In lawns and rich ground.
North Carolina, on earth and wood. Edible, Curtis; Minnesota, rare, Johnson; California, H. and M.; Ohio, Lloyd; Kentucky, Lloyd, Rep. 4; New York, Peck, Rep. 22.
A. subrufes´cens Pk.—sub, under; rufescens, becoming red. Pileus at first deeply hemispherical, becoming convex or broadly expanded, silky fibrillose and minutely or obscurely scaly, whitish, grayish or dull reddish-brown, usually smooth and darker on the disk. Flesh white, unchangeable. Lamellæ at first white or whitish, then pinkish, finally blackish-brown. Stem rather long, often somewhat thickened or bulbous at the base, at first stuffed, then hollow, white; the annulus flocculose or floccose-scaly on the lower surface; mycelium whitish, forming slender branching root-like strings. Spores elliptical, 6–7µ Peck, 48th Rep. N.Y. State Bot.
Indiana, H.I. Miller, 1898; Haddonfield, N.J., McIlvaine.
June 2, 1896, I found several specimens of a fungus new to me, and sent them to Professor Peck for identification. He pronounced it a dwarf form of his species A. subrufescens. The cluster grew on a florist’s compost pile at Haddonfield, N.J. Its flesh has a flavor like that of almonds.
This species is now cultivated and has manifest advantages over the marketed species—it is easier to cultivate, very productive, produces in less time after planting the spawn, is free from attacks of insects, carries better and keeps longer.
Amateurs are likely to succeed in growing it, and to have goodly crops of mushrooms instead of disappointments.
A. placo´myces Pk. Gr—a flat cake. (Plate [XCI], fig. 3, p. 332.) Pileus thin, at first convex, becoming flat with age, whitish, brown in the center and elsewhere adorned with minute brown scales. Lamellæ close, white, then pinkish, finally blackish-brown. Stem smooth, annulate, stuffed or hollow, bulbous, white or whitish, the bulb often stained with yellow. Spores elliptical, 5–6.5µ long.
Cap 2–4 in. broad. Stem 3–5 in. long, ¼ to nearly ½ in. thick.
It grows in the borders of hemlock woods or under hemlock trees from July to September. It has been eaten by Mr. C.L. Shear, who pronounces it very good. I have not found it in sufficient quantity to give it a trial. This mushroom is very closely related to the wood mushroom or silvan mushroom, Agaricus silvaticus, a species which is also recorded as edible, but which is apparently more rare in our state (New York) than even the flat-cap mushroom. This differs from the silvan mushroom in its paler color, in having the cap more minutely, persistently and regularly scaly, and in its being destitute of a prominent center. In the silvan mushroom the scales, when present, are few, and they disappear with age. Peck, 48th Rep. N.Y. State Bot.