Murrill: Illustrations of Fungi 
165 
is disorganized by heat. This species is therefore harmless when 
cooked, but is coarse and poorly flavored. If eaten, it must be 
carefully distinguished from poisonous species that are acrid in the 
fresh state. 
Lepiota naucina (Fries) Quel. 
Smooth Lepiota 
Plate 133. X 1 
Pileus thick, globose to convex, 5-8 cm. broad ; surface dry, usu- 
ally white and smooth, at times slightly yellowish or granular on 
the disk ; context firm, fleshy, white, mild ; lamellae free, white, 
dull-pinkish with age; spores usually white in mass, rarely tinged 
with pink ; stipe white, smooth, enlarged below, bearing a white 
annulus above, 6-10 cm. long, 8-16 mm. thick. 
This excellent and widely distributed temperate species occurs 
in the autumn in lawns and pastures where the common mushroom 
grows and is often picked and thrown away because the lamellae 
are white. There is no harm in using it for food if the collector 
and those who may imitate him distinguish it carefully from the 
white variety of V enenarius phalloides, which is so common in this 
region and has been the cause of most of the deaths among mush- 
room eaters in the vicinity of New York City. It must be remem- 
bered that this deadly species is picked by some persons for the 
common mushroom, in spite of its white lamellae and bulbous 
stipe. How much more easily might Lepiota naucina, which has 
both characters, be confused with it! The deadly Amanita plial- 
loides may be distinguished from Lepiotq naucina by the “ death- 
cup ” at the base of the stipe, by the longer and usually more bul- 
bous stipe, and by the gills remaining white instead of becoming 
slightly dull-pinkish with age. 
Agaricus campester hortensis Cooke 
Garden Mushroom 
Plate 134. X Vi 
This variety of the common mushroom has been found in great 
abundance in an old pile of cow manure east of Bronx Park, partly 
shaded by weeds. It differs from the form usually found in pas- 
tures which was described and figured in Mycologia for March, 
1909, chiefly in its slightly larger size, darker color, and more con- 
