, and the plants
are usually large, and caespitose. The Lepiotas are recognized by the
soft, thready character of the fleshy portion of the cap, and the
fringed scales formed by the breaking of the cuticle. The ease with
which the ringed stem is removed from its socket in the cap is another
characteristic which distinguishes the plants from those of other
genera.

The Amanitas are distinguished by the volva, which sheathes the somewhat
bulbous stem at its base and the ring and veil which in the young plant
are very distinct features, the whole plant in embryo being enveloped in
the volva.

The Amanita group, besides containing some very good edible species, is
also credited with containing the most dangerous species of all the
mushroom family, and some which are undoubtedly fatal in their
effects.[A]

[A] A more detailed description of this group will appear in No. 5 of
this series.

The Nyctali are minute mushrooms parasitic on other mushrooms.

In Omphalia, the plants are quite small, with membranaceous caps, gills
truly decurrent, and cartilaginous stems.

The Myceneae are generally very small, slender, and fragile, usually
caespitose, with bell-shaped caps, sinuate gills, not decurrent, and
cartilaginous stems. In some species the plants exude a milky juice.

In the genera Panus, Lentinus, Lenzites, Schizophyllum, Xerotus, and
Trogia, the plants are leathery or coriaceous, dry and tough, and though
none are recorded as poisonous, they are too tough to be edible.

The mushrooms having pink or salmon colored spores, section Rhodosporii,
form the smallest of the four primary groups of Agaricini, the number of
known species not exceeding 400, and most of these are tasteless, or of
disagreeable odor, while some are recorded as unwholesome.

The species are pink-gilled when mature, though often white or whitish
when very young.

The recorded edible species are found in Volvaria, Clitopilus, and
Pluteus. The Volvariae are characterized by the very large and perfect
volva which wraps the base of the stem in loose folds, the ringless
stem, and the pink, soft, liquescent gills, which are free and rounded
behind. The cap is not warted; in some species it is viscid, and in
_bombycinus_, recorded by several authors as edible, and by some as
doubtful, it is covered with a silky down.

In Clitopilus the odor of the edible species is more or less mealy. The
cap is fleshy, and the margin at first involute. Two edible s