282 EDIBLE MUSHROOMS 



the writer, and which he has found most effective 

 for their preservation. 



Take a piece of smooth white writing-paper and 

 coat its surface evenly with a thin solution of gum- 

 arabic, dextrine, or other mucilage, and 

 Making allow it to dry. Pin this, gummed side 



and fixing -^ 111 



spore-prints uppermost, to a board or table, prefer- 

 ably over a soft cloth, so that it will lie 

 perfectly flat. To insure a good print the mushroom 

 specimen should be fresh and firm, and the gills or 

 spore-surface free from breaks or bruises. Cut the 

 stem off about level with the gills, lay the mushroom, 

 spore - surf ace downward, upon the paper, and cover 

 with a tumbler, finger-bowl, or other vessel with a 

 smooth, even rim, to absolutely exclude the slightest 

 ingress of air. After a few hours, perhaps even 

 less, the spores will be seen through the glass on 

 the paper at the extreme edge of the mushroom, their 

 depth of color indicating the density of the deposit. 

 If we now gently lift the glass, and with the utmost 

 care remove the fungus, perhaps by the aid of pins 

 previously inserted, in a perfectly vertical direction, 

 without the slightest side motion, the spore -print in 

 all its beauty is revealed — perhaps a rich brown cir- 

 cular patch with exquisite radiating 

 Various colors white lines, marking the direction and 

 of spores edges of the gills, if an Agaric; perhaps 

 a delicate pink, more or less clouded 

 disk, here and there distinctly and finely honey-comb- 

 ed with white lines, indicating that our specimen is 

 one of the polypores, as a Boletus. Other prints will 

 yield rich golden disks, and there will be prints of 



