L. Morgani is one of the largest, handsomest of the genus. It is very abundant in the western and southwestern states. Mr. H.I. Miller, Terre Haute, Ind., writes August 18, 1898: “I have recently measured several which were more than twelve inches across. At the present time this mushroom is growing in more abundance throughout Indiana than any other. It grows luxuriantly in the pastures, generally in grand fairy rings, five, ten, fifteen feet in diameter. We find it also in the woods. It is beautifully white and majestic, and these rings can be seen in meadows where the grass has been eaten close, for half a mile or more. The gills are white until the cap is almost opened, by which time the green spores begin to cause the gills to change to green. The meat is fine and is usually more free from worms than other mushrooms. Six families, here, have eaten heartily of them. The experience is that one or two members of each family are made sick, though in two families, who have several times eaten them, no one was made sick. I enjoy them immensely, and never feel any the worse for eating them. I doubt if we have a finer-flavored fungus. The meat is simply delicious. One fairy ring yields a bushel.”
Prof. W.S. Carter, University of Texas, Galveston, reported to me (and sent specimens of L. Morganii) the poisoning of three laboring men from eating this fungus. They were seriously sick, but recovered.
The conclusion is inevitable that this green-spored Lepiota contains a poison which violently attacks some persons, yet is harmless upon others.
I have not had opportunity to test it. It should be tested with great caution.
Clypeola´rii. Clypeus, a shield. Ring fixed; stem sheathed, etc.
L. Frie´sii Lasch.—in honor of Fries. Pileus fleshy, soft, lacerated into appressed tomentose scales. Stem hollow, with a webby pith, subbulbous, scaly. Ring superior, pendulous, equal. Gills subremote, linear, crowded, branched. Fries.
Pileus fleshy but rather thin, convex or nearly plane, clothed with a soft, tawny or brownish-tawny down, which breaks up into appressed, often subconfluent scales, the disk rough with small acute, erect scales. Flesh soft, white. Gills narrow, crowded, free, white, some of them forked. Stem equal or slightly tapering upward, subbulbous, hollow, colored like the pileus below the ring, and there clothed with tomentose fibrils which sometimes form floccose or tomentose scales, white and powdered above. Ring well developed, flabby, white above, tawny and floccose-scaly below. Spores 7–8×3–4µ.
Plant 2–5 in. high. Pileus 1–4 in. broad. Stem 2–5 lines thick.
Catskill mountains and East Worcester. July to September.
I have quoted the description of this species as it is found in Epicrisis, because the American plant which I have referred to it does not in all respects agree with this description, but comes so near it that it can scarcely be specifically distinct. In the American plant, so far as I have seen it, erect, acute scales are always present, especially on the disk, and the down of the pileus does not always break up into distinct areas or scales. Neither is the stem usually scaly, but rather clothed with soft tomentose or almost silky fibrils. The gills are crowded and some of them are forked. At the furcations there are slight depressions which interrupt the general level of the edges, and give them the appearance of having been eaten by insects. The plant has a slight odor, especially when cut or bruised. Peck, 35th Rep. N.Y. State Bot.