AGARICS I I 9 



This species is especially free from the swarrtiing 

 grubs too commonly found in mushrooms. It is high- 

 ly hygrometric, dries naturally even 

 Hygrometric while standing in the pasture, in which 

 properties condition it is decidedly aromatic in 

 fragrance and nutty sweet to the taste, 

 as described. Indeed, it is sometimes called "the 

 nut mushroom." Absorbing moisture from the dews 

 and rains, it again becomes pulpy and enlarged, thus 

 alternating for days between its juicy and dry con- 

 dition, in which latter state it may be gathered and 

 kept for winter use. It is a palatable morsel at all 

 times, but especially in the prime of its first expan- 

 sion, each successive alternation, with its gradual loss 

 of spores, affecting its full flavor. 



THE RUSSULA GROUP 



Among the wild species of mushrooms which the 

 novice might possibly mistake for the common "mush- 

 room " of the markets — ^which is popularly supposed 

 to be the only edible variety, as distinguished from 

 "toadstools" — is the Russula group. They are ex- 

 tremely frequent in our woods from spring to late 

 autumn, and have many features in common. Their 

 caps vary in color from a gray -green, suggesting 

 cheese-mould, to olive-red, scarlet-red. 

 Generic and purplish. The gills are generally 

 characters of the same length, or practically so, 

 occasionally double -branched, begin- 

 ning at the stem and usually extending to the rim of 

 the cap, at which portion they are covered by the 



