4. _A. silvicola_, pileus smooth and shining, stem
elongated and conspicuously swollen at base; often found
in woods.
5. _A. vaporarius_, brown pilose coat which covers the
stem as well as the cap, and leaves streaky fragments on
the stalk as it elongates.
6. He also figures another marked form, with the
cap of a reddish color, completely covered with a
pilose coat; the gills being perfectly white in young
specimens, and the flesh turning bright red when bruised.
Any one of the above, he admits, are as much entitled
to classification as "distinct species" as the Arvensis.
[Sidenote: =The "horse" mushroom=]
The application of the title "horse-mushroom" to this last-mentioned
species was generally supposed to be referable to the same popular
traditions of which we see the analogies in the names horse-weed,
horse-nettle, horse-balm, horseradish among the herbs--the prefix
"horse" referring to the element of coarseness or rank growth. But
in the instance of the mushroom it bears a deeper significance, as
this ample cosmopolitan variety of the Campestris, which follows the
horse all over the world, from stable and through lane to pasture, and
which can only be grown in the manure of this animal, is now generally
believed to be a secondary, exaggerated form consequent upon the
following conditions:
The spores of the Campestris are shed in myriads in the pastures. The
grazing horse no doubt swallows thousands of them, which, upon their
return to the soil under especially favorable conditions for growth,
vegetate into mycelium, and at length fructify in the full-formed
mushroom. The dense white spawn of this species may often be seen
beneath the manure in pastures where no sign of the mushroom itself is
yet apparent.
[Sidenote: =A huge variety=]
During the writing of the present pages I have received from Arizona a
letter accompanied with a sketch of a most astonishing mushroom, which
my correspondent finds plentifully prevalent in his vicinity, growing
in arid sand, even in an exceptionally dry season. He claims that
"it is deliciously edible," and he has partaken of it several times.
His sketch and description call to mind no existing form of mushroom
known to me, though from one peculiarity in particular--namely, its
frequently enormous size, "occasionally ten inches in diameter"--one
would naturally expect to find it at least notorious, if not famous.
It is plainly an Agaric related to the Campestris, and from the fact
of its having "pink gills darker in older specimens" I suspect it to
be simply another local masquerade of this same Campestris, which
suspicion, by the receipt of further data, I hope soon to verify.