REPORT OF THE STATE BOTANIST 



2S9 



The stem is variable in length. It is often curved or slightly 

 crooked, and sometimes tapers downward. It is smooth and 

 solid, and by some it is considered as good as the cap for food. 



Cap one to three inches broad, stem one to two inches long 

 one-fourth to one-half an inch thick. 



It grows in woods and open places. It is a common species, and 

 may be found from June to September. A favorite habitat is in 

 the deep shade of hemlock or spruce trees, but it also grows freely 

 in thin woods of deciduous trees in wet, showery weather. 1; 

 commonly grows in groups but sometimes in curved lines, as if 

 trying to form a "fairy-ring." The European plant is said to 

 exhale an odor like that of ripe apricots, but I have not been 

 able to detect any decided odor in the American plant. The taste 

 of the raw plant is often a little pungent or acrid. 



The Chantarelle has long been celebrated for its edible quali- 

 ties. Fries says that it is justly enumerated among the most 

 sapid fungi; Badharrl, that no fungus is more popular; Cooke, 

 that it is alike esteemed in France, Germany, Austria and Italy, 

 where it is eaten regularly and exposed in the markets for sale ; 

 Gillet, that it is an excellent plant whether used as food or as a 

 condiment ; Stevenson, that it is edible and delicious. Accord- 

 ing to Berkeley, it is occasionally served up at public dinners at 

 the principal hotels in London on state occasions, when every 

 effort is made to secure the rarest and most costly dainties. 

 Miss Banning affirms that she has eaten it both raw and cooked 

 and that by a confirmed fungus eater it would be pronounced 

 most charming. My own trials of it would lead me to place it 

 among the best and most important of our wild mushrooms. 



The Orange chantarelle or False chantarelle, Cantharellus 

 aurantiacus, is the only species liable to be mistaken for the 

 edible chantarelle. It may at once be recognized by the orange 

 color of its gills, which are also thinner and more close and are 

 regularly and repeatedly forked. The color of its cap is a paler 

 aid more dingy yellow, varied with smoky-brown tints. 



Marasmius Fr. 

 The genus Marasmius differs from all the preceding genera by 

 the tough texture of the small thin plants that compose it. The 

 plant quickly withers or shrivels in dry weather and revives 

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