96 



EDIBLE MUSHROOMS 



ployed to root them out are said to have been so 

 overcome by the odor as to be compelled to desist. 

 Other features of this fungus are noted in Plate 7. 

 The cap varies in size in different individuals, but is 

 occasionally very large — five inches or more in diam- 

 eter, the average expanse, perhaps, being about three 

 inches. The cap is smooth, thick, and fleshy, sug- 

 gesting soft kid leather, at first rounded convex, ulti- 

 mately expanding quite 

 horizontally, and is com- 

 monly fissured here and 

 there with irregular cracks, 

 both in its expanse and 

 at its edges. Its color is 

 white, or yellowish white. 

 In surface appearance Dr. 

 Berkeley compared it to a 

 " cracknel biscuit." The 

 gills are yellowish white, 

 very moist and densely 

 crowded, and of various lengths, as indicated in my 

 sectional drawing on the plate, and are, moreover, 

 annexed to the solid stout stem by a toothed border, 

 also shown herewith. 



Prhe season of this mushroom extends into June, 

 and in its favorite haunt it may occasionally be gath- 

 ered by the bushel^ Opinions are at 

 Epicurean variance as to the comparative esculent 

 opinions qualities of this species. Certainly deli- 

 cacy cannot be claimed for it ; but 

 those epicures who desire the characteristic fungus 

 flavor at its maximum will find it in the Gambosus. 



TOOTHED GILLS 



