1 84 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



slightly tapering upward, sometimes bulbous, hollow, fibrillose, slightly 

 squamulose toward the base, white, becoming darker with age ; spores 

 brown, elliptic, .00025-.0003 of an inch long, .00016-.0002 broad. 



The bleeding mushroom is easily recognized, when fresh, by the red 

 color assumed by wounds of the flesh either of the cap or stem. This 

 character is also found in the seashore mushroom, A. maritimus, a 

 species that has a solid stem and has not yet been found growing far 

 from the sea. The cap is generally some shade of brown, but some- 

 times when young it is white. It is adorned with darker fibrils or scales, 

 though these sometimes become obscure or disappear with age. When 

 young it is hemispheric or very convex, but it soon becomes broadly 

 convex or nearly flat, with the center either slightly depressed or some- 

 what prominent. The flesh is generally whitish or grayish white when 

 first exposed to the air. It assumes the red color rather slowly and altera 

 time loses it again. 



The gills are pink or rarely whitish when young but become brown or 

 blackish brown with age. The stem is long or short, cylindric or taper- 

 ing upward, sometimes slightly thickened or bulbous at the base, some- 

 times not. It is hollow, but the cavity small, at first fibrillose and more 

 or less adorned with floccose scales toward the base, but these generally 

 disappear with age, and the primary white color of the stem is apt to 

 become darker with age. The collar is membranaceous and at first con- 

 ceals the gills. It is persistent, silky and white or whitish, sometimes 

 tinged with brown. 



The cap is 2-4 inches broad ; the stem 2-4 inches long, 3-5 lines 

 thick. It grows in woods or bushy places and seems to prefer damp 

 soil rich in vegetable mold. It may be found from August to October. 

 It sometimes grows in clusters. It gives to milk in which it is stewed a 

 brownish color. Its flavor is similar to that of the common mushroom. 

 A variety in which the stem is commonly shorter and the pileus of a 

 darker smoky brown color is sometimes abundant in low damp ground 

 on Long Island. It may be called variety f u m o s u s . 



Agaricus diminutivus Pk. 



DIMINUTIVE MUSHROOM 



PLATE 74, FIG. 1-8 



Pileus thin, fragile, convex, becoming plane or centrally depressed, 

 whitish or pinkish brown, adorned with small appressed, silky, brownish 

 scales, brownish or reddish brown in the center ; lamellae thin, close, 



