THE OYSTER MUSHROOM. I4.T 



room, and usually makes its appearance earlier in the 

 year, at the end of spring, or commencement of 

 summer, although it even extends into August. 



It is only during the past three or four years that 

 another edible fungus has been recognised as grow- 

 ing on elm trees in this country, and yet now it has 

 been seen in half a dozen places remote from each 

 other. This {Agaricus sapidus) is smaller than the 

 foregoing, and the clusters are not so large or dense, 

 seldom more than half a dozen growing together ; 

 the stems are confluent, or grown into each other, so 

 as to form a sort of common branched stem. The 

 caps are orbicular, about two or three inches across, 

 and deeply depressed in the centre ; they do not 

 overlap as in the other species, and hence present a 

 different appearance when growing. In colour it is 

 usually white, but occasionally with tints of brown. 

 The flesh is always white, and sweet to the taste. 

 There is little or no perceptible odour. As an 

 esculent it scarcely differs from the oyster mushroom, 

 or, if anything, it is a little more delicate. There is 

 something very tantalising about this species, in that 

 it will be seen growing high up a standing elm, for it 

 grows mostly on standing timber, on a dead branch, 

 or at the side of a hollow in the trunk, some twenty 

 or thirty feet from the ground. 



We must not omit the genuine elm mushroom, one 

 of our oldest favourites {Agaricus ulmarius), and, if 

 our opinion goes for anything, the best of all this 



