Our Edible Toadstools and Mushrooms and How to Distinguish Them / A Selection of Thirty Native Food Varieties Easily Recognizable by their Marked Individualities, with Simple Rules for the Identification of Poisonous Species

by W. Hamilton Gibson

Agaricus procerus

Pileus: At first egg-shaped, finally expanded like a parasol four to seven inches in diameter, the apex raised in a prominent mound or "umbo." Color pale buff or creamy, occasionally almost pure white, more or less regularly spotted with the brown shaggy patches of the separating epidermis, which remains of the pale brown color on the "umbo." Skin thick and somewhat tough; substance hygrometric, drying and swelling naturally in its haunts.

Gills: Unequal in length; crowded; at first almost white, finally becoming creamy or pale buff.

Stem: Tall, slender, equal, hollow, and fibrous; bulbous at base, but with no sign of a "cup;" separated from the gills above by a distinct space; surface streaked and speckled with brown, encircled by a loose ring.

Spores: White, and, like the whole plant, fragrant aromatic—more so, perhaps, than any other fungus.

Taste: Distinctly sweet and "nutty," slightly pungent when dry.

Habitat: Pastures and fields, occasionally woods.

Season: Summer.

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