Produced by Peter Vachuska, Stephen H. Sentoff, Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net STUDENT'S HAND-BOOK OF MUSHROOMS OF AMERICA EDIBLE AND POISONOUS. BY THOMAS TAYLOR, M. D. AUTHOR OF FOOD PRODUCTS, ETC. Published in Serial Form--=No. 1=--Price, 50c. per number. WASHINGTON, D. C.: A. R. Taylor, Publisher, 238 Mass. Ave. N.E. 1897. [Illustration: Plate A. HYMENOMYCETES. Agaricus (Psalliota) campester. T. Taylor, del.] PLATE A. In Plate A is presented a sketch of the common field mushroom, Agaricus campester. Fig. 1 represents the mature plant; Fig. 2, a sectional view of the same; Fig. 3, the basidia, club-shaped cells from the summit of which proceed the slender tubes called sterigmata, which support the spores--highly magnified; Fig. 4, the sterigmata; Fig. 5, the mycelium, highly magnified, supporting immature mushrooms; Fig. 6, the spores as shed from an inverted mushroom cap; Fig. 7, spores magnified. [Illustration: Plate B. HYMENOMYCETES. Types of the Six Orders of Hymenomycetes. T. Taylor, del.] PLATE B. In Plate B is represented a leading type of each of the six orders of the family Hymenomycetes: Fig. 1. Cap with radiating gills beneath. Agaricini. Fig. 2. Cap with spines or teeth beneath. Hydnei. Fig. 3. Cap with pores or tubes beneath. Polyporei. Fig. 4. Cap with the under or spore-bearing surface even. Thelephorei. Fig. 5. Whole plant, club-shaped, or bush-like and branched. Clavarei. Fig. 6. Whole plant irregularly expanded, substance gelatinous. Tremellini. Copyright, 1897, by Thomas Taylor, M. D., and A. R. Taylor. INTRODUCTION. In the year 1876, as Microscopist of the Department of Agriculture, I prepared, as a part of the exhibit of my Division at the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia, a large collection of water-color drawings representing leading types of the edible and poisonous mushrooms of the United States, together with representations of about nine hundred species of microscopic fungi detrimental to vegetation. In the preparation of the first collection I had the valuable assistance of Prof. Charles H. Peck, State Botanist of New York, and in the second the hearty co-operation of Rev. M. J. Berkeley and Dr. M. C. Cook, the eminent British mycologists.