• Maculate, spotted.
• Marginate, having a distinct border.
• Matrix, the substance upon which a mushroom grows.
• Medial, at the middle; of the ring of a mushroom which is between superior or near the apex of the stem, and distant or far removed from the apex.
• Merismoid, having a branched or laciniate pileus.
• Moniliform, contracted at intervals in the length, like a string of beads.
• Multifid, having many divisions.
• Multipartite, divided into many parts.
• Mycelium, the delicate threads proceeding from the germinating spores, usually white and popularly termed spawn.

• Narrow, of very slight vertical width.
• Netted, covered with projecting reticulated lines.
• Nucleus, the reproductive germ in the spore.

• Obconic, inversely conical.
• Obcordate, like an inverted heart.
• Oblique, slanting.
• Oblong, longer than broad.
• Obovate, inversely egg-shaped, broadest at the apex.
• Obtuse, blunt or rounded.
• Ochrospore, ochre-colored spore.
• Orbicular, having the form of an orb.
• Order, group of a classification intermediate between tribe and family.
• Ostiole, ostiolum, mouth of the perithecium; orifice through which the spores are discharged.
• Ovate, egg-shaped.

• Pallid, pale, undecided color.
• Papillate, papillose, covered with soft tubercles.
• Paraphyses, sterile cells found with the reproductive cells of some plants.
• Parasitic, growing on and deriving support from another plant.
• Partial, of a veil clothing the stem and reaching to the edge of the cap but not extending beyond it.
• Patent, spreading.
• Pectinate, toothed like a comb.
• Pedicel, foot-stock.
• Pedicillate, having a pedicel.
• Pelliculose, furnished with a pellicle or distinct skin.
• Penciled, with pencil-like hairs either on the tip or border.
• Peridium, general covering of a puff-ball, simple or double, dehiscent or indehiscent at maturity.
• Perithecia, bottle-like receptacles containing asci.
• Peronate, used when the stem has a distinct stocking-like coat.
• Persistent, inclined to hold firm, tenacious.
• Pervious, forming an open tube-like passage.
• Pileate, having a cap.
• Pileoli, secondary pilei; arising from a division of the primary pileus.
• Pileus, the cap, receptacle, or one part of a mushroom; other parts are the stem and gills.
• Pilose, covered with hairs.
• Pits, depressions in cells or tubes resembling pores, applied also to hollow depressions in the surface of the cap of the morel.
• Plumose, feathery.
• Pore, orifice of the tubes of polypores.
• Poriform, in the form of pores.
• Porous, having pores.
• Powdery, covered with bloom or powder.
• Projecting, the anterior end jutting out beyond the margin.
• Proliferous, applied to an organ which gives rise to secondary ones of the same kind.
• Pruinose, covered with frost-like bloom.
• Pruniform, plum-shaped.
• Pubescent, downy.
• Pulverulent, covered with dust.
• Pulvinate, cushion-shaped.
• Punctate, dotted with points.
• Pyriform, pear-shaped.

• Quaternate, arranged in groups of four.

• Receptacle, a part of the mushroom extremely varied in form, consistency, and size, inclosing the organs of reproduction.
• Remote, when the margin of the gill comes to an end before reaching the stem.
• Reniform, kidney-shaped.
• Repand, bent backwards.
• Resupinate, of mushrooms spread over the matrix without any stem and with the hymenium upwards; inverted by twisting of the stalk.
• Reticulate, marked with cross lines like the meshes of a net.
• Revolute, rolled backwards; of the margin of a cap, the opposite of involute.
• Rhodospore, rose or pink spore.
• Rimose, cracked.
• Ring, a part of the veil adhering to the stem of a mushroom in the shape of a ring.
• Rivulose, marked with lines like rivulets.
• Rubiginous, rust colored.
• Rufescent, reddish in color.
• Rugose, wrinkled.

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APPENDIX B.

Through the courtesy of Mr. Hollis Webster, Secretary of the Boston Mycological Club, the following list of mushrooms, which have been collected and eaten by members of that club during the past year, has been supplied to me:

• AMANITA.
  • A. CÆsarea Scop., "True Orange."
  • A. rubescens Persoon.
  • A. vaginata Bull.
• LEPIOTA.
  • L. procera Scop., "Parasol Mushroom."
  • L. rachodes Vilt.
  • L. Americana Pk.
  • L. naucinoides.
• ARMILLARIA.
  • A. mellea Vahl, "Honey Mushroom."
• TRICHOLOMA.
  • T. equestre L.
  • T. sejunctum Low, "Yellow Blusher."
  • T. portentosum Fr.
  • T. coryphacum Fr.
  • T. russula Schaeff.
  • T. columbetta Fr.
  • T. gambosum Fr., "St. George's Mushroom."
  • T. personatum.
  • T. nudum.
• HYGROPHORUS.
  • H. virgineus Fr.
  • H. fuligineus Frost.
  • H. flavo discus Frost, "Yellow Sweet-Bread."
  • H. hypothejus Fr.
  • H. puniceus Fr.
• LACTARIUS.
  • L. piperatus Fr.
  • L. deliciosus Fr.
  • L. volemus Fr.
• RUSSULA.
  • R. virescens Fr.
  • R. lepida Fr.
  • R. punctata Gt.
  • R. aurata Fr.
  • R. ochracea Fr.
  • R. alutacea Fr.
• CANTHARELLUS.
  • C. cibarius Fr.
  • C. umbonatus Fr.
• MARASMIUS.
  • M. oreades Fr., "Fairy Ring."
  • M. scorodonius Fr.
  • M. alliaceus Fr.
• HYPHOLOMA.
  • H. sublateritium Schaeff.
  • H. candolleanum Fr.
  • H. perplexum.
  • H. appendiculatum Bull.
• COPRINUS.
  • C. comatus Fr., "Shaggy Mane."
  • C. ovatus Fr.
  • C. atramentarius.
  • C. micaceus Fr.
  • C. fimetarius Fr.
• CORTINARIUS.
  • C. turmalis Fr.
  • C. sebaceus Fr.
  • C. cÆrulescens Fr.
  • C. collinitus Fr.
  • C. violaceus Fr.
  • C. albo violaceus Pers.
  • C. cinnamomeus Fr.
  • C. cinnamomeus var. semi-sanguineus Fr.
• CLITOCYBE.
  • C. clavipes Fr.
  • C. odora Fr.
  • C. dealbata Low.
  • C. laccata Scop.
  • C. multiceps Pk.
  • C. infundibuliformis Schaeff.
• COLLYBIA.
  • C. dryophila Bull.
  • C. velutipes Curt.
• PLEUROTUS.
  • P. ostreatus Fr.
  • P. sapidus Kalch.
  • P. ulmarius Fr., Elm-tree Mushroom.
  • P. pluteus cervinus Schaeff.
• CLITOPILUS.
  • C. prunulus Scop.
  • C. orcella Bull.
  • C. unitinctus Pk.
  • C. Seymourianus Pk.
• PHOLIOTA.
  • P. caperata Pers., "The Gypsy."
  • P. prÆcox (when too old is bitter).
  • P. adiposa.
• AGARICUS (Psalliota).
  • A. arvensis.
  • A. cretaceus Fr.
  • A. campester L.
  • A. silvicola Vilt.
• SPARASSIS.
  • S. crispa Fr.
• CLAVARIA.
  • (Any and all Clavarias found are generally eaten by us without identification).
  • C. botrytes Pers.
  • C. amethystina Bull.
  • C. coralloides L.
  • C. cinerea Bull.
  • C. aurea Schaeff.
  • C. rugosa Bull.
  • C. pistillaris L.
• LYCOPERDON.
  • L. cyathiforme Bose.
  • L. giganteum Batsch.
  • L. pyriforme Schaeff.
  • L. saccatum Fr.
• MORCHELLA.
  • M. esculenta Bull.
  • M. conica Pers.
• PEZIZA.
  • P. aurantia Vahl.
• STROBILOMYCES.
  • S. strobilaceus Berk.
• FISTULINA.
  • F. hepatica Fr., "Beef Steak Mushroom."
• POLYPORUS.
  • P. betulinus Fr. (coriaceous when old).
  • P. sulphureus Fr.
• HYDNUM.
  • H. imbricatum L.
  • H. repandum L.
  • H. caput-medusÆ Bull.
• Also thirteen of the Boleti.

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AUTHOR OF FOOD PRODUCTS, ETC.

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Published in Serial Form—No. 3—Price, 50c. per number.

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WASHINGTON, D. C.:
A. R. Taylor, Publisher, 238 Mass. Ave. N.E.
1897.

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Plate E.

Plate E illustrates various forms and positions of the annulus or ring characteristic of certain species of mushrooms, together with the cortina or veil of which the ring, if present, is the remnant, in some species, either as it appears entire or as a fringe on the margin of the cap, contrasting these forms with a sectional view of a species in which the veil or ring is always wanting.

• Fig. 1. Ring broad, reflexed or deflexed, or both; situated high up on the stem, as in Armillaria mellea.
• Fig. 2. Ring situated about midway of the stem, deflexed and pendulous as in Amanita muscaria.
• Fig. 3. Ring about half midway of the stem, split, and radiating outwards, as in Agaricus arvensis.
• Fig. 4. Ring drooping.
• Fig. 5. Ring persistent, movable, wholly detached, in age, from the tall and slender stem, upon which it easily slips up and down. A species of great beauty, Lepiota procera.
• Fig. 6. Ring narrow, scarcely perceptible above the middle of the stem; remnants of the veil adhering to the margin of the cap as a fugacious web.
• Fig. 7. Ring generally wanting—Tricholoma nudum. Remnants of the veil seen on the margin of the cap.
• Fig. 8. Remnants of the veil appearing on the margin of the cap as a fringe, and particularly on the stem as a mere fibrillose zone of a darker color as in the Cortinarii.
• Fig. 9. Plant exhibiting the cortina unbroken, the extremities of its delicate arachnoid threads attached to cap and stem, respectively.
• Fig. 10. Section of a Russula, in which genus the ring is always wanting; veil none.

Plate F.

Plate F illustrates by section or otherwise various forms of these gill-like processes characteristic of species, considered either with regard to marginal outline or position of their posterior extremity:

• Fig. 1. Gills distant.
• Fig. 2. Gills crowded.
• Fig. 3. Gills flexuose.
• Fig. 4. Gills unequal.
• Fig. 5. Bifurcated.
• Fig. 6. Anastomosing veins.
• Fig. 6a. Sectional view.
• Fig. 7. Gills narrow.
• Fig. 8. Gills broad.
• Fig. 9. Lanceolate.
• Fig. 10. Ventricose.
• Fig. 11. Anteriorly rounded.
• Fig. 12. Posteriorly rounded.
• Fig. 13. Emarginate.
• Fig. 14. Emarginate and denticulate.

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Copyright, 1897, by
Thomas Taylor, M. D.,
and
A. R. Taylor

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AGARICINI.

Subgenus Hypholoma. Hymenophore continuous with the stem, veil woven into a fugacious web, which adheres to the margin of the pileus. Gills adnate or sinuate; spores brownish purple, sometimes intense purple, almost black.—M. C. Cooke.

This subgenus has been divided into the following five groups:

1. Fasciculares.—Pileus smooth, tough, bright colored when dry, not hygrophanous. Examples, Ag. (Hypholoma) sublateritius and Ag. (Hypholoma) fascicularis.
2. Viscidi.—Pileus naked, viscid. Example, Ag. (Hypholoma) oedipus.
3. Velutini.—Pileus silky, with innate fibrils. Example, Ag. (Hypholoma) velutinus.
4. Flocculosi.—Pileus clad with floccose superficial evanescent scales. Example, Ag. (Hypholoma) cascus.
5. Appendiculati.—Pileus smooth and hygrophanous. Example, Ag. (Hypholoma) Candollianus.

The species are not numerous. They are generally either gregarious or cÆspitose, and are often found in clusters upon tree stumps, or springing from the buried roots of stumps. A few species are found in short grass in open places; but few are recorded as edible, and one, H. fascicularis, has been classed as deleterious by Berkeley, Cooke, and some of the earlier authors. I find, however, no authenticated case of poisoning by this species, and, indeed, have as yet found no species of Hypholoma which could be satisfactorily identified as H. fascicularis.

The few species of Hypholoma which I have tested have been palatable, and one or two are of very delicate flavor.

Plate VIII.

Ag. (Hypholoma) sublateritius Schaeff. "Red Tuft." (Hypholoma sublateritium) "The Brick Top."

Edible.

The cap of this species is fleshy and obtuse, convexo-plane, sometimes showing a superficial whitish cloudiness upon the margin coming from the veil, which soon disappears, leaving it smooth and dry; color tawny brick red, with pale straw margin; flesh compact and whitish, turning yellow when wilted. Stem stuffed and fibrillose, tapering downward. Near its attachment to the cap the color is very light yellow; lower down and towards the root it is covered with patches and lines of burnt sienna color. It bears no distinct ring. In very young plants the filmy veil is sometimes perceived, reaching from the margin of the cap to the stem. This disappears as the cap expands, sometimes leaving the stem obscurely annulate. Gills adnate in full-grown specimens, slightly decurrent, somewhat crowded, dingy white or cinereous, turning to dark olive, never yellow; in old or wilted specimens changing to a dark brown. In old specimens the cap is a reddish brown and the gills are sometimes stained with the purplish brown of the spores.

This is a very common species and very abundant in pine and oak woods. I have seen an oak stump in Prince George's County, Md., measuring from 3 to 4 feet in height, literally covered with mushrooms of this species. This mushroom has been recorded as suspicious by some writers, probably owing to its slightly bitter taste, but I have thoroughly tested its edible qualities, both uncooked and prepared in various ways for the table, using the caps only. It keeps well when dried, and when ground into powder, with the addition of boiling water and a little pepper and salt, makes a very pleasant and nutritious beverage. It is most abundant in the early autumn, and is gathered in this latitude well into the winter, even when the snow is on the ground.

Our American plant is less heavy and more graceful in aspect than the same species in England, as figured in English works, but the general characteristics are the same.

Ag. (Hypholoma) fascicularis Hudson, recorded as deleterious, is figured in "Cooke's Illustrations."

Dr. Berkeley thus distinguishes these two species from each other. Cap of sublateritius is obtuse, discoid; that of fascicularis, subumbonate. Flesh of the former, compact, dingy-white; that of the latter, yellow. Stem in sublateritius is "stuffed," attenuated downwards, ferruginous; stem of fascicularis hollow, thin, flexuose. The gills in both species are adnate, crowded; but in fascicularis they are also linear and deliquescent, and are yellow in color.

Note.—In the Friesian arrangement of the genera of the order Agaricini, which is adopted by M. C. Cooke, Hypholoma finds place as a subgenus of the genus Agaricus, spore series Pratelli. Saccardo in his Sylloge elevates Hypholoma to the rank of a separate genus and places it in his spore series MelanosporÆ.

Plate IX.

Agaricus (Hypholoma) incertus Peck. (Hypholoma incertum.)

Edible.

Cap fleshy but fragile, smooth and hygrophanous, moist; at first convex, then expanding; color creamy white. Gills adnate, narrow, crowded, whitish in young specimens, turning to a pinkish dun color, later to a rosy cinnamon, sometimes showing when mature a slightly purplish tint. Stem smooth, slender, long and hollow, with slight striations near the apex, white. Specimens occur in which the stem is obscurely annulate arising from the attachment to it of fragments of the veil, but usually it is ringless.

