YELLOWISH.)

Genus _Marasmius_ Fries.--Tough dry shrivelling fungi--not putrescent,
reviving when moistened; veil none. Stem cartilaginous or horny. Gills
tough, rather distant, edge acute and entire. M. C. Cooke.

A characteristic of the species of this genus is their tendency to
wither with drought and revive with moisture. This biological
characteristic is of great importance in determining the true Marasmii.
The plants are usually small and of little substance.

Cooke divides the Marasmii into three tribes, and these again into
several subdivisions. In the division Scortei of this genus are classed
three species which are described in the works of most of the
Continental writers; the Marasmius oreades, which has recognized value
as an esculent, Marasmius urens and Marasmius peronatus, which have the
reputation of being acrid and unwholesome.

[Illustration: Plate III.
MARASMIUS OREADES FR. (EDIBLE)
The Fairy Ring Mushroom.
Report of Microscopist, U. S. Department of Agriculture 1893
L. K. after Gillet.
AVIL. CO. LITH. PHILA.]

PLATE III.

=Marasmius oreades= Fries. "_Fairy Ring Mushroom_."

EDIBLE.

Cap fleshy, convex at first, then nearly plane, pale yellowish red, or
tawny red when young, fading to yellow or buff as the plant matures,
slightly umbonate, flesh white; gills broad, wide apart, rounded or
deeply notched at the inner extremity, slightly attached to or at length
free from the stem, unequal in length, whitish or creamy yellow in
color; stem slender, solid and tough, whitish, generally one to two
inches in length and one-fourth of an inch in thickness, showing a
whitish down, easily removed, not strigose or villose, as in the
Marasmius urens. Spores white.

This species is usually found in open grassy places, sometimes in rings,
or in parts of rings, often in clusters, and writers generally agree as
to its agreeable taste and odor. When properly cooked its toughness
disappears.

Prof. Peck describes two mushrooms which are somewhat similar in
appearance to the "_Fairy Ring_," and which might be taken for it by
careless observers, viz., the Naucoria semi-orbicularis, sometimes
growing in company with it, and the _Collybia dryophila_, a wood variety
which is sometimes found in open places.

The first of these may be distinguished from the _oreades_, by the rusty
brown color of the gills, its smooth stem and rusty colored spores. In
the second th