tie] ON COLLECTING AND PREPARING FLESHY FUNGI 175 
Fietp nores.— Field notes are of great importance; they 
should always be made for each species which one does not 
already know well, and also for any collection which impresses 
one, although in a vague way, perhaps, as strange or unusual. 
Such notes afford in many cases decisive characters in the deter- 
mination of the species. Some characters are so evanescent 
that they cannot be made out after the plants have been kept a 
few hours; if there is to be any doubt about any such character, 
that doubt can usually be settled by five minutes search for a 
good plant much more satisfactorily and more easily than by 
perhaps hours of hard work in the consideration of technical 
descriptions, 
In general, notes treat of viscidity, hygrophaneity, and field- 
iyness of the pileus; of the colors of the lamellae, if they differ 
os in young and mature plants; of the presence of milk 
saa color and taste; of noteworthy characters of the stem, as 
"scidity, the presence of a cortina and its color in young plants, 
ie an fvanescent ring or volva; and of the special habitat 
.. growing on wood, under pines, in swamps, open pas- 
ters cae These notes are quickly made, as _ positive charac- 
. € only ones usually stated, although in some cases 
‘Pecific statement of the absence of distinctive characters is 
a. The field notes should be placed at once in the 
ae ee sa plants to which they refer. 
a possible Sasi PREPARATORY TO IDENTIFICATION.— As soon 
Work of dete “ reaching home or the place where the further 
ges of fun pemination and drying is to be done, ae pack- 
aaa be removed from the collecting basket 
May stand clog i other covered baskets so that the packages 
y bestin ely together on the bottom of the basket but not 
Yes mein oa on the other. In this distribution, the ee 
“Oprinus Sin, the most putrescent fungi, such as species ) 
loma, e yrella, Panaeolus, Boletus, Flammula, Tricho- 
Ystophorus, and Amanita, may with advantage be 
3Cf. U, 
ind ae 
Pp, Sta, Ba *twood: Suggestions to collectors of fleshy fungi. Alabama Agr. 
letin 80:271. 1897, 
