

THE MASKED TRICHOLOMA. 



{Tricholoma personatum.) 



The ancient Greeks and Romans con- 

 sidered mushrooms an excellent and de- 

 licious article of food, and devoted much 

 time in seeking for the best season and 

 the best localities for gathering the vari- 

 ous kinds. They knew that some were 

 poisonous and that others were edible 

 and were cautioned by their students of 

 nature against the indiscriminate collect- 

 ing of fungi for food. Pliny says: 

 "Among those vegetable productions 

 which are eaten with risk, I shall, with 

 good reason, include mushrooms ; a very 

 dainty food, it is true, but deservedly held 

 in disesteem since the notorious crime 

 committed by Agrippina, who, through 

 their agency, poisoned her husband, the 

 Emperor Claudius." In another place he 

 says : "In general, these plants are of a 

 pernicious nature, and the use of them 

 should be altogether rejected; for if by 

 chance they should happen to grow near 

 a hob-nail, a piece of rusty iron, or a bit 

 of rotten cloth, they will immediately im- 

 bibe all these foreign emanations and 

 flavours, and transform them into 

 poison." In the days of Pliny it was be- 

 lieved that mushrooms would imbibe the 

 venom of serpents, and he cautions all to 

 be on their guard during the season at 

 which the serpents have not as yet re- 

 tired to their holes for the winter. 



The Tricholoma of our illustration is 

 one of the well known edible mushrooms. 

 Many authors of writings on the food 

 mushrooms speak highly of its esculent 



qualities. Its taste is pleasant and its 

 flavor may be likened to that of veal. 

 The Masked Tricholoma is generally 

 found in rather open woods or on open 

 grassy places in the woods. It is a fall 

 species seldom appearing before the first 

 of September and it is then common, in 

 favorable places, until the time of heavy 

 frosts. 



In England the Maskel Tricholoma is 

 often called Blewits, and Dr. Peck tells 

 us that it is called Blue Stem in France, 

 although in our own country the plant 

 has a more violet or lilac than a blue 

 color. Its solid stem is short and stout 

 and not infrequently bulbous at the base. 

 In color the stem is whitish, tinged with 

 lilac or violet, and when young there are 

 fibrils on its surface which quite dis- 

 appear as the mushroom grows older. 

 It is the fibrils that gave this plant its 

 generic name, Tricholoma, a word de- 

 rived from the Greek and meaning a 

 fringe of hair. Usually the Masked Tri- 

 choloma is solitary in its growth, but it 

 is also found in groups or even in clus- 

 ters of several individuals. When young 

 the cap is convex and quite firm, but as 

 it grows older it becomes flat and flabbv, 

 and the margins may become wavy. The 

 margin of the caps of miniature plants 

 is incurved and not infrequently covered 

 with whitish particles or with a fine 

 bloom. The cap varies in color but is 

 generally some shade of tan gradually 

 changing into a pale lilac near the edge. 

 Elizabeth Willis Woodwojrth. 



191 



