic 

 of the poisonous Amanita, a description will be given presently. 

 The common mushroom does not possess it, but does show us a. 

 ring and veil. 



If we look at a young specimen that has not been long above 

 ground and is still in its compact, rounded form, called by mush- 

 room-growers a button, we shall see no gills on the under side of 

 the cap. Indeed, the mushroom may sometimes grow to nearly 

 its full height before they are visible. The reason is easy to see, 

 for stretching unbroken from the edge of the unexpanded pileus 

 to the stem is a delicate membrane called the veil. As the pileiis 

 expands, the veil is torn. Shreds of it, perhaps, cling to the 

 edge of the cap, but most of it remains, encircling the stem and 

 thus forming a ring, — a structure the appearance and size of 

 which vary in the different sorts of mushrooms which possess 

 one. 



In the genus Amanita, for instance, there is a conspicuous 

 veil. Moreover if you will look at the base of the stem, you will 

 see something else — something like a membranous bag or sheath, 

 from which the stem emerges. Now, when a young Amanita 

 pushes up from the ground, this sheath or bag, technically the 

 volva, encloses the entire plant. As the cap and stem press 

 upward, the volva is ruptured at the top. In the mature plant 

 its remnants are to be found at the base of the stem and some- 

 times in scattered scaly fragments on the top of the cap. The 

 volva is not in every case so conspicuous as in the example first 

 shown. In others it is reduced to a ridge running round the 

 swollen base, or even to scales. Since the base of the plant is often 

 below the surface of the ground, and the stem breaks easilj^ care 

 must be used in gathering specimens if the volva is to be secured 

 intact. 



The structures so far spoken of are easily seen, but there is 

 much more to a mushroom than this. 



You have been told that a mushroom is simply a contrivance 

 for bearing spores. It is thus comparable to the fruit of a flow- 

 ering plant, which develops and contains the seeds. "Where, 

 then, you will ask, is the vegetative part of the plant, the part 

 that absorbs the nourishment and does all the preparatory work of 

 which the sfrowth of the mushroom itself is the result ? In other 



