L. amiantha. Plants very small, ochraceous in color, with yellow flesh and white gills adnate and crowded.
L. cepæstipes Sow. Cap thin, broad, sub-membranaceous, broadly umbonate, adorned with mealy evanescent scales, margin irregular; gills white, at length remote. Stem hollow and floccose, narrow at top, ventricose; ring evanescent. Generally found in hothouses. Cap 1 to 3 inches broad. Stem 3 to 6 inches high. Spores white.
L. cristata is a common species found on lawns and in fields where the grass is short. The plants are small, the cap from ½ to 1½ inches in width. Not very fleshy. The cuticle of the cap is at first continuous and smooth but soon breaks into reddish scales. The stem is fistulose, slender and equal; gills free. Odor and taste somewhat strong and unpleasant.
Plate XI½.
Ag. (Lepiota) cepæstipes, variety cretaceus Peck (Lepiota cretacea).
Edible.
This very delicate and beautiful agaric is found on tan and leaves in hothouses.
The specimens here delineated were gathered in one of the hothouses of the Agricultural Department and first described and figured in Food Products, No. 2, of the report of the Division of Microscopy. The plants are a pure white throughout, and both stem and pileus are covered with small chalk-white mealy tufts. Berkeley says, "this species is probably of exotic origin, as it never grows in the open air." It is also met with in the hothouses of Europe. Specimens have been received from contributors who gathered them in greenhouses in different localities. This species should not be confounded with the purplish-brown spored mushroom Agaricus (Psalliota) cretaceus, which has pink gills turning to dark brown and is allied to the common meadow mushroom.