Order Hymenomycetes Tribe Pileati 

Agaricus orcella Bull. 

Series Hyporhodii Subgenus Clitopilus 

Botanical Characters. A. orcella. Pileus 3 ½ inches across, white to cream-color, sometimes shaded with pale umber or ochre, sticky in wet weather, dry & kid-like in dry weather, irregularly lobed, margin smooth & undulating at first incurved; lamellae forked, close, adnate, or subdecurrent, the lengthened ones taper & terminate on the stalk, delicate salmon color; stipe short, solid, enlarged at the base, at first central, but as the fungus seems to grow more rapidly on one side than on the other it often becomes excentric & is twisted laterally near the base; spores 0.00022 × 0.00048 inch salmon colored. In July 1880. I found this Agaric for the first time in the woods near Cantonsville Baltimore County, growing gregarious. In August I found it in Carroll County growing in decided rings. In September I met with it on the Blue Ridge Mountains, growing in large rings, but small. Some plants had a powerful odor of new meal, others were not marked by any peculiar odor, but all tasted strongly of cucumbers. At first sight one might mistake this plant for Lactarius piperatus, but the absence of milk with other botanical Characters. render its recognition conclusive. Once recognized it is impossible to mistake it afterwards.  

Baltimore, February 12th, 1881.