MUSHROOMS 



273 



istenee, like an insect undergoing metamorphosis, so that 

 it is often impossible to tell whether a given specimen 

 belongs to a distinct group or is merely a form of the same 

 species at a different stage of its existence. 



Our knowledge of them being so imperfect, their classi- 

 fication is in great confusion, and any grouping of them 

 must be considered as in a great measure provisional only. 



PRACTICAL QUESTIONS 



1. Why ought preserved fruits and vegetables to be scalding hot 

 when put into the can? (385.) 



2. Why is it necessary to exclude the air from them? (385.) 



3. Why does using boiled water for drinking render a person less 

 liable to disease? (142, 385.) 



MUSHROOMS • 



Material. — Any kind of gilled mushroom in different stages of 

 development, with a portion of the substratum on which it grows, con- 

 taining some of the so-called spawn. In city schools the common mush- 

 room sold in the markets (^Agariais canipestris) can usually be obtained 

 without difficulty. It would be advisable to buy some of the spawn and 

 raise a crop in the schoolroom, as then all parts of the plant would be 

 on hand for examination. Full directions for 

 cultivating this fungus are given in Bulletin 

 53 of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. 

 From six to twelve hours before the lesson 

 is to begin, cut the stem from the cap of a 

 mature specimen close up to the gills, lay 

 the gills downward on a piece of clean paper, 

 cover them with a bowl or pan to keep the 

 spores from being blown about by the wind 

 and leave them until a print (Fig. 532) has 

 been formed. 



387. Examination of a Typical 

 Specimen. — The most highly spe- 

 cialized of the fungi, and the easiest 

 to observe on account of their size 

 and abundance, are the mushrooms 

 that are such familiar objects after 

 every summer shower. The gilled 

 kind — those with the rayed laminae 



524. — Deadly agaric (^Ama- 

 nita phallQides) , showing the 

 broad pendent annulus, a, 

 formed by the ruptured veil, 

 the cup at the base, c, and 

 floccose patches on the pileus, 

 left by the breaking up of the 

 volva. 



ANDREWS'S BOT. — l8 



