ish spots or scales, but this is not a constant feature. It is either 
hellow or stuffed with a webby pith. Its collar is thick and firm, 
and soon becomes loose and movable on the stem. The stem is 
5 to 10 inches long and only 4 an inch, or even less, in thickness. 
The cap is commonly 3 to 6 inches broad. The plants usually 
grow singly, but sometimes clusters of several are found. 
The Parasol mushroom has been highly commended, and be- 
longs among mushrooms of the first-class, both in size and qual- 
ity. “One of the most delicate species, although the flesh is 
slightly tough;” “almost the greatest, if not the greatest favorite 
with the fungus-eaters;” “very delicate, of easy digestion and in 
great demand” are some of the recorded utterances in its favor. 
Unfortunately it is not very abundant. 
There is no poisonous species with which it can be confused by 
any intelligent observer. 
There is a rare form in which the umbo and spots are much 
plainer than usual, and the whole plant, except these, is white. 
In some places a mushroom occurs which closely resembles the 
Parasol mushroom, but it has no umbo and the cap has a more 
shaggy appearance. This is probably the American form of the 
Ragged mushroom, Lepiota rhacodes, a European species which 
is also classed as edible, and which some recent authors regard as 
a mere variety of the Parasol mushroom. 
The smooth lepiota, Lepiota naucinoides, is about as large as 
the common mushroom, generally very regular in shape and of a 
clear white color, but sometimes there is a yellowish or even a 
smoky or brownish tint on the disk of the cap. The cap is usu- 
ally so smooth and even that the plant is appropriately called 
the Smooth mushroom. Occasionally a slight mealiness or gran- 
ular roughness develops in the centre of the cap, and still more 
rarely the epidermis cracks in such a manner as to give the ap- 
pearance of thick imbricating scales. The gills are white until 
old age or dryness causes them to assume a smoky brownish hue, 
with a slight pinkish tint added. In this condition the plant is 
likely to be mistaken for the Chalky mushroom, Agaricus cre- 
taceus, but if the color of the spores is noticed, there need be no 
such mistake, for they are white in the Smooth mushroom, brown 
in the Chalky mushroom. But both species are edible, so that 
such a mistake would not be serious in a physical point of view. 
The stem is white, and generally it gradually becomes thicker 
toward the base so that it may be said to have a bulbous base 
gradually tapering into the stem above. It is hollow, but the 
cavity often contains a delicate webby or cottony pith. The col- 
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