EE PORT OF THE STATE BOTANIST 



235 



It is well to mulch the surface with some coarse material like 

 leaves, straw or hay, to keep the soil moist. If the planting 

 is done in spring and the season is favorable a crop of mushrooms 

 should appear in autumn. 



Almost every cook claims to know how to prepare this mush- 

 room for the table, and recipes for cooking it will be found in 

 cook books. No extended directions therefore are necessary 

 here. One of the simplest methods and one which is applicable 

 to all tender species is to fry gently in butter, seasoning accord- 

 ing to taste. They may be stewed in milk or cream, broiled on 

 a gridiron or in a steak broiler, or baked in an oven. To some 

 they are very acceptable when eaten raw. Doctor Cooke says 

 that when abroad on a day's excursion, one or two of these raw 

 specimens are an excellent substitute for sandwiches, as they sat- 

 isfy hunger, are nutritive and digestible, and very pleasant and 

 grateful to the palate. 



Agaricus Rodmani Peck. 

 Rodman's Mushroom. 



Plate 9. Figs. 1 to 6. 



Pileus rather thick, firm, glabrous, white or whitish, dingy- 

 yellow or reddish-yellow in the center, flesh white, unchangeable ; 

 lamellae crowded, narrow, at first whitish, then pink, finally 

 blackish- brown ; stem short, solid, whitish ; spores broadly ellip- 

 tical, .0u02 to .00025 inch long. 



Rodman's mushroom may easily be mistaken for the common 

 mushroom to which it is closely related. It has been separated 

 from it because of its comparatively thicker firmer flesh, its more 

 narrow gills, which are almost white when very young, and its 

 peculiar collar. This seems to be double, and in the mature 

 plant the two parts separate in such a way as to leave a deep 

 groove or channel between them. In very short-stemmed speci- 

 mens the collar is situated so near the base of the stem that it 

 appears much like the remains of the volva or wrapper in some 

 species of Amanita. The spores are a little shorter and broader 

 in proportion to their length than those of the Common mush- 

 room, so that at first sight they seem to be nearly globose. 



The cap is two to four inches broad, the stem one to two 

 inches long and one-half an inch or less in thickness. 



