October is the banner month for this variety of mushroom. The mycelium from which the autumn mushroom grows is formed in the spring, and after the dry period of summer the little spheroid granules formed upon the mycelium are capable of absorbing the moisture of the warm autumnal rains and rapidly expand to the full-grown mushroom. After all the conditions of growth are fulfilled it usually requires only a single night for a button to push through the surface of the soil and expand its cap. Mushrooms are particularly obnoxious to the ravages of insects, and it is always advisable that they should be gathered and eaten immediately after they are formed. The insect larvæ attack the mature mushroom, travelling up through the stem into the cap, and decomposition rapidly follows.
 | An image should appear at this position in the text. To use the entire page scan as a placeholder, edit this page and replace "{{missing image}}" with "{{raw image|Foods and their adulteration; origin, manufacture, and composition of food products; description of common adulterations, food standards, and national food laws and regulations (IA foodstheiradulte02wile).pdf/483}}". Otherwise, if you are able to provide the image then please do so. For guidance, see Wikisource:Image guidelines and Help:Adding images. |  |
Fig. 62.—Edible Mushrooms (Agaricus arvensis Schaeff.).—(F. V. Coville.)
It is easy to determine whether a mushroom is wormy or not by breaking off the stem close to the cap and observing if there are little holes through which the larvæ have passed upward into the cap. The common mushroom occurs most frequently on lawns and in pastures, and especially in neglected fields where weeds have been succeeded by a scant covering of grass. Sometimes during the spring and summer, as well as in the autumn, the common mushroom is found upon the market. These mushrooms usually are produced upon the garbage dumping grounds near the city. The garbage and refuse from the city furnish the manurial conditions required for a speedy development of the mushroom from the mycelium.
The Horse Mushroom (Agaricus arvensis Schaeff.).—This variety of mushroom is also one which grows in great abundance in the neighborhood of Washington and in other latitudes affording a similar environment. This specimen is in many respects like Agaricus campestris but the surface of