The typical species of Hypholoma have the fleshy part of the cap confluent with the stem, but in H. incertum the stem is not confluent and is easily separated from the cap as in the Lepiotas. This mushroom was first recorded by Peck in his early reports as the variety "incertus" of the species Agaricus (Hypholoma) Candollianus, but has since been recorded by Saccardo as a distinct species, Hypholoma incertum.

Two species of Hypholoma have the same habit and sufficiently resemble incertum to be taken for it, if not carefully examined as to points of difference. These are H. Candollianum, named in honor of A. De Candolle, and H. appendiculatum. In the first named of these two species the cap is whitish, the gills at first violet in color, changing to dark cinnamon brown. In H. appendiculatum the pileus is rugose when dry, and sprinkled with atoms. It is darker in color than that of H. incertum; Cooke says tawny or pale ochre; Massee says bay, then tawny. The gills are sub-adnate, in color resembling those of H. incertum; stem slender, smooth, and white.

From the foregoing it will be seen that H. incertum agrees more nearly with H. Candollianum in the color of the cap, but more nearly with H. appendiculatum in the color of the gills. Saccardo recognizes the three as "distinct species of the genus Hypholoma." As all are edible, the slight differences observed are interesting chiefly to the mycologist. The mycophagist will find them equally valuable from a gastronomic point of view. In taste they resemble the common mushroom. They are more fragile, however, and require less cooking than the cultivated mushroom. Broiled on toast or cooked for ten minutes in a chafing dish, they make a very acceptable addition to the lunch menu.

The specimens figured in Plate IX were selected from a crop of thirty or more growing in the author's garden, in very rich soil at the base of a plum-tree stump. For several seasons past small crops have been gathered from the same spot, as well as around the base of a flourishing peach tree. Quantities of all three species have been gathered in the short grass of the Capitol grounds for a number of seasons, and in the various parks of the District of Columbia. Specimens have been received from western New York and Massachusetts. Those growing upon soil very heavily fertilized are apt to be somewhat stouter and shorter stemmed than those coming up through the short grass in the parks.

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The following compendious analytical table showing prominent characteristics of the leading genera and subgenera of the order Agaricini, according to Fries, Worthington Smith, and other botanists, which appears in Cooke's Hand Book, revised edition, will be found helpful to the collector in determining the genus to which a specimen may belong.

Order Agaricini

1. Spores white or very slightly tinted—Leucospori
   • 1. Plant fleshy, more or less firm, putrescent (neither deliquescent nor coriaceous)
     • 2. Hymenophore free
       • 3. Pileus bearing warts or patches free from the cuticle (volvate) Amanita
       • 3. Pileus scaly, scales concrete with the cuticle (not volvate) Lepiota
     • 2. Hymenophore confluent
       • 4. Without cartilaginous bark
         • 5. Stem central
           • 6. With a ring Armillaria
           • 6. Ringless
             • 7. Gills sinuate Tricholoma
             • 7. Gills decurrent
               • 8. Edge acute Clitocybe
               • 8. Edge swollen obtuse CANTHARELLUS
             • 7. Gills adnate
               • 9. Parasitic on other Agarics NYCTALIS
               • 9. Not parasitic
                 • 10. Milky LACTARIUS
                 • 10. Not milky
                   • 11. Rigid and brittle RUSSULA
                   • 11. Waxy HYGROPHORUS
         • 5. Stem lateral or absent Pleurotus
       • 4. With cartilaginous bark
         • 12. Gills adnate Collybia
         • 12. Gills sinuate Mycena
         • 12. Gills decurrent Omphalia
   • 1. Plant tough, coriaceous or woody
     • 13. Stem central.
       • 14. Gills simple MARASMIUS
       • 14. Gills branched XEROTUS
     • 13. Stem lateral or wanting
       • 15. Gills toothed LENTINUS
       • 15. Gills not toothed PANUS
       • 15. Gills channelled longitudinally or crisped TROGIA
       • 15. Gills splitting longitudinally SCHIZOPHYLLUM
       • 15. Gills anastomosing LENZITES
2. Spores rosy or salmon color—Hyporhodii
   • 16. Without cartilaginous bark
     • 17. Hymenophore free
       • 18. With a volva Volvaria
       • 18. Without a volva
         • 19. With a ring Annularia
         • 19. Ringless Pluteus
     • 17. Hymenophore confluent, not free
       • 20. Stem central
         • 21. Gills adnate or sinuate Entoloma
         • 21. Gills decurrent Clitopilus
       • 20. Stem lateral or absent Claudopus
   • 16. With cartilaginous bark
     • 22. Gills decurrent Eccilia
     • 22. Gills not decurrent
       • 23. Pileus torn into scales Leptonia
       • 23. Pileus papillose, sub-campanulate.
         • 24. Gills membranaceous, persistent Nolanea
         • 24. Gills sub-deliquescent BOLBITIUS
3. Spores brownish, sometimes rusty, reddish or yellowish brown.—Dermini.
   • 25. Without cartilaginous bark.
     • 26. Stem central.
       • 27. With a ring.
         • 28. Ring continuous Pholiota
         • 28. Ring arachnoid, like a spider's web filamentous or evanescent.
           • 29. Gills adnate terrestrial CORTINARIUS
           • 29. Gills decurrent, or acutely adnate, mostly epiphytal, Flammula
       • 27. Without a ring.
         • 30. With rudimentary volva Acetabularia
         • 30. Without a volva.
           • 31. Gills adhering to the hymenophore, and sinuate.
             • 32. Cuticle fibrillose or silky Inocybe
             • 32. Cuticle smooth viscid Hebeloma
           • 31. Gills separating from the hymenophore, and decurrent, PAXILLUS
     • 26. Stem lateral or absent Crepidotus
   • 25. With cartilaginous bark.
     • 33. Gills decurrent Tubaria
     • 33. Gills not decurrent.
       • 34. Margin of pileus at first incurved Naucoria
       • 34. Margin of pileus always straight.
         • 35. Hymenophore free Pluteolus
         • 35. Hymenophore confluent Galera
4. Spores purple, sometimes brownish purple, dark purple, or dark brown.—PratellÆ.
   • 36. Without cartilaginous bark.
     • 37. Hymenophore free.
       • 38. With a volva Chitonia
       • 38. Without a volva Psalliota
     • 37. Hymenophore confluent.
       • 39. Veil normally ring shaped on the stem Stropharia
       • 39. Veil normally adhering to the margin of the pileus Hypholoma
   • 36. With cartilaginous bark.
     • 40. Gills decurrent Deconica
     • 40. Gills not decurrent.
       • 41. Margin of pileus at first incurved Psilocybe
       • 41. Margin of pileus at first straight Psathyra
5. Spores black or nearly so.—Coprinarii.
   • 42. Gills deliquescent COPRINUS
   • 42. Gills not deliquescent.
     • 43. Gills decurrent GOMPHIDIUS
     • 43. Gills not decurrent.
       • 44. Pileus striate Psathyrella
       • 44. Pileus not striate PanÆolus

In the Friesian classification which, with modifications, has prevailed for many years among mycologists, the genus Agaricus included in its subgenera the greater part of the species of the order Agaricini. The subgenera, printed in the above table in italics, were included in this genus. The genera are printed in capitals. In the Saccardian system, all the subgenera of Agaricus having been elevated to generic rank, the term Agaricus is limited to a very small group which includes the subgenus Psalliota of Fries, the species being characterized by fleshy caps, free gills, ringed stem, and dark brown or purplish brown spores. As restricted, it naturally falls into the spore series MelanosporeÆ.

In the white-spored section, Leucospori, the recorded edible species occur in the following genera: Marasmius, Cantharellus, Lactarius, Russula, Hygrophorus, Collybia, Pleurotus, Clitocybe, Tricholoma, Armillaria, Lepiota, and Amanita. The plants of Marasmius are usually thin and dry, reviving with moisture. Cantharellus is characterized by the obtuseness of the edges of the lamellÆ, Lactarius by the copious milky or sticky fluid which exudes from the plants when cut or bruised. Russula is closely allied to Lactarius, and the plants bear some resemblance in external appearance to those of that genus, but they are never milky, and the gills are usually rigid and brittle. In Hygrophorus the plants are moist, not very large, often bright colored, and the gills have a waxy appearance. The Collybias are usually cÆspitose, the stems exteriorly cartilaginous, in some species swelling and splitting open in the centre.

In Pleurotus the stem is lateral or absent. The plants are epiphytal, usually springing from the decaying bark of trees and old stumps.

In Clitocybe the plants are characterized by a deeply depressed, often narrow cap, with the gills acutely adnate, or running far down the stem, which is elastic, with a fibrous outer coat covered with minute fibers. Many of the species have a fragrant odor. The Tricholomas are stout and fleshy, somewhat resembling the Russulas, but distinguished from them by the sinuate character of the gills, which show a slight notched or toothed depression just before reaching the stem (represented in Fig. 4, Plate IV). Typical species of Armillaria show a well-defined ring and scales upon the stem, the remains of the partial veil, and the plants are usually large, and cÆspitose. 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]

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 MyceneÆ are generally very small, slender, and fragile, usually cÆspitose, 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 VolvariÆ 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 species which closely resemble each other—viz., Clitopilus prunulus, "Plum mushroom," and Clitopilus orcella, "Sweetbread mushroom,"—are highly recommended for their delicacy of flavor.

In Leptonia most of the species are small, thin, and brittle, corresponding with Mycena in the white-spored series, and with Psathyra and Psathyrella in the dark-spored series.

Eccilia corresponds with Omphalia. Claudopus corresponds with Pleurotus in its habit of growth and lateral stem, differing in the color of the spores.

Annularia includes only a few small species having a ringed stem, no volva, and free pink gills. Cooke says of this subgenus that no British species are known.

The recorded species of Pluteus have their habitat on tree stumps, sawdust, or upon fallen timber. One species, Pluteus cervinus, is recorded as edible, but not specially commended. Of Entoloma, Worthington Smith says, "It is allied to Tricholoma, though most of the species are thinner and often brittle. It agrees also in structure with Hebeloma and Hypholoma." None of the species are recorded as having value as esculents.

The genus Bolbitius is described by Cooke as a small genus intermediate between Agaricus and Coprinus on the one side, and Coprinus and Cortinarius on the other. The species are small and ephemeral. Saccardo places Bolbitius in his division MelanosporÆ, although the spores are ochraceous.

In the section Pratelli Psalliota and Hypholoma contain mushrooms which are of exceptionally fine flavor. In the first of these is found the common field mushroom Agaricus campester and its allies.

The black-spored section Coprinarii contains two genera which include a few recorded edible species, viz., Coprinus and Gomphidius. The Psathyrellas correspond in size to the Mycenas in the white-spored series and to the Psathyras in the purple-spored section; the gills are free or adnate and turn black when mature. None of the species are edible.

In Paneolus the plants are somewhat viscid when moist, the gills are described as "clouded, never becoming purple or brown." They are usually found on manure heaps near cities. None are edible.

Saccardo in his Sylloge combines the PratellÆ and Coprinarii, making of them one section which he calls MelanosporeÆ.

G. Massee, the British mycologist, makes of the black-spored and the purple and purplish-brown spored series two divisions, calling them, respectively, PorphyrosporeÆ and MelanosporeÆ.

The recorded edible species of the spore section Dermini are found in Pholiota, Cortinarius, and Paxillus. The larger proportion of the Pholiotas grow upon tree stumps. They have a fugacious, persistent friable ring, and are liable to be confused with the Cortinarii, unless attention is paid to the spidery veil and the iron-rust tint of the spores of the latter. Only a few of the species are recorded as edible, but none are known to be poisonous. Cortinarius is a large genus. It contains a larger proportion of edible species than Pholiota, and none are recorded as poisonous. The cobweb-like veil which extends from stem to margin of cap in the young species, and the rust-colored spores which dust the gills as the species mature, distinguish the genus from all others.

A characteristic feature of Paxillus, and one which makes it easily distinguishable from others of the same group, is the ease with which the gills as a whole can be separated from the substance or fleshy portion of the cap. There is an exception to this in the species Paxillus involutus, recorded by Peck as edible.

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POLYPOREI.

Hymenium lining the cavity of tubes or pores which are sometimes broken up into teeth or concentric plates.—Berkeley's Outlines.

The plants of this second primary group or order of the family Hymenomycetes exhibit a greater dissimilarity of form and texture than do those of the Agaricini. Some of its genera consist almost wholly of coriaceous or woody plants. A few contain fleshy ones. Some of the species have a distinct stem, while others are stemless. With regard to the receptacle in the plants of the genera Boletus, Strobilomyces, etc., it forms a perfect cap, like that of the common Agaric, a cushion of tubes taking the place of gills on the under surface of the cap, the hymenium in this case lining the inner surface of the tubes from which the spores drop when mature.

In some species, such as those of the genus Poria, the receptacle is reduced to a single thin fibrous stratum, adhering closely to the matrix and exposing a surface of crowded pores, and in others it consists of fibrous strata formed in concentric layers.

A number of groups, each of which was treated in the original Friesian classification as a single genus, have more recently been recognized as comprising several distinct genera. In the Saccardian system the genera Trametes, DÆdalea, Merulius, Porothelium, and Fistulina still retain the generic rank assigned to them by Fries, but the old genus Boletus is subdivided into four genera, Boletus, Strobilomyces, Boletinus, and Gyrodon, while Polyporus, originally a very large genus, is subdivided into the genera Polyporus, Fomes, Polystictus, and Poria. This arrangement was in part suggested by Fries in his later works, and is accepted by M. C. Cooke, as indicated in his latest work on fungi.

Quoting M. C. Cooke, "Strobilomyces is Boletus with a rough warty and scaly pileus; Boletinus is Boletus with short, large radiating pores; and Gyrodon is Boletus with elongated sinuate irregular pores, all fleshy, firm fungi of robust habit, possessing stem and cap." The species of the genus Polyporus as now restricted are somewhat fleshy in the young stage, shrinking as they mature and dry, and becoming indurated with age. In Fomes the species, of woody consistency from the first, have no room for shrinkage, and are quite rigid; the tubes being in strata, and the strata growing yearly, the species are virtually perennial. The pileus of the plant shows a rigid polished crust resulting from resinous exudations.

In Polystictus the plants are usually small, thin, tough, and irregular in outline, the tubes exceedingly short, with thin walls, which easily split up, giving the pores at times a toothed or fringed appearance. The surface is velvety, or hairy, and zoned in varying colors. They are very common upon decaying tree stumps, often covering the surface of the stump in gaily colored layers. Not esculent.

Poria is composed of resupinate species with the pores normally in a single series, the whole stratum spread over, and adhering to the matrix. The species are coriaceous or woody. Not esculent.

The plants of the genus Trametes allied to Fomes are epiphytal, with the trama the same in substance and color as the hymenophore. The tubes do not form in regular strata, but are sunk into the substance of the pileus. The plants are coriaceous, and none are edible.

DÆdalea closely resembles Trametes with the tubes forming deep labyrinthiform depressions. Whole plant woody, sessile.

Hexagonia, allied by its characteristics to Polystictus, has large hexagonal pores, with firm, entire dissepiments.

In Favolus the plants are slightly fleshy and substipitate with the pores angular, and radiating from the stem. Not edible.

