Figure 257.—Agaricus placomyces. Two-thirds natural size.
Placomyces means a flat mushroom. This is one of our prettiest plants.
The pileus is broadly ovate, rather thin, at first convex, but when it is fully expanded it is quite flat, whitish, brown in the center, as will be seen in Figure 256, but it is covered with a persistent brown scale.
The gills are white at first, then pink, turning blackish brown, quite crowded.
The stem is rather long, and slender, cylindrical stuffed, somewhat bulbous at the base, commonly whitish but at times bears yellow stains toward the base, tapering toward the cap. The veil is quite interesting. It is broad and double, loosely joined together by threads, the lower or outer veil breaking first into regular radiating portions. The spores are elliptical, 5–6.5µ long. The caps are two to four inches broad and the stem is three to five inches long.
They are found in lawns or in thin woods. They are much more abundant in hemlock woods though they are frequently found in mixed woods in which there are hemlock trees. The behavior of the veil is very similar to A. arvensis and A. silvicola and indeed this plant seems to be very closely related to these species. It is found from July to September.
Agaricus cretaceus. Fr.
The Chalk Agaric. Edible.
Cretaceus, relating to chalk.