4u.

_Tricholoma personatum. Fr._

THE MASKED TRICHOLOMA. EDIBLE.

[Illustration: Figure 61.--Tricholoma personatum. One-third natural
size. Caps usually tinged with lilac or violet. Stems bulbous.]

[Illustration: Figure 62.--Tricholoma personatum. Two-thirds natural
size. The entire plant white.]

Personatum means wearing a mask; so called because of the variety of
colors it undergoes. This is a beautiful mushroom, and is excellently
flavored; it has a wide range and is frequently found, in great
abundance. I have often seen it growing in almost a straight line for
over twenty feet, the caps so thoroughly crowded that they had lost
their form. When young the cap is convex and quite firm, with the margin
minutely downy or adorned with mealy particles, and incurved. In the
mature plant it is softer, broadly convex, or nearly plane, with the
thin margin spreading and more or less turned upward and wavy. When
young it is pale lilac in color, but with advancing age it changes to a
tawny or rusty hue, especially in the center. Sometimes the cap is
white, whitish or gray, or of a pale violaceous color.

The gills are crowded, rounded next to the stem, and nearly free but
approaching close to the stem, more narrow toward the margin, with a
faint tinge of lilac or violet tint when young, but often white.

The stem is short, solid, adorned with very minute fibers, downy or
mealy particles when young and fresh, but becoming smooth with
advancing age. The color of the stem is much like the cap but perhaps a
shade lighter.

The cap is from one to five inches broad, and the stem from one to three
inches high. It grows singly or in groups. It is found in thin woods and
thickets. It delights to grow where an old saw mill has stood.

The finest specimens of this species that I ever saw grew on a pile of
compost of what had been green cobs from the canning factory. They had
lain in the pile for about three years and late in November the compost
was literally covered with this species, many of whose caps exceeded
five inches while the color and figuration of the plants were quite
typical.

In English books this plant is spoken of as Blewits and in France as
Blue-stems, but the stems in this country are inclined to be lilac or
violet, and then only in the younger plants.

The spores are nearly elliptical and dingy white, but in masses on white
paper they have a salmon tint. Its smooth, almost shining, unbroken
epidermis a