The species of the genus Laschia are recognized by the shallow irregular pores and the vein like character of their dissepiments (or pore walls). Substance slightly gelatinous.

In the plants of Porothelium, irregular papillÆ take the place of tubes, and the plants are sub-membranaceous and resupinate, having the habit of those of Poria.

The genus Merulius has been termed the lowest and most imperfect of the genera of Polyporei. It presents a soft, waxy spore-bearing surface, reticulated with obtuse folds. Solenia, by early authors placed in Discomycetes, thence transferred to Auricularini, and by some authors associated with Cyphella in Theleporei, now finds place as one of the genera of Polyporei as given by Saccardo.

The above-mentioned genera, together with Myriadoporus, Ceriomyces, Bresadolia, Theleporus, Gloeporus, and Cyclomyces, constitute the PolyporeÆ of the Saccardian system.

Myriadoporus is a North American genus. It is a form of the genus Polyporus, but with pores in the interior as well as on the exterior surface. Ceriomyces is generally regarded as a spurious genus. It is similar to Myriadoporus, but with internal pores and only spurious pores externally. Of Bresadolia Cooke says "there is only one described species, and of this only one specimen has been found." Theleporus is an African genus of which only one species is known. Gloeporus is a form of resupinate Polyporus, except that the hymenium or pore-bearing surface is gelatinous instead of being firm. Cyclomyces is a genus with some features of Lenzites; it is leathery. All of these are more or less coriaceous. None are edible. Campbellia is a new genus. It is Merulius with a pileus and central stem.

The edible PolyporeÆ are found in the genera Boletus, Strobilomyces, Gyrodon, Boletinus, Polyporus, and Fistulina. Of these, the first four genera contain most of the edible species as well as a few which have been regarded as unwholesome or poisonous.

In the genus Polyporus as now restricted, the species Polyporus sulphureus Fries is perhaps the one most likely to be selected for table use, the others becoming very quickly indurated or tough, and this should be gathered when very young, as in maturity it loses its fleshy consistency and becomes dry and tough. It is common on old tree stumps and is often found on the dead wood of living trees, the bright yellow and vivid orange red tints which characterize the young plant making it very conspicuous.

It is easily recognized by its irregular, closely overlapping frond-like caps, white flesh, and the very small sulphur-yellow tubes. The spores are white, elliptical. The flesh of young specimens is somewhat juicy.

The geographical distribution is wide, and in places where a moist, warm temperature prevails plants of this species often attain very large proportions, sometimes completely encircling the trunk of a tree at its base. The bright colors fade as the plant matures, and the plant becomes indurated and friable, when very old crumbling readily in the hands.

To prepare for the table, very thin slices of young specimens should be cut and either allowed to slowly simmer on the back of the range, or soaked in milk and then fried in butter.

Of the genus Fistulina but one species, Fistulina hepatica, figured in Plate X, is recorded as edible and indigenous to this country.

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Plate X.

Fistulina hepatica Bull. "Beefsteak Mushroom," "Liver Fungus."

Edible.

Genus Fistulina Bull. Hymenophore fleshy, hymenium inferior, that is, on the under surface of the cap, at first papillose; the papillÆ at length elongated, and forming distinct tubes.

Besides Fistulina hepatica, five species of this genus are recorded in Saccardo's Sylloge, viz., F. radicata Schw., F. spathulata B. & C., F. pallida B. & R., F. rosea Mont., and F. antarctica Speg.; the last indigenous to Patagonia.

F. hepatica is the only species with which I am familiar. The plants of this species are very irregular in form, rootless, epiphytal, often stemless, and sometimes attached to the matrix by a very short stem. This fungus is frequently found upon old oak, chestnut, and ash trees, developing in the rotting bark. It appears first as a rosy pimple, or in a series of red granules. In a very short time it becomes tongue-shaped, sometimes kidney shaped, assuming the color of a beet root. As it increases in size it changes form again, becoming broad in proportion to its length, and changing in color to a deep blood red, and finally to a dull liver tint. Its lower surface is often paler than its upper, it being tinged with yellow and pinkish hues.

One author states that it requires about two weeks to attain its highest development, after which it gradually decays.

It varies in size from a few inches to several feet in circumference. Rev. M. J. Berkeley mentions one which weighed thirty pounds. It has been styled, the "poor man's fungus," and in flavor resembles meat more than any other.

The substance is fleshy and juicy in the early stage. The pileus is papillose, the papillÆ elongated, and forming distinct tubes as the pileus expands. These tubes are separable from each other, and with age become approximate and jagged at their orifices. The tubes are at first yellowish, with a pink tinge, becoming dingy with age. The fleshy substance, or hymenophore, is often veined in light and dark red streaks. The juice is pellucid, red, and slightly acid. Spores at first nearly round, becoming elliptical, salmon color.

This fungus is esteemed in Europe, where it is eaten prepared in a variety of ways.

When young and tender it can be sliced and broiled or minced and stewed, making a delicious dish. When too old the stock is rather tough for good eating, but the gravy taken from it forms a rich flavoring for a vegetable stew or a meat ragout. The following recipe for cooking this mushroom has been recommended:

Slice and macerate it, add pepper and salt, a little lemon, and chopped onions or garlic; then strain and boil the liquid, which makes most excellent gravy, resembling that of good beefsteak.

The Fistulina hepatica is well known in Europe, and is found in different parts of the United States, in some places growing abundantly. I have gathered some fine specimens in Maryland and Virginia, but none as large as that described by Dr. Berkeley.

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RECIPES FOR COOKING MUSHROOMS.

To Pot Mushrooms.—The small open mushrooms suit best for potting. Trim and rub them; put into a stewpan a quart of mushrooms, 3 ounces of butter, 2 teaspoonfuls of salt, and half a teaspoonful of cayenne and mace, mixed, and stew for ten or fifteen minutes, or till the mushrooms are tender; take them carefully out and drain them perfectly on a sloping dish, and when cold press them into small pots and pour clarified butter over them, in which state they will keep for a week or two. Writing-paper placed over the butter, and over that melted suet, will effectually preserve them for weeks in a dry, cool place.

To Pickle Mushrooms.—Select a number of sound, small pasture mushrooms, as nearly alike as possible in size. Throw them for a few minutes into cold water, then drain them, cut off the stalks, and gently rub off the outer skin with a moist flannel dipped in salt; then boil the vinegar, adding to each quart two ounces of salt, half a nutmeg grated, a dram of mace, and an ounce of white pepper corns. Put the mushrooms into the vinegar for ten minutes over the fire; then pour the whole into small jars, taking care that the spices are equally divided; let them stand a day, then cover them.

Baked Mushrooms.—Peel the tops of twenty mushrooms; cut off a portion of the stalks and wipe them carefully with a piece of flannel dipped in salt. Lay the mushrooms in a tin dish, put a small piece of butter on the top of each, and season with pepper and salt. Set the dish in the oven and bake them from twenty minutes to half an hour. When done, arrange them high in the centre of a very hot dish, pour the sauce around them, and serve quickly and as hot as you possibly can.

Mushrooms with Bacon.—Take some full-grown mushrooms, and, having cleaned them, procure a few rashers of nice streaky bacon and fry them in the usual manner. When nearly done add a dozen or so of mushrooms and fry them slowly until they are cooked. In this process they will absorb all the fat of the bacon, and with the addition of a little salt and pepper will form a most appetizing breakfast relish.

Mushroom Pie.—A very good mushroom pie is made in the following manner: Chop a quart of mushrooms into small pieces, season to taste, and add one pound of round steak chopped fine and seasoned with a small piece of onion. If the steak is lean, add a small piece of suet, unless butter is preferred to give flavor. Put the chopped steak and mushrooms in deep saucepan with cover, and stew slowly until tender. Make a crust as for beefsteak pie and put in a deep earthern dish, lightly browning the under crust before adding the stew, and cover with a crust lightly punctured.

In some parts of Russia mushrooms form an important part of the diet of the people, especially during the Lenten season, when the fast of the Greek church is very strictly kept, and meat, fish, eggs, and butter are forbidden.

Provision is made for this season in the securing of quantities of dried and salted mushrooms, which are cut up in strips and made into salads with a dressing of olive oil and vinegar. The poorer classes to whom the olive oil is unattainable use the rape seed and other vegetable oils in the cooking of their mushrooms.

The following recipes are translated from a recently published Russian work on the subject of mushrooms, cultivated and wild:

Select fresh, sound Boleti, cut off the caps, and, after wiping clean with a napkin, place them in a sieve, pouring over them scalding water; when thoroughly drained, leave them where there is a free current of air until perfectly dry. Next string them upon stout twine, leaving spaces between to allow of free circulation of air. If convenient, they can be dried artificially by placing in a not too hot oven with the door open. Dried by either method, they can be kept all winter. Before using, they should be soaked in water or milk until soft. In this condition they make very good flavoring for soup or gravy, and can also be used as filling for pies.

Mushrooms Cooked in Butter.—Wipe the mushrooms clean and dip in dry flour. Heat a quantity of butter to boiling temperature in a saucepan, seasoning with a small piece of onion. Drop the flour-covered mushrooms into the boiling butter, shaking the pan constantly over the fire. When the mushrooms are cooked add sour cream to taste. Before serving, sprinkle with grated muscat nut.

Mushroom Pickle.—Select only young button mushrooms. Put them for a few moments in boiling water lightly salted and vinegared. Boil vinegar (only the best should be used), spicing it according to taste. Allow the vinegar to cool. Put the mushrooms in layers in a jar and pour over them enough spiced vinegar to cover. Seal tightly.

Salted Piperites.—Only the caps are taken of the Lactarius piperites. They are placed first in salted scalding water for several minutes. The water is then gently pressed out with a napkin, the mushrooms are placed on sieves and cold water poured over them. They are then placed in layers in a jar, each layer sprinkled with salt, and whole pepper and minced onion scattered over the layer. When the jar is full a thin round board is placed upon the top layer and pressed down with weights, and as the mass gives way mushrooms are added until the jar is compactly filled. The jar is then covered with parchment or otherwise tightly sealed. Eight gallons of mushrooms require from one to one and a half glasses of salt. This makes a good salad when treated with oil.

Note.—L. piperites is an extremely acrid mushroom when in the raw state, and the Russians do not stew it, but prepare it in the above way, taking the precaution to scald thoroughly with salted water before putting away. The precaution of scalding through several waters is a wise one to use in the preparation of all mushrooms inasmuch as the poisonous principle of most mushrooms is soluble in scalding water. Dilute vinegar is frequently used in the same manner. Vinegar should not be used in metal vessels unless porcelain-lined.

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LIST OF THE GENERA OF HYMENOMYCETES.

The following list of the genera of Hymenomycetes, summarized from Kellerman's Synopsis of Saccardo's Sylloge Fungorum, will be found useful for reference:

1. AgaricaceÆ.
   • LeucosporeÆ. (Spores white or slightly tinted yellowish.)
     • GENERA.
       • Amanita Pers.
       • Amanitopsis Roze.
       • Lepiota Fries.
       • Schulzeria Bres.
       • Armillaria Fries.
       • Tricholoma Fries.
       • Clitocybe Fries.
       • Collybia Fries.
       • Mycena Fries.
       • Hiatula Fries.
       • Omphalia Fries.
       • Pleurotus Fries.
       • Hygrophorus Fries.
       • Lactarius Fries.
       • Russula Pers.
       • Cantharellus Adans.
       • Arrhenia Fries.
       • Nyctalis Fries.
       • Stylobates Fries.
       • Marasmius Fries.
       • Heliomyces Lev.
       • Lentinus Fries.
       • Panus Fries.
       • Xerotus Fries.
       • Trogia Fries.
       • Lenzites Fries.
       • Tilotus Kalch.
       • Hymenogramme B. & Mont.
       • Oudemansiella Speg.
       • Pterophyllus Lev.
       • Rachophyllus Berk.
       • Schizophyllum Fries.
   • RhodosporÆ (spores pink or salmon color), corresponding to the Hyporhodii of Fries.
     • GENERA.
       • Volvaria Fr.
       • Annularia Schulz.
       • Pluteus Fries.
       • Entoloma Fries.
       • Clitopilus Fries.
       • Leptonia Fries.
       • Nolanea Fries.
       • Eccilia Fries.
       • Claudopus Worth. Smith.
   • OchrosporÆ (spores tawny ochraceous, or light rusty tint of brown), corresponding to the Dermini of Fries.
     • GENERA.
       • Pholiota Fries.
       • Locillina Gill.
       • Inocybe Fries.
       • Hebeloma Fries.
       • Flammula Fries.
       • Naucoria Fries.
       • Pluteolus Fries.
       • Galera Fries.
       • Tubaria Worth. Smith.
       • Crepidotus Fries.
       • Cortinarius Fries.
       • Paxillus Fries.
   • MelanosporÆ (spores black, dark-brown or purplish-brown), combining the attributes of both the Coprinarii and the Pratelli of Fries.
     • GENERA.
       • Chitonia Fries.
       • Agaricus Linn.
       • Pilosace Fries.
       • Stropharia Fries.
       • Hypholoma Fries.
       • Psilocybe Fries.
       • Deconica Worth. Smith.
       • Psathyra Fries.
       • Bolbitius Fries.
       • Coprinus Pers.
       • PanÆolus Fries.
       • Annellaria Karsh.
       • Psathyrella Fries.
       • Gomphidius Fries.
       • Anthracophyllum Ces.
       • Montagnites Fries.
2. PolyporaceÆ (Polyporei).
   • GENERA.
     • Boletus Dill.
     • Strobilomyces Berkeley.
     • Boletinus Kalchbr.
     • Gyrodon Opatowski.
     • Fistulina Bull.
     • Polyporus Mich.
     • Fomes Fries.
     • Polystictus Fries.
     • Poria Pers.
     • Trametes Fries.
     • Hexagonia Fries.
     • DÆdalea Pers.
     • Myriadoporus Peck.
     • Ceriomyces Corda.
     • Bresadolia Speg.
     • Cyclomyces Kunz.
     • Favolus Fries.
     • Gloeoporus Mont.
     • Laschia Fries.
     • Merulius Hall.
     • Theleporus Fries.
     • Porothelium Fries.
     • Solenia Hoffm.
3. HydnaceÆ (Hydnei).
   • GENERA.
     • Hydnum Linn.
     • Caldesiella Lace.
     • Hericium Pers.
     • Tremellodon Pers.
     • Sistotrema Pers.
     • Irpex Fries.
     • Radulum Fries.
     • Plebia Fries.
     • Lopharia K. & M. Ow.
     • Grandinia Fries.
     • Grammothele B. & C.
     • Odontia Pers.
     • Kneiffia Fries.
     • Mucronella Fries.
4. ThelephoraceÆ (Thelephorei).
   • GENERA.
     • Craterellus Fries.
     • Hypolyssus Pers.
     • Thelephora Ehrh.
     • Cladoderris Pers.
     • Beccariella Ces.
     • Stereum Pers.
     • HymenochÆte Lev.
     • Skepperia Berk.
     • Corticium Fries.
     • Peniophora Cooke.
     • Coniophora D. C.
     • Michenera B. & C.
     • Matula Mass.
     • Hypochnus Fries.
     • Exobasidium Weron.
     • Helicobasidium Pat.
     • Cyphella Fries.
     • Friesula Speg.
     • Cora Fries.
     • Rhipidonema Matt.
5. ClavariaceÆ (Clavariei).
   • GENERA.
     • Sparassis Fries.
     • Acartis Fries.
     • Clavaria Vaill.
     • Calocera Fries.
     • Lachnocladium Lev.
     • Pterula Fries.
     • Ptifula Pers.
     • Pistallaria Fries.
     • Physalacria Peck.
6. TremellaceÆ (Tremellini)
   • GENERA.
     • Auricularia Bull.
     • Hirneola Fries.
     • Platygloea Schroet.
     • Exidia Fries.
     • Ulocolla Bref.
     • Craterocolla Bref.
     • Femsjonia Fries.
     • Tremella Dill.
     • NÆmatelia Fries.
     • Gyrocephalus Pers.
     • Delortia Pat. & Gail.
     • Arrhytidia Berk.
     • Ceracea Cragin.
     • Guepinia Fries.
     • Dacryomitra Pul.
     • Collyria Fries.
   • GENERA MINUS CERTA.
     • Hormonyces Bon.
     • Ditiola Fries.
     • Apyrenium Fries.

