REPORT OF THE STATE BOTANIST 
81 
In many places the smooth mushroom, Lepiota naucinoides, has 
been quite as plentiful as the common mushroom. In some respects 
this is superior to the common mushroom. It is less liable to the 
attack of insects, it will keep longer in good condition and it presents 
a more attractive appearance when cooked, as its gills do not turn 
black with age or under the influence of heat. Its flavor is thought 
by some to be inferior to that of the common mushroom, but others 
affirm that even in this respect it is more delicate and desirable. It 
has a wider range of habitat, growing in lawns, pastures, grassy 
places by roadsides, in the plowed land of potato and corn fields and 
even in thin woods. From its clean white color, the people of some 
localities have given it the local name of “ white mushroom.” It has 
sometimes been mistaken for the chalky mushroom, Agaricus cre- 
taceus. But if we may trust the writings of the best European authors 
in this matter, the chalky mushroom has brown spores, but the 
smooth mushroom has white spores, although agreeing closely with 
the chalky mushroom in many of its characters. This fungus was so 
abundant about Albany that one lover of mushrooms brought in 
about a peck of them one day, and affirmed that where he picked 
them he could easily have filled a barrel with those left behind. I 
have recently received more letters of inquiry concerning the name, 
character and edibility of this mushroom than of any other. Its neat 
appearance and great abundance have attracted attention and sug¬ 
gested the possibility of its edibility and awakened in its observers a 
desire for information concerning it. It therefore seems proper to 
attribute some of the present interest in the subject of mushrooms to 
the abundant crop of certain species that the favorable conditions of 
the season have produced. 
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