Common Edible Mushrooms

COMMON EDIBLE MUSHROOMS
large plant, with caps from 3 to 6 inches wide and stems from 1/2
to i inch in diameter and from 4 to 6 inches long. The upper surface
of the cap is grayish brown in the center, paler toward the margin,
and delicately streaked with dark radial fibers. The gills are quite
white, rather far apart, and from 3/4 to i inch wide; in young
specimens they are attached to the stem but may break away from
it as the cap expands. It grows on rotten wood, the interior of old
hollow stumps being a favorite habitat, and comes up singly or in
groups of two or three.
Edible: COLLYBIA RADICATA (Rooted Coiiybia)
This rooting Coiiybia (Figure 19), though never present in
large numbers, can almost always be found in wooded areas from
spring until fall. The cap is from 2 to 4 inches wide, dark tan all
over or dark in the center and paler toward the margin, with dark
radial fibers running out from the center to the margin, as in the
preceding species. In moist weather the tops of fresh specimens are
covered with a thick layer of an almost mucilaginous substance,
but this dries up when the humidity is low. The gills are white,
somewhat farther apart than they are in most gilled fungi, and
attached to the stem.
The slender stem may be only 1/3 inch in diameter and 6 inches
or more in length. Surprisingly enough the stem does not end at
or just beneath the surface of the ground, as in most other mushrooms,
but continues as a tapering black root for 6 or 8 inches,
straight down. This root is the most reliable character by 'which
the species can be recognized, but care must be used to avoid
breaking the stem at the ground level, thus missing the subterranean
part.
Eminently edible: COLLYBIA VELUTIPES (Velvetstemmed
Coiiybia)
The accuracy of the species name, velutipes, meaning velvet
stem, proves that scientists are not always occupied with making
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