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BREFIELD'S CLASSIFICATION OF FUNGI.

A system of classification of fungi which is receiving attention from mycologists is that recently presented by the distinguished German author Dr. Oscar Brefield. Dr. Brefield's exhaustive investigations into the life-history of fungi in general have been such as to entitle his views to consideration, although the system presents some inconsistencies which may prevent its adoption in its entirety.

According to the Brefield system, as summarized by his colleague Dr. Von Tavel, Fungi are divided into two primary classes: (1) the Phycomycetes, or lower fungi nearest like the algÆ, consisting of a one-celled thallus with sexual as well as non-sexual modes of reproduction, and (2) the Mesomycetes and the Mycomycetes, having a divided or many celled thallus, propagated by non-sexually formed spores. The Phycomycetes are further divided into two large sections, based on their methods of reproduction, termed, respectively, Zygomycetes and Oomycetes. These include the old typical Mucors, the PeronosporeÆ or "rotting moulds," once classed with the Hyphomycetes, the SaprolegniaceÆ, "Fish Moulds," of aquatic habit, the EntomophthoraceÆ, "Insect Moulds," together with some minor groups. The Mesomycetes connect the Phycomycetes with the Mycomycetes. The class Mycomycetes is primarily divided into two sections, viz., Ascomycetes and Basidiomycetes, with the UstilagineÆ, "Smut Fungi," in Mesomycetes, forming a transitional group between Phycomycetes and the Basidiomycetal group of the higher fungi.

The Ascomycetes are primarily subdivided into Exoasci and Carpoasci, groups based on the character of the asci. In the first, Exoasci, the asci are naked and borne directly on the mycelium; in the second, Carpoasci, they are enclosed in a wrapper composed of fertile hyphÆ and sterile threads, having also accessory fruit forms. The first includes Endomycetes and TaphrineÆ. In the second are included the groups Gymnoasci, PerisporaceÆ, Pyrenomycetes, HysteriaceÆ, Discomycetes, and HelvellaceÆ.

The Basidiomycetes characterized by the possession of basidia are arranged in two groups, based on the character of the basidia: (1) the Protobasidiomycetes, in which the basidia are septate, divided, and (2) the Autobasidiomycetes, in which the basidia are not divided, and bear a definite number of spores.

The first of these (Protobasidiomycetes) includes the following distinct groups: (1) the UredineÆ, "Rust Fungi," which have horizontally divided basidia, always free, never enclosed; (2) the AuricularieÆ, having basidia somewhat resembling those of the UredineÆ, but which are borne in fruit bodies with open hymenia; (3) PileacreÆ, having horizontal septate basidia in closed receptacles; and (4) TremellineÆ, having vertically divided basidia borne in gymnocarpous receptacles—that is, those in which the hymenium is exposed while the spores are growing.

The Autobasidiomycetes are characterized by undivided basidia, bearing spores only at the apex. This group is subdivided into three sections: (1) Dacryomycetes, which includes the lowest of the Tremelloid forms, with club-shaped basidia, nearly approaching the true Hymenomycetal type, together with several groups of minor import; (2) Gasteromycetes; and (3) Hymenomycetes, with PhalloideÆ placed in the group as a subsection of Gasteromycetes.

The above can only be considered as a very brief abstract of the system of classification proposed by Dr. Brefield, but it will serve to give some idea of the principle on which the system is based, which is sufficient for our present purpose. Those who wish to study the system in detail will find it treated in a comprehensive manner in Dr. Von Tavel's summary as it appears in the Vergleichende Morphologie der Pilze, Jena, 1892.

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CONIOMYCETES AND HYPHOMYCETES.

In the original classification of Fries two of the primary divisions of the sporiferous Fungi were termed, respectively, Coniomycetes and Hyphomycetes. This arrangement was accepted by Berkeley, the term Coniomycetes being applied to all fungi in which the naked spores, appearing like an impalpable dust, were the principal feature of the plant, and the term Hyphomycetes to fungi in which the threads or hyphÆ bearing the spores were the most conspicuous feature.

Coniomycetes, as broadly interpreted by Berkeley and other mycologists of his day, included the UredineÆ or "rust fungi," the Ustilagines or "smut fungi," the SphÆropsideÆ, and the MelanconieÆ. This arrangement was very unsatisfactory on account of the distinctively different character of the methods of reproduction of the respective groups, and they have since been disassociated and by some authors ranked as distinct orders or families. Others combine Uredinei and Ustilaginei in one group under the name Hypodermei.

Familiar examples of Uredinei are seen in the rust of the Barberry leaf, etc., and of the Ustilaginei in the "smut" of corn and the "bunt" of wheat.

Some authors combine the SphÆropsideÆ with the closely allied MelanconieÆ. M. C. Cooke contends that the SphÆropsideÆ should be considered apart from the MelanconieÆ, on the fundamental basis that the former possess a distinct perithecium, while the latter do not.

The SphÆropsideÆ as recently defined by Cooke are "Fungi possessed of a perithecium, but without asci, ... sporules or stylospores being produced internally at the apex of more or less distinct supporting hyphÆ or pedicels, termed sporophores."

The SphÆropsideÆ somewhat resemble the PyrenomyceteÆ in external characteristics, but differ from them in the absence of asci and paraphyses. Saccardo retains all the species in his Sylloge, but relegates them to an inferior position as imperfect fungi.

The group Pyrenomycetes, or SphÆriacei, as at first recognized by Fries, included not only the SphÆriacei and the Perisporacei, but also the SphÆropsidei and MelanconiaceÆ. Later, when ascigerous fungi were separated from stylosporous fungi, this group was revised, the ascigerous species only being retained. As at present limited, the Pyrenomycetes are "ascigerous fungi having the fructification enclosed within a perithecium."

They constitute a very large group, the described species, according to Cooke's Census of Fungi, numbering not less than 10,500, or at least 1,000 more than all the recorded species of Hymenomycetes. The plants are microscopic in size, and grow upon vegetable or animal substances.

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With regard to the Hyphomycetes, Cooke takes the ground that in their internal relations to each other, and their external relations to the remaining orders, the Hyphomycetes are undoubtedly a well-defined and natural group, and should have place as such in a systematic work. It is a large order, containing nearly 5,000 species, mostly parasitic on dead animals and vegetable matter. The spores, termed conidia, are free, as in Hymenomycetes. The species are microscopic in size, and the hyphÆ are strongly developed. They have no hymenium and no true basidia, and are non-sexual in their reproduction.

The four primary sections are the MucedineÆ, or "white moulds;" the DematieÆ, or "black moulds;" the Stilbea, with the hyphÆ or thread-like filaments pallid or brown, and densely cohering, and the TubercularieÆ, with the hyphÆ densely compacted in wart-like pustules of somewhat gelatinous consistency.

The divisions called MelanconieÆ, SphÆropsideÆ, and HyphomyceteÆ are not recognized in the Brefield system of classification as distinct groups. Massee and Cooke, with other mycologists, take exception to this omission and its implication, in their discussion of the subject, giving consistent reasons for the retention of these groups in systematic works.

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PHYCOMYCETES OR PHYSOMYCETES.

As originally defined by Berkeley, this group was composed chiefly of the old typical Mucors and their allies, and was then termed Physomycetes. In the newer system of classification its original definition has been extended so as to include a number of groups somewhat dissimilar in their habits and characteristics, but "united under the conservating bond of a dimorphic reproduction," and the name has been changed to Phycomycetes. As at present recognized "the Phycomycetes are characterized by a unicellular mycelium, often parasitic on plants or animals, sometimes saprophytic, developed in the air or in water. Reproduction sexual or asexual." As thus interpreted, Phycomycetes includes the Mucoracei; the PeronosporaceÆ, or "rotting moulds;" the Cystopi, or "white rusts;" the SaprolegniaceÆ, or "fish moulds;" the EntomophthoraceÆ, or "insect moulds," together with a few minor groups of doubtful natural affinity.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY.

Saccardo, P. A. "Sylloge SphÆropsidearum et Melanconiearum," in Sylloge Fungorum. Vol. iii. Imp. 8vo. Padua, 1884.

L. A. Crie. Recherches sur les Pyrenomycetes inferieurs du group de DepazÉes. 8vo. Paris, 1878.

J. C. Corda. Icones Fungorum. Fol. 6 vol. Prague, 1837-'54.

Bonorden. Zur Kenntniss der Coniomyceten u. Cryptomyceten. 4to. Halle, 1860.

M. C. Cooke. The Hyphomycetous Fungi of the United States. 8vo. 1877.

P. A. Saccardo. Sylloge Fungorum. Vol. iv.—"HyphomyceteÆ." Padua, 1886.

De Toni, J. B. "Sylloge Ustilaginearum et Uredinearum," in Saccardo, Sylloge Fungorum. Imp. 8vo. Vol. vii, pt. ii. Padua, 1888.

Geo. Winter in Rabenhorst's Kryptogamen Florader Pilze. 8vo. Cuts. 1884.

Geo. Massee. British Fungi—Phycomycetes and UstilagineÆ. 8vo. Cuts. London, 1891.

O. Brefield. Bot. Untersuch. Ü. Hefenpilze. Leipzig, 1883.

Tulasne. "Memoire sur les UstilaginÉes comparÉes aux UredinÉes." Ann. des Sci. Nat., 3d series, vol. vii. Paris, 1847.

M. Woronin. Beitrag zur Kenntniss der Ustilagineen. 1882.

M. C. Cooke. Rust, Smut, Mildew, and Mould. 12mo. Col. plates. London, 1870.

C. B. Plowright. A Monograph of the British UredineÆ and UstilagineÆ. 8vo. London, 1889.

W. C. Smith. Diseases of Field and Garden Crops. 12mo. Cuts. London, 1884.

D. D. Cunningham. Conidial Fructification in the Mucorini.

R. Thaxter. "The EntomophthoreÆ of the United States." Memoirs of Boston Society of Natural History. Vol. iv, 4to. Plates. 1888.

L. Mangin. Sur le Structure des PeronosporÉes. Paris, 1890.

K. Lindstedt. Synopsis d. Saprolegniaceen. 8vo. Four plates. Berlin, 1872.

M. Cornu. "Monographie des SaprolegniÉes." Ann. des Sci. Nat., 5th series. Vol. xv. Paris, 1872.

M. C. Cooke. Synopsis Pyrenomycetum. 2 parts. 8vo. London, 1884-'86.

A. de Zaczewski. "Classification naturelle des Pyrenomycetes." Bull. Soc. Myc. de France, vol. x. 1894.

J. B. Ellis and B. M. Everhart. The North American Pyrenomycetes.

M. C. Cooke. Mycographia, vol. i. "Discomycetes." Col. plates. Imp. 8vo. London, 1879.

W. Phillips. A Manual of British Discomycetes. Im. 8vo. Plates. London, 1887.

P. A. Saccardo. "Sylloge Discomycetum," in Sylloge Fungorum. Vol. viii. Padua, 1889.

R. Hartig. Text Book of Diseases of Trees. Roy. 8vo. London, 1894.

Geo. Massee. The Evolution of Plant Life, Lower Forms. 12mo. London, 1891.

Marshall Ward. Diseases of Plants. 12mo. Cuts. London, 1884.

A. De Bary. Recherches sur le Developpement de quelques champignons parasites. 8vo. Plates. Berlin, 1878-'94.

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APPENDIX.

• Superior, the upper surface; applied to the ring when near the apex of the stem.

• Tetraspore, tetra Gr. four; spores.
• Theca, cell-mother, the protoplasm of which originates by segmentation; a certain number of spores, usually eight, held in suspension in the protoplasm of the theca without being attached to each other or to the cell walls.
• Thecaspore, the spore thus encased.
• Tomentose, downy, with short hairs.
• Torsive, spirally twisted.
• Torulose, a cylindrical body swollen and restricted alternately.
• Toxic, poisonous.
• Trama, the substance proceeding from the hymenophore, intermediate between the plates (central in) of the gills of agarics.
• Transverse, crosswise.
• Tremelloid, jelly-like.
• Truncate, ending abruptly, as if cut short; cut squarely off.
• TubÆform, trumpet-shaped.
• Tubercle, a small wart-like excrescence.
• Tubular, hollow and cylindrical.
• Turbinate, top-shaped.
• Typical, agreeing closely with the characters assigned to a group or species.

• Umbilicate, having a central depression.
• Umbo, the boss of a shield; applied to the central elevation of the cap of some mushrooms.
• Umbonate, having a central boss-like elevation.
• Uncinate, hooked.
• Unequal, short imperfect gills interspersed among the others.
• Universal, used in relation to the veil or volva which entirely envelops the mushroom when young.

• Variety, an individual of a species differing from the rest in external form, size, color, and other secondary features, without perpetuating these differences only under exceptional circumstances.
• Veil, in mushrooms a partial covering of the stem or margin of the pileus.
• Veliform, a thin veil-like covering.
• Venate, Veined, intersected by swollen wrinkles below and on the sides.
• Ventricose, swollen in the middle.
• Vernicose, shining as if varnished.
• VerrucÆ, warts or glandular elevations.
• Verrucose, covered with warts.
• Villose, villous, covered with long, weak hairs.
• Virescent, greenish.
• Virgate, streaked.
• Viscid, covered with a shiny liquid which adheres to the fingers when touched.
• Viscous, gluey.
• Volute, rolled up in any direction.
• Volva, a substance covering the mushroom, sometimes membranous, sometimes gelatinous; the universal veil.

• Walnut brown, a deep brown like that of some varieties of wood. (Raw umber, and burnt sienna and white.)
• Wart, an excrescence found on the cap of some mushrooms; the remains of the volva in form of irregular or polygonal excrescences, more or less adherent, numerous, and persistent.

• Zone, a broad band encircling a mushroom.
• Zoned, furnished with one or more concentric circles.

Although some writers apply the terms spore, sporidia, sporophore, sporules, and conidia somewhat indiscriminately to all spore bodies, in order to avoid confusion, it is now recommended by the best authorities that certain distinctive limitations should be adhered to in the use of these terms. Saccardo, in defining the terms which he employs, accepts the term spores as applicable exclusively to the naked spores supported on basidia, as found in the BasidiomyceteÆ. The term sporidia he limits to spores produced or enclosed in an ascus, as in the AscomyceteÆ. The term sporules he applies to the spores of imperfect fungi, where they are enclosed in perithecia (microscopic cups or cells), such as the SphÆropsidea. The term conidia he uses to designate the spores of imperfect fungi without perithecia or asci, such as the HyphomyceteÆ and the MelanconieÆ. This arrangement is in accordance with M. C. Cooke's published views on the subject, except in the case of the spore bodies of the MelanconieÆ, which he prefers, for well-defined reasons, to call sporules.

