_Agaricus arvensis_
[Sidenote: =Description of Arvensis=]
This other and larger variety, so readily confounded with the
Campestris, demands further and more detailed description. It may
frequently be found growing in company with the former, and so closely
do the two kinds merge in specimens of equal size that it is often a
puzzle to separate the species. Indeed, as already mentioned by some
mycologists, the larger form is considered merely as a variety of the
Campestris. The accompanying plate (5) may well serve as a portrait
of this species also. It frequents the same localities as the former,
and is occasionally seen crowded in clusters of crescent shape, or in
scattered rings, while its size is generally conspicuous, the solid
cream-colored or white cap often expanding to the diameter of seven
inches. Its substance discolors to yellowish brown on being bruised.
The stem is less solid than in Campestris, often with a pithlike or
even hollow heart. The gills are of unequal length, as in the former
species, though of much the same tints of pink and brown and black,
though more dingy in the lighter shades. The veil is often more
conspicuous, and occasionally appears to be double, the outer or lower
more or less ragged or split into a fringe at the edge. The species can
hardly be mistaken for any poisonous variety, and, once recognized,
its generous size, frequent profusion, and savory qualities make it a
tempting quest to the epicure, being considered by many as superior in
flavor to its rival, the smaller Campestris.
[Sidenote: =In matters of taste=]
But this question of gastronomic prestige will perhaps never be finally
settled. _De gustibus non est disputandum._ Species considered here by
many as the _ne plus ultra_ of delicacies, like the Campestris, are
discriminated against in other countries, and in Rome, it is said,
are even thrown into the Tiber by inspectors and guardians of the
public health who find it exposed for sale in the markets. There are
those connoisseurs in delicate feasting who consider no other species
comparable to this. These fastidious gourmands are in turn viewed with
pitying consideration by other superior epicurean feeders with finer
sensuous discrimination, who know perfectly well that our woods afford
a number of common species which easily consign the Campestris to the
fourth or fifth choice as a competitor at the feast.
The arts of the chef have been exhausted in the savory preparation of
this, the most famous of the mushrooms. A few of his ingenious methods
are given in a later chapter. Meanwhile most of us will be perfectly
contented with our simple "mushrooms on toast."
While the Campestris is generally considered as "the" mushroom, there
is another species which almost equally shares the honors in popular
favor.
I have alluded to the habit of the horse-mushroom as "growing in
crescents or rings." This singular tendency is, however, much more
fully exemplified in another fungus, which has thus won the popular
patronymic of the "Fairy-ring" Champignon, and which is considered on
page 101.