Plate IX.
Agaricus (Hypholoma) incertus Peck. (Hypholoma incertum.)
Edible.
Cap fleshy but fragile, smooth and hygrophanous, moist; at first convex, then expanding; color creamy white. Gills adnate, narrow, crowded, whitish in young specimens, turning to a pinkish dun color, later to a rosy cinnamon, sometimes showing when mature a slightly purplish tint. Stem smooth, slender, long and hollow, with slight striations near the apex, white. Specimens occur in which the stem is obscurely annulate arising from the attachment to it of fragments of the veil, but usually it is ringless.
The typical species of Hypholoma have the fleshy part of the cap confluent with the stem, but in H. incertum the stem is not confluent and is easily separated from the cap as in the Lepiotas. This mushroom was first recorded by Peck in his early reports as the variety "incertus" of the species Agaricus (Hypholoma) Candollianus, but has since been recorded by Saccardo as a distinct species, Hypholoma incertum.
Two species of Hypholoma have the same habit and sufficiently resemble incertum to be taken for it, if not carefully examined as to points of difference. These are H. Candollianum, named in honor of A. De Candolle, and H. appendiculatum. In the first named of these two species the cap is whitish, the gills at first violet in color, changing to dark cinnamon brown. In H. appendiculatum the pileus is rugose when dry, and sprinkled with atoms. It is darker in color than that of H. incertum; Cooke says tawny or pale ochre; Massee says bay, then tawny. The gills are sub-adnate, in color resembling those of H. incertum; stem slender, smooth, and white.
From the foregoing it will be seen that H. incertum agrees more nearly with H. Candollianum in the color of the cap, but more nearly with H. appendiculatum in the color of the gills. Saccardo recognizes the three as "distinct species of the genus Hypholoma." As all are edible, the slight differences observed are interesting chiefly to the mycologist. The mycophagist will find them equally valuable from a gastronomic point of view. In taste they resemble the common mushroom. They are more fragile, however, and require less cooking than the cultivated mushroom. Broiled on toast or cooked for ten minutes in a chafing dish, they make a very acceptable addition to the lunch menu.
The specimens figured in [Plate IX] were selected from a crop of thirty or more growing in the author's garden, in very rich soil at the base of a plum-tree stump. For several seasons past small crops have been gathered from the same spot, as well as around the base of a flourishing peach tree. Quantities of all three species have been gathered in the short grass of the Capitol grounds for a number of seasons, and in the various parks of the District of Columbia. Specimens have been received from western New York and Massachusetts. Those growing upon soil very heavily fertilized are apt to be somewhat stouter and shorter stemmed than those coming up through the short grass in the parks.