In accordance with these limitations, the terms spermatia, stylospores, and clinospores are merged in sporule.

Other terms appropriate to their development are employed to designate the spores of UredineÆ, PhycomyceteÆ, etc.

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AUTHOR OF FOOD PRODUCTS, ETC.

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Published in Serial Form—No. 4—Price, 50c. per number.

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WASHINGTON, D. C.:
A. R. Taylor, Publisher, 238 Mass. Ave. N.E.
1897.

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Copyright, 1897, by
Thomas Taylor, M. D.,
and
A. R. Taylor

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GASTEROMYCETES.

Hymenium more or less permanently concealed, consisting in most cases of closely packed cells of which the fertile ones (the basidia) bear naked spores on distinct spicules, exposed only by the rupture or decay of the investing coat or peridium. Berkeley's Outlines.

This family has been subjected to numerous revisions since the days of Fries, when its structural characteristics were not so well understood as at present.

Montagne and Berkeley are credited with being the first to show the true structure of the hymenium in the puff-balls, as well as to demonstrate the presence of basidia. This important discovery led to the correlating of the Gasteromycetes with the Hymenomycetes under the common title Basidiomycetes, both having the spores borne upon basidia. The two families still remained distinct, however, not only because of the dissimilarity in their external features but principally on account of the difference in the disposition and character of the hymenium.

In the Hymenomycetes the hymenium is exposed to the light from the first, and the spores drop from the basidia as they mature; whereas in the Gasteromycetes the hymenial pulp, or gleba, consisting of the spores with the supporting basidia and the hyphÆ, is enclosed within the substance of the fungus, and the spores are exposed only on the decay of the investing coat.

The basidia of the Gasteromycetes, though resembling those of the Hymenomycetes, are more variable in form and the number of the spores not so constant. They perform the same functions and bear spicules, sometimes in pairs, sometimes quaternate, each spicule being surmounted by a spore. They dissolve away as the spores mature and can, therefore, only be observed in the very young stage of the plant. The spores of the Gasteromycetes are usually colored and, except in the subterranean species, globose. As seen through the microscope they have often a rough warty appearance, sometimes spinulose. Paraphyses may be present as aborted basidia, but cystidia are rarely distinguished. A characteristic of a large proportion of the plants is the drying up of the hymenial substance, so that the cavity of the receptacle becomes at length filled with a dusty mass composed of spores and delicate threads, the remains of the shriveled hyphÆ.

The following table will serve to show the distinctive features of the four primary divisions of the Gasteromycetes:

• LycoperdaceÆ.—Hymenium fugitive, drying in a dusty mass of threads and spores, dispersed by an opening or by fissures of the peridium. Terrestrial.
• PhalloideÆ.—Hymenium deliquescent and slimy; receptacle pileate; volva universal. Foetid fleshy fungi.
• HypogÆi, or HymenogastreÆ.—Hymenium permanent, not becoming dusty or deliquescent except when decayed. Capillitium wanting. Subterranean.
• NidulariaceÆ.—Receptacle cup-shaped or globose; spores produced on sporophores or short basidia enclosed in globose or disciform bodies (sporangia) contained within a distinct peridium. Terrestrial.

The section LycoperdaceÆ contains upwards of 500 species or more than two-thirds of the whole number of recorded species of the Gasteromycetes. Lycoperdon, Bovista, and Geaster, its most conspicuous genera, are said to contain the largest number of well-known species. A few are edible.

The PhalloideÆ include about 90 species. The plants are usually ill-smelling and unwholesome. Some are stipitate, others are latticed, etc. Some are conspicuous for their bright coloring. In the young stage they are enclosed in an egg-shaped volva having a gelatinous inner stratum.

The plants of the NidulariaceÆ are very minute, tough, and widely distributed. The species Cyathus, the "bird's-nest fungus," is quite common in some localities, and is interesting because of its peculiar form. The individual plant is very small, not more than two centimeters high. It resembles an inverted bell, or a miniature wine-glass. A delicate white membrane covers the top at first. This disappears as the plant matures, revealing lentil-shaped bodies packed closely together like eggs in a nest. These oval bodies are the peridiola containing the spores. They are usually found upon rotten wood or sticks on the ground. Sixty-five species are recorded, but none are edible.

The plants of the division HypogÆi or HymenogastreÆ are subterranean in habit, preferring a sandy soil. They are usually somewhat globose in form, having a thick outer coat or peridium, though in some of the genera the outer coat is very thin or obsolete. They are dingy in color. In the young plants the interior substance somewhat resembles that of the truffle, but is streaked and mottled. When old the gleba consists of a dusty mass of threads and spores. They are known under various appellations, such as "underground puff-balls," "false truffles," etc.

The HypogÆi are analogous to the Tuberacei, except that the spores are not contained in asci as in the latter. Cooke says they appear to be the link which unites the Basidiomycetes to the Ascomycetes by means of the Tuberacei or genuine Truffles. In the young stage the basidia in the HypogÆi are easily distinguished by the aid of the microscope.

In external features and habit of growth the species of Elaphomyces, a genus of Tuberacei, closely resemble the HypogÆi, and in old age, when the asci have disappeared, it is difficult to distinguish the plants of this genus from the HypogÆi.

The genus Melanogaster contains an edible species, M. variegatus, Tulasne, commonly known in Europe as the "Red Truffle" or "False Truffle." M. variegatus is usually gregarious and subterranean in habit. The exterior is minutely granular, tawny yellow or reddish rust color; the interior soft, bluish-black, streaked with yellow, the spore mass in maturity becoming pubescent. The odor is pleasantly aromatic, and the taste sweet. Under trees in woods. The variety Broomeianus Berk. is paler in the marbling, which shows reddish instead of yellow streaks. The pulpy mass is at first white, changing to a yellowish, smoky hue.

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LycoperdaceÆ and PhalloideÆ.

The plants figured in Plates G and H belong to the LycoperdaceÆ and PhalloideÆ.

LycoperdaceÆ.

Massee, who has given the Puff-Ball group very close study, says that in the gleba of the LycoperdaceÆ, "at a very early period two sets of hyphÆ are present. One, thin-walled, colorless, septate and rich in protoplasm, gives origin to the trama, and elements of the hymenium, and usually disappears entirely after the formation of the spores; the second type consists of long thick-walled aseptate or sparsely septate, often colored hyphÆ, which are persistent and form the capillitium. The latter are branches of the hyphÆ forming the hymenium."

Genera Lycoperdon and Bovista.

To the genera Lycoperdon and Bovista belong most of the "Puff-balls" and all of the species figured in Plate G. In the plants of these two genera the peridium is more or less distinctly double, and the hyphÆ, or delicate threads which are seen mixed with the dusty mass of spores in the mature plant, forming what is called the capillitium, are an important element in classification.

Genus Lycoperdon Tourn. In this genus the investing coat or peridium is membranaceous, vanishing above or becoming flaccid; bark or outer shell adnate, sub-persistent, breaking up into scales or warts; capillitium soft, dense, and attached to the peridium, base spongy and sterile.

Plate G.

EDIBLE PUFF-BALLS.

Fig. 1.—Lycoperdon cÆlatum Fries. "Collapsing Puff-Ball."

Peridium flaccid above, with mealy coating, obtuse, at length collapsing, the sterile stratum cellulose. Inner peridium distinct from the outer all round; capillitium nearly free, collapsing when mature, threads long and brittle; spores dingy olive, turning brown; base stem-like, broad and blunt, with root, obconical, somewhat spongy. Common in pastures and open woods. Edible when young, but not much commended. Plant pale cream color.

Figs. 2 and 3.—Lycoperdon gemmatum Batsch. "Warted Puff-Ball," "Studded Puff-Ball."

Plant sub-globular, with a stem-like base; white or cinereous, turning to light greyish-brown, the surface warty, the warts unequal, the larger ones somewhat pointed, the smaller granular. As the warts fall off they leave the surface of the denuded peridium somewhat dotted or slightly reticulated. Flesh, when young, firm and whitish. The plants of this species are small, variable in form, sometimes turbinated, sometimes nearly globose, or depressed globose, but usually the basal portion is narrower than the upper portion. The stem varies in thickness and length; sometimes it is quite elongated, in some instances absent. Capillitium and spores yellowish-green, turning dark olive or brown. Columella present. When the spores are fully ripe the peridium opens by a small apical aperture for their dispersion. The plants are sometimes densely cÆspitose, and crowd together on the ground or on decaying wood in large patches after warm rains. They are found both in fields and open woods during summer and autumn. They are edible when young, but not specially well flavored. There are several varieties. Plants sometimes oval or lens-shaped.

In Var. hirtum the plant is turbinate, subsessile, and hairy, with slender, spinous warts. The variety papulatum is subrotund, sessile, papillose and pulverulent, the warts being nearly uniform in size. Plants from one to two inches in height.

Figs. 4 and 5.—Lycoperdon pyriforme Schaeffer. "Pear-Shaped Puff-Ball."

Plant dingy white or brownish yellow; pear-shaped, or obovate pyriforme, sometimes approaching L. gemmatum in size and shape, but easily distinguished from that species by the surface features of the peridium and the internal hyphÆ. The persistent warts which cover the surface of the peridium are so minute as to appear to the naked eye like scales. In some instances the peridium is almost smooth, and sometimes cracks in areas, inner peridium thin and tough. The hyphÆ are thicker than the spores and branched, continuous with the slightly cellular base, and forming a columella inside the peridium. Spores greenish-yellow, then brownish-olive, smooth and globose.

The short stem-like base of the plant terminates in fiber-like rootlets, creeping under the soil and branching, thus attaching large clusters of the young plants together. They are often found in quantity on the mossy trunks of fallen trees.

Fig. 6.—Lycoperdon giganteum Batsch. "Giant Puff-Ball."

The Giant Puff-Ball, so generally neglected, is one of the most valuable of the edible mushrooms. It is readily distinguished from other puff-balls and allied fungi by its large size. It is subglobose in form, often flattened at the top and usually wider than deep. The peridium or rind is membranaceous, smooth, or very slightly floccose, and creamy white at first, turning to pale yellowish-brown when the plant is old. When young it is filled with a white, seemingly homogeneous fleshy substance of pleasant flavor. This substance changes, when mature, to an elastic, yellowish or olivaceous brown, cottony but dusty mass of filaments and spores. The peridium is very fragile above, cracking into areÆ in the mature plant and breaking up and falling away in fragments, thus allowing the dispersion of the spores. The capillitium and spores are at first greenish-yellow, turning to dingy olive. The plants vary in size, but average from ten to twenty inches in diameter. In the columns of the Country Gentleman some years ago there appeared a description of a puff-ball of this species which weighed forty seven pounds and measured a little over eight feet in circumference. It was found in a low, moist corner of a public park. Specimens weighing from twenty to thirty pounds are recorded as being found in different parts of the country; but specimens of such large dimensions are unusual. This species is found in many parts of the United States. It is the L. bovista of Linn. Sacc.

A correspondent writes that he has found the giant puff-ball in great abundance growing on the Genessee Flats, Livingstone Co., New York. Another writes from Nebraska that it is quite abundant on the prairies there in summer. A third writes from Missouri, "Since the late rains we have had puff-balls in abundance, and find them delicious made into fritters."

The puff-balls should be gathered young. If the substance within is white and pulpy, it is in good condition for cooking, but if marked with yellow stains it should be rejected.

Vittadini says:

"When the giant puff-ball is conveniently situated you should only take one slice at a time, cutting it horizontally and using great care not to disturb its growth, to prevent decay, and thus one may have a fritter every day for a week."

Different authors write with enthusiasm of the merits of the giant puff-ball as an esculent.

Mrs. Hussey, an English botanist, gives the following receipt for "puff-ball omelet:"

First, remove the outer skin; cut in slices half an inch thick; have ready some chopped herbs, pepper, and salt; dip the slices in the yolk of an egg, and sprinkle the herbs upon them; fry in fresh butter, and eat immediately.

I have tested fine specimens of the giant puff-ball gathered in the public parks of Washington, D. C., finding it delicious eating when fried in batter.

Figs. 7 and 8.—Lycoperdon cyathiforme Bose. "Cup-shaped Puff-Ball."

Synonyms—L. fragile Vitt. L. albopurpureum Frost.

Plant nearly globose, with a short, thick, stem-like base, color varying, cinereous, brown, tinged with violet.

Rind or peridium smooth, or minutely floccose, scaly in the mature plant, cracking into somewhat angular areas, the upper portion finally falling away in fragments, leaving a wide cup-shaped base, with irregular margin, which remains long after the dispersion of the spores and capillitium. This basal portion is often tinged with the purplish hue of the spores. Spores rough, purplish-brown. Capillitium same color as the spores.

Lycoperdon cyathiforme is a more common species than L. giganteum, and is deemed quite equal to the latter in flavor. The plants are of good size, being from 4 to 10 inches in diameter.

They are frequently found in open fields and grassy places after electric storms. When sliced and fried in egg batter, they taste much like the giganteum or giant puff-ball.

A puff-ball which is not inferior to either of the two last-named species, though not as large, and perhaps not as abundant as either, is the Lycoperdon saccatum of Fries, sometimes called the "Long-stemmed puff-ball," because of its elongated stem.

The plants of this species are attractive in appearance, usually hemispherical, or lentiform in shape, with cylindrical stem-like base. The peridium is thin and delicate, breaking into fragments; creamy white in the young stage, and clothed with delicate warts, so minute as to give the surface a soft mealy appearance, the under surface somewhat plicate. Capillitium sub-persistent and dense. Both spores and capillitium brown.

LYCOPERDACEÆ.

Genus Bovista Dill. Peridium papery (or sometimes corky), persistent; the outer rind, sometimes called the bark, quite distinct from the inner, at length shelling off. Capillitium sub-compact, equal, adnate to the peridium on all sides; spores pedicillate, brownish.

Figs. 9 and 10.—Bovista plumbea Pers. Lead-Colored Bovista.

Plant small, spherical, having a double shell or peridium, the inner one white and the outer one smooth and greyish lead-color or bluish-grey, and shelling off at maturity. When young the interior is filled with a creamy white substance. This soon begins to disintegrate, and, as the spores mature, changes to a mass of dusty brown spores and threads. When the spores are ready for dissemination a small aperture appears in the top of the peridium, through which they push their way outwards like a little puff of smoke.

When young, and while the flesh is white throughout, the plant is edible, although so small that it would take a quantity to make a good dish. It is found chiefly in pastures in the autumn. Sometimes found growing in company with Agaricus campestris. Of pleasant flavor when young.

Fig. 11. Basidium and spores of a Lycoperdon highly magnified.

An English author states that inflammation of the throat and swelling of the tongue have been known to ensue from eating some of the small species of Lycoperdon in the raw state. It would be a wise precaution, therefore, to cook all of the smaller species well before eating.

