VII. THE COMMON MUSHROOM—ITS RELATIVES. 
ANALYTICAL TABLE OF AGARICUS. 
Plants growing in pastures or open places, 
Plants growing in woods and groves or their borders, 
1. Stem stuffed or solid, 
1. Stem hollow, 
. Gills at first pinkish, about as wide as the thickness 
of the cap, A. campester. 
. Gills at first whitish, narrower than the thickness of 
the cap, A. rodmani. 
3. The collar radiately tomentose on the lower sur- 
face, A. arvensis. 
3. The collar evenly flocculose on the lower sur- 
face, A. subrufescens. 
. The flesh quickly changing to dull red where cut or 
broken, A. hemorrhoidarius. 
. The flesh not changing to red where cut or broken, 5. 
5. Cap white, silky or smooth, A. stlvicola. 
5. Cap brownish, or if white not smooth, 6. 
. Cap with numerous minute persistent brown scales, 
A. placomyces. 
. Cap merely fibrillose, or with few evanescent scales, 
A. silvaticus. 
The Common mushroom, sometimes called the Edible mush- 
room, as if it were the only edible species, is perhaps more gen- 
erally and better known than 
any other. It is the one com- 
monly cultivated and most 
often seen on the tables of the 
See 
fj 
1 
ZZ) |S 
Ee 
i 
i 
_ 
f 
Common Mushroom, Agaricus campester. 
wealthy and of public houses. 
It is so eagerly sought in some 
of our cities that it is difficult 
to find wild specimens in the 
vicinity of these towns. They 
are gathered almost as soon as 
they appear. 
In very young plants the 
cap is somewhat globular or 
hemispherical, and the gills are 
concealed by the membrane or 
26 