The genus Scleroderma is allied to Lycoperdon, but differs from it in the absence of a capillitium, and in the thick indehiscent outer skin, or peridium, which bursts irregularly on the maturity of the spore-mass, the flocci adhering on all sides to the peridium and forming distinct veins in the central mass.

The species Scleroderma vulgare is very common in woods, and has sometimes been mistaken for a form of Truffle. The plants are not very attractive, and the odor is rank. They are subsessile and irregular in shape, with a hard outer skin, the larger form of a yellowish or greenish brown hue, and covered with large warts or scales, the smaller very minutely warty, and of a darker brown hue. The internal mass is of a bluish-black hue, threaded through with white or greyish flocci. Spores dingy. The interior becomes pulverulent when the plant matures. This species has been eaten in its young state when cooked, but the flavor is by no means equal to that of the large puff-balls. It is sometimes attacked by a fungus larger than itself, called Boletus parasiticus, and this parasite is again attacked by a species of Hypomyces, one of the genera of the Pyrenomycetes, which grows in patches upon dead fungi.

PhalloideÆ or PhallaceÆ.

The PhalloideÆ, sometimes called the "Stink-horn" fungi on account of their foetid odor, are not numerous, the whole number of described species being about eighty. The plants are watery, quick in growth, and decay very rapidly. They are varied in form and are quite unlike the ordinary mushroom types. In some of the genera the plants are columnar and phalloid, in other clathrate or latticed, in others again the disk is stellate, and in one genus it is coralloid, but they are all enclosed, in the early stage, in a volva which is at first hidden or partially hidden beneath the surface of the ground. A gelatinous stratum is contained within the firmer outside membrane.

Genus Ithyphallus. In this genus the cap is perforated at the top, free from the stem and reticulate. No veil. The mature plants are columnar in form with the remains of the volva enclosing the column-like stem at the base; the cap in its deeply pitted reticulations somewhat resembling that of the Morel, although of different texture.

Plate H.

Figs. 1 to 6.—Ithyphallus impudicus Linn. "Foetid Wood Witch."

In the embryonic stage the plant is enclosed in a volva which is composed of three layers, the outer one firm, the intermediate one gelatinous, and the inner one consisting of a thin membrane. The gleba, or spore-bearing portion, in the early stage forms a conical honeycombed cap within the inner shell or membrane, concealing the stem to which it is attached. The stem at this stage is very short, cylindrical, and composed of small cells filled with a gelatinous substance. The volva is about the size of a hen's egg. On maturity it ruptures at the apex. The stem rapidly expands and, elongating, elevates the cap into the air. The stem becomes open and spongy, owing to the drying of the gelatinous matter and its quick expansion.

The whole plant attains a height of from four to ten inches in a few hours. The hymenial surface is on the outside of the cap, the spores being embedded in its glutinous coated ridges and depressions. The hymenium is at first firm but rapidly deliquesces, holding the spores in the liquid mass. The cap is greenish or greenish-gray in color, changing to a dark bottle-green. In its deliquescent state the odor is very repulsive. While enclosed in the volva the unpleasant odor is not so perceptible, and it has been eaten in that condition without unpleasant effects, but in its mature stage it is considered unwholesome, and certainly its offensive odor would be quite sufficient to deter most persons from attempting to test its edible qualities. Flies, however, are very fond of the fluid, and consume it greedily and with impunity. It is found in gardens and woods, its presence being detected several rods away by the offensive odor. Specimens occur in which the color of the cap is white or reddish.

In the allied genus Mutinus the pileus is adnate and is not perforated at the apex. Mutinus caninus resembles impudicus in form, but the cap is continuous with, not free from the stem, and is crimson in color, covered with a greenish-brown, odorless mucus. The stem is hollow, whitish, tinted with a pale yellow or orange color. Not common.

Genus Clathrus Mich. In this genus the receptacle is sessile, and formed of an obovate globular net-work. At first wholly enclosed in a volva which becomes torn at the apex and falls away, leaving a calyx-like base at its point of contact with the stem.

Fig. 7.—Clathrus cancellatus Tourn.

Unwholesome.

Receptacle bright vermillion or orange red, covered at first with a greenish mucus which holds the colorless spores. Volva white or pale fawn color. Odor strongly foetid.

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MYXOMYCETES OR MYXOGASTERS.—"Slime Fungi."

In their early history the Myxomycetes, or "slime moulds," were classed with the gasteromycetal fungi, and by Fries grouped as a sub-order of the Gasteromycetes, under the name Myxogasters. From this connection they were severed in 1833 by Link, who, recognizing certain distinctive features which entitled them to consideration as an entirely separate group, ranked the Myxogasters, as a separate order, under the title Myxomycetes, Slime moulds. De Bary, in a monograph on the subject written some years later, questioned the right of this group to the place assigned it in the vegetable world, claiming that the Myxogasters were as nearly related to the animal as to the vegetable kingdom, and changing the name to Mycetozoa. Massee assailed this position in his "Monograph of the Myxogasters," pointing out that De Bary derived his reasons and deductions from the early or vegetative stage of the fungi, without taking sufficiently into account the characteristics of the later or reproductive stage in which the great disparity between these organisms and those of the lower animals becomes apparent.

Dr. Rostafinski, the Polish botanist, and pupil of De Bary, adopts the name given the group by De Bary, but applies it in a more restricted sense, classifying on a botanical basis. Both De Bary and Massee have their earnest disciples. M. C. Cooke takes the ground that the Myxomycetes are entitled to mention as "fungi which produce their fructification enclosed within a peridium," although considering them as an aberrant group which, on account of certain peculiarities of their early or vegetative stage, should no longer be classed as having affinity with Gasteromycetes. Without further discussion of the subject, it is sufficient, for our present purpose, to state that mycologists now very generally agree in regarding this group as quite distinct from the Gasteromycetes.

The species are minute, rarely exceeding a millimeter in diameter, at first pulpy, then dry. In the early or vegetative stage the "slime mould" is plasmoidal, consisting of a mass of protoplasm without cell wall, and prefers damp surfaces, such as rotting leaves, moist logs, etc. The whole substance is slippery or slimy and presents different hues, red, orange, violet, brown, etc., according to species, but never green. It is in the reproductive or fruiting stage that their resemblance to microscopic puff-balls appears, the sporangium in many species exhibiting a distinct peridium or outer coat which encloses the spores together with the hair-like threads called the capillitium. On the ripening of the spores this peridium ruptures, allowing their escape, the capillitium lending valuable aid in their dissemination.

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GENERA OF GASTEROMYCETES, ACCORDING TO SACCARDO.

• PhallaceÆ, or PhalloideÆ.
  • Dictyophora, Desvaugh.
  • Ithyphallus, Fr.
  • Mutinus, Fr.
  • Kalchbrennera, Berk.
  • Simblum, Klotzsch.
  • Clathrus, Mich.
  • Colus, Cav. & Sech.
  • Lysurus, Fr.
  • Anthurus, Kalchbr.
  • Calathiscus, Mont.
  • AseroË, La Bill.
  • Staurophallus. (?)
• NidulariaceÆ.
  • Nidularia, Fr. & Nordh.
  • Cyathus, Hall.
  • Crucibulum, Tul.
  • Thelebolus, Tode.
  • Dacryobolus, Fr.
  • SphÆrobolus, Tode.
  • Polyangium, Link.} Genera delenda.
  • Atractobolus, Tode.
• LycoperdaceÆ.
  • Gyrophragmium, Mont.
  • Secotium, Kunze.
  • Polyplocium, Berk.
  • Cycloderma, Klotzsch.
  • Mesophellia, Berk.
  • Cauloglossum, Grev.
  • Podaxon (Desv.) Fr.
  • SphÆriceps, Welw. & Curr.
  • Tylostoma, Pers.
  • Queletia, Fr.
  • Battarrea, Pers.
  • Husseya, Berk.
  • Mitremyces, Nees.
  • Geaster, Mich.
  • Diplocystis, B. & C.
  • Diploderma, Link.
  • Trichaster, Czern.
  • Broomeja, Berk.
  • Coilomyces, B. & C.
  • Lanophila, Fr.
  • EriosphÆra, Reich.
  • Bovista, Dill.
  • Calvatia, Fr.
  • Lycoperdon, Tourn.
  • Hippoperdon, Mont.
  • Scleroderma, Pers.
  • Castoreum, C. & M.
  • Xylopodium, Mont.
  • Areolaria, Forquigu.
  • Phellorina, Berk.
  • Favillea, Fr.
  • Polygaster, Fr.
  • Polysaccum, D. C.
  • Testicularia, Klotzsch.
  • Arachnion, Schw.
  • Scoleciocarpus, Berk.
  • Paurocotylis, Berk.
• HymenogastraceÆ (HypogÆi).
  • Hysterangium, Vitt.
  • Octaviania, Vitt.
  • Rhizopagon, Fr.
  • Melanogaster, Corda.
  • Hymenogaster, Vitt.
  • Hydnangium, Walk.
  • Gautieria, Vitt.
  • Macowanites, Kalchbr.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY.

E. Fischer, etc. "GasteromycetÆ," Saccardo, Sylloge Fungorum. Vol. vii, part i. Padua, 1888.

Chas. H. Peck. "United States species of Lycoperdon."

Geo. Massee. "Monograph of the British Gasteromycetes." Annals of Botany, Nov., 1889. "Monograph of the Genus Lycoperdon" in Journal Royal Micro. Soc. London, 1887.

C. Bambeke. Morphologie du Phallus impudicus. Gand, 1889.

A. P. Morgan. "North American Geasters" in American Naturalist. Roy. 8vo. 1887.

L. and C. Tulasne. "Essai d'une Monographie des Nidulariees." Ann. des Sci. Nat. 8vo. Paris, 1844.

M. C. Cooke. The Myxomycetes of Great Britain. Plates. 8vo. London, 1877. The Myxomycetes of the United States, by the same author. New York, 1877.

Geo. Massee. A Monograph of the Myxogasters. Col. plates. Roy. 8vo. London, 1892.

A. De Bary. "Die Mycetozoon" (Schleimpilz). Plates. 8vo. Leipzig, 1864.

J. Rostafinski. Sluzowce, Mycetozoa Monografia. Plates. 4to. Paris, 1875.

Geo. A. Rex. New American Myxomycetes. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., part iii, Dec. 16, 1890, pp. 436-438.

Balliet Letson. "Slime Molds." The Ornithologist and Botanist. Vol. i. Binghamton, N. Y., Nov., 1891, p. 85. 1 col.

Thos. H. McBride. "The Myxomycetes of Eastern Iowa." Bulletin from the Laboratories of Natural History of the State University of Iowa. Iowa City, Iowa, 1892.

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AGARICINI.

Subgenus Lepiota Fries. Veil universal and concrete, with the cuticle of the pileus breaking up in the form of scales. Gills typically free, often remote, not sinuate or decurrent. Stem generally distinct from the hymenophore. Volva absent. Habitat terrestrial, mostly found on rich soil or in grassy places. (In Saccardo's Sylloge, Lepiota is given generic rank.)

The Lepiotas have a wide geographical distribution. No less than 225 species have been recorded as found in different parts of the world. These are pretty evenly divided between the torrid and temperate zones. They are generally smaller than the Amanitas, less fleshy and somewhat dry and tough. The flesh is soft and thready, not brittle. In the plants of most of the species the cap is rough, the cuticle being broken up into tufts or scales. These tufts are readily distinguished from the warts which characterize certain species of Amanita, being formed from the breaking up of the cuticle with the concrete veil, while the wart-like excrescences seen upon Amanita muscaria, for example, are composed of fragments of the volva, which is always found enclosing the very young plants of the genus Amanita.

A few of the species are characterized by a smooth cap; in some instances it is granulose or mealy. Usually the cuticle is dry, but in a few of the species it is viscid. The stem is generally long and hollow, and, being of different texture from the flesh of the cap, is easily separated from it, often leaving a distinct socket at the junction of stem and cap. It is sometimes smooth, sometimes floccose. In some species it is bulbous at the base, in others not. The ring which encircles the stem is at first continuous with the cuticle of the cap, breaking apart with its expansion. It is sometimes movable, sometimes evanescent.

The species generally are considered edible, or innoxious. None are recorded as dangerous. A mycophagist from Augusta, Ga., reports, however, that the members of a family in that vicinity were made quite ill from eating the Lepiota Morgani, a greenish-spored species of Lepiota, while he himself ate of the same dish, experiencing no unpleasant effects. I have had no personal experience with this species.

Two edible species of Lepiota, which are widely commended as of good quality, and which are sufficiently abundant to have value as esculents, are figured in Plate XI. A third, Ag. (Lepiota) cepÆstipes, var. cretaceus—Lepiota cretacea, figured in Plate XI½, is an exotic species found in greenhouses. It is of very delicate flavor.

Plate XI.

Figs. 1 to 4.—Ag. (Lepiota) procerus Scop. (Lepiota procera). "Parasol Mushroom."

Edible.

Cap at first ovate, then expanded, showing distinct umbo, cuticle thick, torn into evanescent scales; gills remote from the stem, free, white, or yellowish-white; stem long, slender, variegated with brownish scales, hollow or slightly stuffed, bulbous at the base, and bearing a well-defined thickish ring, which in the mature plant is movable. Spores white, elliptical. The color of the cap varies from a light tan or ochraceous yellow to a dark reddish-brown. The surface showing beneath the lacerated cuticle is of a lighter hue than the cuticle, and is silky and fibrillose, giving the cap a somewhat shaded or spotted appearance. The flesh is dry, soft and thready, white. Taste and odor pleasant.

Cap from 3 to 5 inches broad; stem from 5 to 10 inches high.

This species is commonly found in pastures and in open grassy places; sometimes in open woods near cultivated fields, usually solitary or in very small clusters. It is a favorite among mycophagists. Lepiota racodes closely resembles Lepiota procera, and by some botanists the two are regarded as forms of the same species. In L. racodes the pileus is at first globose, expanded, and finally depressed in the centre; the cuticle is thin and broken into persistent scales; the whole plant smaller than L. procera. Flesh slightly reddish when bruised. Edible. There is also a white variety (puellaris) with a floccose squamose cap.

Plate XI.

Figs. 5 to 9.—Ag. (Lepiota) naucinus Fries (Lepiota naucinoides Peck). "Smooth White Lepiota."

Edible.

Cap at first sub-globose, then curved, the surface smooth and satiny when dry, creamy white; gills close and slightly rounded at the inner extremity towards the stem, free from the stem, white; stem white, smooth, hollow, and bulbous at the base; ring thick, distinct, movable, white. The gills, soon after gathering, become suffused with a faint pinkish or fleshy tint. The spores are white, sub-elliptical. Specimens occur in which there is a slight granulation in the centre of the cap, but they are rare. The variety squamosa shows the surface of the cap, somewhat broken into thick scales.

L. naucinoides is a very clean and attractive looking mushroom, usually symmetrical in shape. It is a fleshier mushroom than L. procera, and is found in grassy places, in lawns, sometimes in gardens, or by roadsides, especially where the soil is rich. The specimens figured in Plate XI were gathered in a rose garden, growing in loamy soil. Specimens have been received from different States, some of them much larger than those here illustrated.

This mushroom is recorded by some authors as equal in flavor to the Parasol mushroom. When stewed with butter it makes a very appetizing dish.

There is a fatally poisonous mushroom to which it bears some resemblance, and which might be taken for it, viz., Amanita verna, or "Spring mushroom." It is therefore necessary, in order to guard against such a mistake, to give particular attention to the characteristics of these two mushrooms. They are both white throughout, and both have white spores and ringed stem. Amanita verna, however, carries a white volva or cup-shaped sheath at the base of the stem, and the gills do not show a pinkish or flesh colored tinge at any stage. In Lepiota naucinoides, as in all the Lepiotas, the volva is wanting. Amanita verna is apt to be moist and clammy to the touch, and is tasteless. L. naucinoides is dry, and has a pleasant flavor. The first is found wholly in woods; the second prefers pastures, open grassy places, and gardens, though sometimes found in light woods. I have never found an Amanita in a lawn, pasture, or garden.

An edible mushroom, Agaricus (Psalliota) cretaceus, found in pastures, bears a slight resemblance to L. naucinoides, when the color of the spores and gills are not taken into consideration. In the former the gills very quickly change from their early stage of rosy pink to a dark purplish-brown color, like that of the common mushroom. The spores are purplish-brown, while in L. naucinoides the pinkish hue which tinges the fading plant is very faint, and changes to a very light tan color with age. The spores being white, the gills retain their white color for a long time, never changing to dark brown.

L. Americana Pk. A. & S., L. excoriata Schaeff., and L. rubrotincta Pk. have been tested and are of good flavor.

L. Americana has a reddish or reddish-brown cap, umbonate, with close adpressed scales and white flesh. The gills are broad and free from the stem, sometimes anastomosing near it, white; stem white, hollow, tapering towards the cap, annulate. When dried the whole plant has a brownish-red hue. When cut or bruised it sometimes exudes a reddish juice. Miss Banning reports specimens found in Druid Hill Park, Baltimore. I have gathered very beautiful specimens in Montgomery county, Md. This mushroom sometimes grows to a very large size.

L. excoriata has a pale fawn-colored cap, slightly umbonate, with thin cuticle, breaking into scales; gills remote, white; stem white, hollow, and short, nearly cylindrical. Odor faint, pleasant.

L. rubrotincta Pk. "Red-tinted Agaric." Cap reddish or pinkish, broadly umbonate and clothed with adpressed scales; gills whitish, free, and close; stem nearly equal or slightly thickened at the base, with a well-developed persistent white or pinkish ring. Spores white, sub-elliptical.

L. holosericeus Fries has a fleshy white cap, soft, silky, and fibrillose, a solid bulbous stem, with persistent broad, reflexed ring, and free ventricose, white gills. Edible. It is found in gardens and cultivated places.

L. acutesquamosa Wein, found in greenhouses and soil in gardens, is a heavy but not very tall species. The cap is obtuse, and fleshy, at first floccose. As the cap expands it bristles with erect pointed tufts or scales. The gills are white or yellowish, lanceolate and simple, free from the stem. Stem bulbous, somewhat stuffed, rough or silky below the ring, and downy above. Ring persistent. Color of cap whitish or light brown, with darker scales.

L. granulosus Batsch. Cap thin, wrinkled or corrugated, granulose, mealy; gills white, reaching the stem, sometimes free. Plants very small and varying in color—pink, yellow, and white, according to variety.

L. amiantha. Plants very small, ochraceous in color, with yellow flesh and white gills adnate and crowded.

L. cepÆstipes Sow. Cap thin, broad, sub-membranaceous, broadly umbonate, adorned with mealy evanescent scales, margin irregular; gills white, at length remote. Stem hollow and floccose, narrow at top, ventricose; ring evanescent. Generally found in hothouses. Cap 1 to 3 inches broad. Stem 3 to 6 inches high. Spores white.

L. cristata is a common species found on lawns and in fields where the grass is short. The plants are small, the cap from ½ to 1½ inches in width. Not very fleshy. The cuticle of the cap is at first continuous and smooth but soon breaks into reddish scales. The stem is fistulose, slender and equal; gills free. Odor and taste somewhat strong and unpleasant.

Plate XI½.

Ag. (Lepiota) cepÆstipes, variety cretaceus Peck (Lepiota cretacea).

Edible.

This very delicate and beautiful agaric is found on tan and leaves in hothouses.

The specimens here delineated were gathered in one of the hothouses of the Agricultural Department and first described and figured in Food Products, No. 2, of the report of the Division of Microscopy. The plants are a pure white throughout, and both stem and pileus are covered with small chalk-white mealy tufts. Berkeley says, "this species is probably of exotic origin, as it never grows in the open air." It is also met with in the hothouses of Europe. Specimens have been received from contributors who gathered them in greenhouses in different localities. This species should not be confounded with the purplish-brown spored mushroom Agaricus (Psalliota) cretaceus, which has pink gills turning to dark brown and is allied to the common meadow mushroom.

Lepiota cretacea is a delicious mushroom when broiled, or cooked in a chafing dish, and served on hot buttered toast. It has a pleasant taste when raw.

Lepiota Morgani Peck, the "Green-Spored Lepiota," is an exception to the general type of Lepiotas in the color of its gills and spores. It is western and southern in its range. This species is described by Peck in the Botanical Gazette of March, 1897, p. 137, as follows: "Pileus fleshy, soft, at first sub-globose, then expanded, or depressed, white, the brownish or alutaceous cuticle breaking up into scales except on the disk; lamellÆ close, lanceolate, remote, white, then green; stem firm, equal, or tapering upwards, sub-bulbous, smooth, webby-stuffed, whitish, tinged with brown, annulus rather large, movable; flesh both of the pileus and stem white, changing to reddish, and then to yellowish hue when cut or bruised; spores ovate, sub-elliptical, mostly uninucleate, .0004 to .0005 inches long, .0003 to .00032 broad, sordid green.

"Plant 6 to 8 inches high, pileus 5 to 9 inches broad, stem 6 to 12 lines thick. Open dry grassy places. Dayton, Ohio. A. P. Morgan."

AGARICINI.

Genus Cortinarius Fries. This genus is distinguished by a cob-web-like veil, dry persistent gills, which in the mature plants become discolored, and pulverulent with the rusty or ochraceous colored spores. The veil is very delicate, resembling a spider's web. It is not concrete with the cuticle of the cap, but extends from its margin to the stem, in the young plants sometimes concealing the gills, but disappearing as the cap expands. Sometimes a few filaments are seen depending from the margin of the cap or encircling the stem.

In the young plants of this genus the gills vary very much in color. They are whitish, clay-color, violet, dark purple, blood-red, etc., according to species, but, as the plants mature, the gills become dusted with the rust-colored falling spores, and with age usually become a rusty ochraceous, or cinnamon color. The stem in some of the species is distinctly bulbous and in others equal, cylindrical, or tapering. In identifying the species it is necessary, in order to ascertain the true color of the gills, to examine the plants at different periods of growth.

The genus Cortinarius is a large one, and contains many beautiful species. It is mainly confined to temperate regions. Not a single species has been recorded as found in Ceylon, the West Indies, or Africa, but one tropical species is found in Brazil. Nearly four hundred species have been described, and over three hundred and seventy of these belong to the United States and Europe. A few are found in the extreme southern or temperate portion of South America, and several are reported from a temperate elevation among the Himalayas. Sweden and Great Britain, with their temperate climates, claim a large proportion of the European species. Not many of the Cortinarii have been recorded as edible, and none as dangerous. The Rev. M. J. Berkeley records, however, a case of poisoning by one of the species, C. (Inoloma) bolaris Pers., which though not fatal was somewhat alarming, the symptoms being great oppression of the chest, profuse perspiration, and the enlargement for two days of the salivary glands of the patient. I have seen no other statements relating to the poisonous properties of this species, and the results alluded to may have been owing to some individual idiosyncrasy.

Berkeley, in his "Outlines," gives the following description of this mushroom: "Pileus fleshy, obsoletely umbonate, growing pale, variegated with saffron-red, adpressed, innate scales; stem stuffed, then hollow, nearly equal, squamose, of the same color as the cap; gills subdecurrent, crowded, watery, cinnamon color. Cap 1 to 2 inches broad. Stem 2 to 3 inches long." In beech woods in September and October.

The genus Cortinarius has been divided by some authors into the following six groups: (1) Phlegmacium, in which the cap is fleshy and viscid, the veil partial, and the stem firm and dry; (2) Myxacium, in which the veil is universal and glutinous, hence the cap and stem both viscid; cap thin and the gills adnate or decurrent; (3) Inoloma, in which the cap is fleshy, dry, and at first silky with innate fibrils; veil simple and stem slightly bulbous; (4) Dermocybe, in which the pileus is thinly fleshy, dry, and at first downy, becoming smooth; the veil single and fibrillose; flesh watery, colored when moist, stem equal or attenuated downwards; (5) Telamonia, in which the cap is moist, at first smooth or dotted with the superficial fragments of the veil, the stem ringed below, or peronately scaly from the remains of the universal veil; (6) Hydrocybe, in which the cap is thin and moist, not viscid, smooth, or covered with superficial white fibrils; stem rigid, not scaly, veil thin, occasionally collapsed in an irregular ring. These subdivisions have been designated as tribes by some botanists and subgenera by others, etc. To the divisions Inoloma and Phlegmacium, respectively, belong the two species illustrated in Plate XII.

Plate XII.

Figs. 1 to 4.—Cortinarius (Inoloma) violaceus Fr. "Violet Cortinarius."

Edible.

Cap fleshy, at first convex, then nearly plane, dotted with hairy tufts or scales, margin at first involute, color purple or dark violet, flesh soft, purplish; gills distant, broad, adnate, somewhat rounded near the stem, at first purplish violet, changing to an ochraceous or brownish cinnamon color as the plant matures; stem solid, somewhat bulbous at the base, purple; cortina or veil white or tinged with violet, sometimes bluish.

This is a handsome species, and though it is somewhat rare in many localities, its pretty and unusual coloring does not allow it to be easily overlooked. It is edible, and has a mushroomy taste when raw. Agaricus nudus Bull, a purple species with white spores, is sometimes confounded with it. There are other purple species of Cortinarius not so pleasant to the taste, which bear some resemblance to C. violaceus. The specimens figured in Plate XII were gathered near Dedham, Mass., on open ground on the border of a stretch of pine woods.

Figs. 5 to 7.—Cortinarius (Phlegmacium) cÆrulescens.

Edible.

Cap fleshy, at first convex, then plane, surface even, viscid; color bluish or violet; gills adnexed and crowded, at first bluish, changing to violet or purplish hues; stem solid, short, and thick, with a broadly bulbous base, same color as the cap; veil filmy, single. In woods and on the borders of woods. This mushroom varies in color, the bluish or purplish tints being quite susceptible to atmospheric changes. When growing in the shade or well-sheltered places, it is much darker in hue than when exposed unsheltered to the bright sunlight. The specimen figured in Plate XII was gathered on low ground near a pine grove in Essex County, Mass.

Cortinarius (Phlegmacium) purpurascens Fr. bears a slight resemblance to cÆrulescens, but can be distinguished from it by the spotted or zoned character of the cap and the broadly emarginate gills.

Cortinarius turmalis, an edible autumnal species, having an ochraceous or brownish-yellow cap with emarginate or decurrent gills, the latter at first whitish, then reddish clay color, is found in abundance in some parts of Maryland. The gills are never tinged with purple or blue. The flesh is white. The plants are easily discovered by those familiar with their habitat, as they grow under pine needles in groups, forming small mounds extending over large spaces, and in these hiding places, in the autumnal months, they are free from insects and dust. I have collected a bushel of them in less than an hour in fresh condition in October. Some of the French authors do not class this species as edible. Gillet, in his Hymenomycetes of France, enumerates fifty-three edible species of Cortinarius, but places turmalis among the suspects. I find this mushroom not only edible, but very valuable, because of its abundance in the localities where found. It is often densely cÆspitose. The plant, when mature, is from 3 to 5 inches high.

C. sebÆceus, found also in pine woods, is recorded as edible. The plant is tall, white-stemmed, with broad tan-colored, somewhat viscid cap; emarginate gills, clay color at first, at last cinnamon color; stem solid, stout, fibrillose, and equal.

Cortinarius collinitus, Smeared Cortinarius, and Cortinarius cinnamomeus, with its variety semi-sanguinea, have also been tested, and found edible. The first of these is somewhat common. The plants when fresh are covered with a glutinous substance, and this should be removed before cooking. Cap smooth under the glutinous coat, light brown or tawny yellow in color, flesh white; gills whitish or light gray when young, cinnamon-hued in the matured plant. Stem solid, nearly equal, cylindrical, yellowish, and somewhat scaly. C. cinnamomeus belongs to the division Dermocybe. The cap is thin at first, silky with innate fibrids, becoming smooth, and varies from light brown to a dark cinnamon color. The gills are yellowish, then cinnamon; stem downy or silky, yellow. The variety semi-sanguinea has the lamellÆ red, almost as in the preceding species.

C. (Phlegmacium) varius, "Variable Cortinarius," edible, has a compact fleshy viscid, even cap, brownish in color, gills at first violet, changing to cinnamon, stout solid stem, white or whitish, adorned with adpressed flocci, flesh white.

Cortinarius (Telamonia) armillatus Fries is given in M. C. Cooke's list of edible Cortinarii. Cap fleshy but not thick, fibrillose and slightly scaly, bright bay color, thin uneven margin; stem solid, dingy, rufescent, showing irregular red zones or bands elongated and slightly bulbous at the base; gills distant, broad, pallid in color at first, changing to dark cinnamon. C. (Telamonia) hÆmatochelis Bull. (edible), somewhat resembles the former in color and size, though not so bright a brown. Cap thin, silky-fibrillose; gills adnate, narrow and crowded, light cinnamon; stem long, solid, dingy, with a reddish zone.

C. (Hydrocybe) castaneus Bull., Chestnut Cortinarius (edible), is found in woods and gardens. The plants of this species are usually small. Cap at first campanulate, expanding, sometimes slightly umbonate in the centre, chestnut color; gills ventricose, crowded, purplish, changing to rust color; stem short, hollow or stuffed, cartilaginous, equal, pallid, reddish brown, or tinged with violet; veil white.

Subgenus Collybia Fries. Cap at first convex, then expanded, not depressed, with an involute margin; gills reaching the stem, but not decurrent, sometimes emarginate; stem hollow, with cartilaginous bark of a different substance from the hymenophore, but confluent with it; often swollen and splitting in the middle; spores white. The plants are usually found growing upon dead tree stumps; some grow upon the ground; a few are parasitic on other fungi or springing from sclerotia, small impacted masses of mycelium. The species are generally small and firm and of slow growth. A few are edible, some few have an unpleasant odor. On account of the cartilaginous stem and the dryness of their substance, some of the smaller species are apt to be taken for Marasmii. Note: Saccardo in his Sylloge gives Collybia generic rank.

Plate XIII.

Figs. 1 to 3.—Ag. (Collybia) fusipes Bull. "Spindle-Foot Collybia."

Edible.

Cap fleshy, somewhat tough, convex, then plane, smooth, even or slightly cracked in places, umbo evanescent, reddish brown; gills adnexed, nearly free, broad, distant, at length separating near the stem, firm, white, changing to fawn color, or pale brown often spotted; stem long, stuffed, then hollow, externally cartilaginous, contorted, swollen in the middle, cracking in longitudinal slits, fusiform, tapering narrowly to a rooted base, reddish brown. On stumps in woods in the autumn. Cap 1 to 2 inches broad; stem 2 to 6 inches long. This species is densely cÆspitose. It is very generally recorded among authors as edible, although the flesh is somewhat tough. It requires long and slow cooking. An English author recommends it for pickling. Only the caps should be used for this purpose.

Figs. 4 to 6.—Ag. (Collybia) maculatus A. & S. (Collybia maculata). "Spotted White Collybia."

Cap fleshy and compact, convexo-plane, obtuse, smooth, even, margin thin, at first involute, turned inwards, white; stem long and stout, externally cartilaginous, ventricose, sometimes striate, tapering towards the base; gills free, or nearly so, narrow, crowded, somewhat linear, white, becoming spotted. Taste slightly acid. The whole plant is creamy white, becoming spotted and stained throughout with rusty-brown or foxy-red tints. The plants are usually large, long stemmed, and grow in irregular clusters on decayed tree stumps in woods. Specimens of a large size have been gathered in the fir woods near Mattapoisett, Massachusetts. Cap 3 to 5 inches broad; stem 3 to 5 inches long. The variety immaculatus differs from the typical form in not becoming spotted and in the broader gills, which are serrated.

Figs. 7 to 9.—Ag. (Collybia) velutipes Curt. "Velvet-Footed Collybia."

Cap fleshy, thin, at first convex, then plane, obtuse, smooth, viscid, tawny or brownish yellow, turning dark; flesh yellowish and soft; gills slightly adnexed, pale yellow; stem tough, stuffed, externally cartilaginous, sometimes slender, but usually thick, covered with a brown velvety down, dark bay color. This is a very common species in some localities. It is densely cÆspitose, growing in heavy clusters on old logs and tree trunks in parks, woods, and gardens. The plants are quite gelatinous when cooked. Group figured from illustration by M. C. Cooke.

Collybia radicata Rehl. is recorded as an edible species. The plants have a thin, slightly fleshy cap, slightly umbonate, wrinkled, and glutinous at maturity; distant, white, adnexed gills, and tall, slender, rigid stem. The latter is often twisted and usually attenuated upwards, color pale brown. It has a long tapering root entering deeply into the soil. This species is solitary in habit, and is commonly found in grass, or near decayed stumps. Cap from 2 to 3 inches in diameter, stem 6 inches to 10 inches in length.

Collybia esculenta Jacq., a small species found in pine woods as well as in pastures in the spring, is recorded as edible by a number of authors. In this species the cap is nearly plane, obtuse, and smooth, brownish; gills adnate, whitish; stem very slender, fistulose, equal, tough, smooth, reddish clay color, deeply rooting.

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APPENDIX.

As Chief of the Division of Microscopy, U. S. Department of Agriculture, the author prepared for the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago a collection of models of edible and poisonous mushrooms, for which a medal and diploma were there awarded. The same collection, which now belongs to the Museum of the Department of Agriculture, was exhibited at the Atlanta Cotton Exposition in 1895, where a diploma was again awarded for it, and has since been exhibited at the exposition of 1897 in Nashville, Tenn. The models composing this collection, about one thousand in number, were made from actual specimens and colored to nature, the same species being generally represented by numerous specimens so as to illustrate the various stages in the life of the plant, habit of growth, etc.

The following is a list of the mushrooms represented in this collection, among which there are types of most of the genera in which species recorded as edible occur:

Amanita CÆsarea Schaeff. "Orange Amanita." Edible.

Amanita rubescens Pers. "The Blusher." "Reddish-Brown Amanita." Edible.

Amanita strobiliformis Vitt. "Fir-Cone" or "Pine-Cone Amanita." Edible.

Amanita pantherinus D. C. "Panther Mushroom." Poisonous.

Amanita phalloides Fr. "Poison Amanita." Poisonous.

Amanita muscaria Linn. "Fly Amanita." "False Orange." Poisonous.

Amanita verna Bull. "Spring Mushroom." "Vernal Amanita." Poisonous.

Amanitopsis vaginata Roze. "The Grizette." "Sheathed Amanitopsis." Edible.

Lepiota procera Scop. "Parasol Mushroom." "Tall Lepiota." Edible.

Lepiota racodes Vitt. "Ragged Lepiota." Edible.

Armillaria mellea Fr. "Honey Mushroom." Edible.

Tricholoma terreum Schaeff. "The Gray Cap." Edible.

Clitocybe illudens Schw. "Giant Clitocybe." Unwholesome.

Clitocybe odora Bull. "Odorous Clitocybe." Edible.

Clitocybe laccata Scop. Edible.

Collybia fusipes Bull. "Spindle-Foot Collybia." Edible.

Pleurotus ostreatus Jacq. "Oyster Mushroom." Edible.

Pleurotus ulmarius Jacq. "Elm Pleurotus." Edible.

Volvaria bombycina Schaeff. "Silky Volvaria." This species has been recorded by some authors as poisonous. Hays, after testing it, speaks well of it, and states that is eaten on the Continent.

Volvaria speciosa Fr. Not commended.

Pholiota caperata Pers. Edible.

Agaricus campester. "Field Mushroom." Edible.

Agaricus arvensis Schaeff. "Horse Mushroom." Edible.

Hypholoma sublateritium. "Brick Top." Edible.

Hypholoma Candolliana. Edible.

Coprinus comatus Fr. "Shaggy Mane Mushroom." Edible.

Coprinus atramentarius. "Inky Coprinus." Edible.

Cortinarius turmalis Fr. Edible.

Cortinarius cÆrulescens Fr. Edible.

Hygrophorus conicus Fr. Conical Mushroom. Has been recorded by a number of authors as poisonous. Some later writers speak of it as edible.

Hygrophorus puniceus Fr. "Purplish Hygrophorus." Edible.

Hygrophorus ceraceus Fr. "Waxen Hygrophorus." Edible.

Lactarius deliciosus Fr. "Delicious Lactarius." Edible.

Lactarius volemus Fr. "Orange-brown Lactarius." Edible.

Lactarius torminosus Fr. This mushroom is said to contain an acrid juice which acts seriously on the stomach and alimentary canal.

Lactarius rufus Fr. Intensely acrid.

Lactarius vellereus Fr. Extremely acrid.

Lactarius piperatus. "Fiery Milk Mushroom." Extremely acrid when raw. The Russians parboil it, throwing away the liquid, before preparing for pickling. A noted German chemist reports it "not very safe."

Russula alutacea Fr. Yellow-gilled Russula. Edible.

Russula virescens Fr. Edible.

Russula cyanoxantha Schaeff. "Variable Russula." Edible.

Russula emetica Fr. This mushroom is extremely acrid when raw; by some authors it is recorded as poisonous, by others as edible. Chemical analysis has shown that it contains a varying proportion of muscarin, as well as cholin, etc.

Cantharellus cibarius Fr. "The Chantarelle." Edible.

Marasmius oreades Bolt. "The Fairy Ring Mushroom." Edible.

Boletus edulis Bull. Edible.

Boletus scaber Fr. Edible.

Boletus granulatus Linn. Edible.

Boletus brevipes Pk. Edible.

Boletus luteus Linn. Edible.

Boletus pachypus Fr. Edible.

Boletus Americanus Pk. Edible.

Boletus subtomentosus Linn. Edible.

Boletus castaneus Bull. Edible.

Boletus Satanus Lenz. "White-topped Boletus." Recorded as poisonous.

Boletus luridus Schaeff. "Red-pored Boletus." Recorded as poisonous.

Strobilomyces strobilaceus Bull. Edible.

Fistulina hepatica Fr. "Beefsteak Fungus." Edible.

Polyporus sulfureus Bull. Edible.

Hydnum repandum Linn. Edible.

Hydnum erinaceum Bull. Edible.

Sparassis crispa Wulf. Edible.

Clavaria cinerea Bull. Edible.

Clavaria rugosa. Edible.

Lycoperdon gemmatum Fr. Edible.

Lycoperdon giganteum Fr. "Giant Puff-Ball." Edible.

Lycoperdon pyriforme Schaeff. "Pear-shaped Puff-Ball." Edible.

Scleroderma vulgare Fr.

Morchella esculenta Pers. Edible.

Morchella conica Bull. Edible.

Hirneola auricula JudÆ Bull. Edible.

Ithyphallus impudicus Linn. Unwholesome.

Clathrus cancellatus Linn. Unwholesome.

Note.—In addition to the above there were also represented a number of coriaceous or woody species which grow upon trees, old stumps, etc.

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AUTHOR OF FOOD PRODUCTS, ETC.

Fellow of the A. A. A. S.; Hon. Member of the Mic. Section Royal Inst., Liverpool, England; Member of Honor of the International Medical Society of Hygiene, Brussels; Member of the American and Washington Chemical Societies; French Chemical Society, Paris; of the American Textile Society; Medical Society of Washington, D. C.; Cor. Member Academy of Arts and Sciences of Brooklyn, N. Y.; Cor. Member Mic. Societies of New York, Buffalo, etc., etc.

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Published in Serial Form—No. 5—Price, 50c. per number.

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WASHINGTON, D. C.:
A. R. Taylor, Publisher, 238 Mass. Ave. N.E.
1897.

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PUBLISHER'S NOTE.

It has not been possible to represent all the genera of mushrooms which contain species having value as esculents within the compass of this series of five pamphlets, but the demand for these promises to justify the publication, at a future date, of a second series, which the author now has in preparation.

A. R. T.

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Copyright, 1898, by
Thomas Taylor, M. D.,
and
A. R. Taylor.

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AGARICINI.

Leucospori—(Spores White).

Subgenus Pleurotus Fries. The Pleuroti are similar in some respects to the Tricholomas and Clitocybes, some of the species having notched gills near the stem, and others, again, having the gills decurrent, or running down the stem. Most of the species grow upon dead wood or from decaying portions of live trees. Very few grow upon the ground. The stem is mostly eccentric, lateral, or wanting; when present it is homogeneous or confluent with the substance of the cap; the substance may be compact, spongy, slightly fleshy, or membranaceous. Veil evanescent or absent. The spores are white or slightly tinted.

M. C. Cooke figures over thirty species of Pleurotus found in Great Britain, and describes 45 species found in Australia. With few exceptions, all of these grow upon wood. Very few have value as esculents.

Plate J.

Ag. (Pleurotus) ostreatus Jacq. "Oyster Mushroom."

Edible.

Cap soft, fleshy, smooth, shell-shaped, white or cinereous, turning brownish or yellowish with age. Flesh white, somewhat fibrous. Gills white, broad and decurrent, anastamosing at the base. Stem usually not well defined, lateral, or absent. Spores elliptical, white. The caps are sometimes thickly clustered and closely overlapping, and sometimes wide apart. This mushroom has long been known as edible both raw and cooked. It has a pleasant but not decided flavor and must be cooked slowly and carefully to be tender and easily digestible. Old specimens are apt to be tough. It is found on decaying wood and often on fallen logs in moist places or upon decaying tree-trunks. It is frequently recurrent on the same tree. I have gathered great quantities of the Oyster mushroom during several seasons past from a fallen birch tree which spanned a small stream. The lower end of the tree rested on the moist ground at the edge of the stream. Specimens have been found on the willow, ash and poplar trees, and upon the apple and the laburnum.

Pleurotus sapidus Kalchb. Sapid Pleurotus. Edible.

This species closely resembles the Oyster mushroom in form and habit of growth, and is by some considered only a variety of P. ostreatus. It grows usually in tufts with the caps closely overlapping, varying in color white, ashy, grayish or brownish. Flesh white. The stems are white, smooth and short, mostly springing from a common base. The gills are white and very broad, and decurrent. The spores assume a very pale lilac tint on exposure to the atmosphere.

Pleurotus ulmarius Bull. "Elm Pleurotus." Edible.

The Elm Pleurotus is quite conspicuous by reason of its large size and light color. The cap is smooth and compact, usually whitish with a dull yellowish tinge in the center. Flesh white. The skin cracks very easily, giving it a scaly appearance. The gills are broad, and toothed or notched near their point of attachment to the stem as in the Tricholomas, white in color, turning yellowish with age. The stem is firm and smooth, solid and rather eccentric, thick and sometimes slightly downy near the base, from two to four inches in length. Although this mushroom seems to prefer the elm and is most frequently found on trees of that species, it is found also upon other trees, but principally the maple, the ash, the willow, and the poplar. It grows upon live trees, usually where the branches have been cut away, and upon stumps as well. Most authors recommend it as an esculent, although it has not the rich flavor of some other mushrooms. It dries well and can be kept thus for winter use. This species has a wide range and grows most abundantly in the autumn. Its resistance to cold has been frequently remarked.

AGARICINI.

Subgenus Amanita. The Amanitas are usually large and somewhat watery, the flesh brittle rather than tough. The very young plants are enveloped in a membranous wrapper, which breaks apart with the expansion of the plant, leaving a more or less persistent sheath at the base of the stem. The universal veil is distinct and free from the cuticle of the cap. The cap is convex at first, then expanded; in some species naked and smooth; in others, clothed with membranaceous patches of the volva. The stem is distinct from the fleshy substance of the cap, ringed and furnished with a volva or sheath. In some of the species this sheath is connate with the base of the stem, firm and persistent. In others, it is friable, at length nearly obsolete.

The ring is usually persistent, deflexed, more or less prominent, in rare cases pressed close against the stem, and sometimes scarcely distinguishable from it. The gills in most of the species are free from the stems, but there are exceptions to this rule. Spores white. As to geographical distribution, according to M. C. Cooke, seven-eighths of the species are distinctly located in the temperate zone, one-twentieth at a temperate elevation, and only one-twentieth presumably tropical. Out of the eighty species, about sixty are North American and European, and one species is found on the slopes of the Andes, in South America. As heretofore stated, this group among mushrooms is made responsible for most of the well authenticated cases of fatal poisoning by mushrooms. It would be judicious, therefore, for those who are not thoroughly familiar with the characteristics of the edible Amanitas to defer making experiments with them for table use until that familiarity is acquired.

Saccardo in his Sylloge describes no less than fifteen edible species of Amanita as found in different parts of the world. Of those I have personally been able to identify but three which are common in this country, and which have been well tested. Specimens of these three species are illustrated in Plates XIV and XIV½ of this pamphlet. They are each and all found in varying abundance in different parts of the United States.

Plate XIV.

Figs. 1 to 4. Ag. (Amanita) CÆsareus Scop. (Amanita CÆsarea). "Orange Amanita," "True Orange."

Edible.

Cap at first convex, afterwards well expanded; smooth, free from warts, striate on the margin; color orange-red or bright lemon-yellow, with red disk; gills lemon-yellow, rounded near the stem, and free from it; stem equal or slightly tapering upwards, stuffed with cottony fibrils, or hollow (color clear lemon-yellow), bearing a yellowish ring near the top and sheathed at the base with large, loose, membranous, white volva. Odor faint but agreeable. Spores white, elliptical.

The whole plant is symmetrical in form, brilliant in coloring, clean and attractive in appearance. The American plant seems to differ in some slight respects from the European as figured and described in European works. In Europe the pileus or cap is said to vary in color, being sometimes white, pale yellow, red or even copper color, although it is usually orange-yellow. My own observation of the American plant of this species agrees with that of Prof. Peck in that the cap is uniform in color, being at first bright reddish-orange or even brilliant red, fading with age to yellow, either wholly or only on the margin. No white specimens have been as yet recorded in this country. The red color disappears in the dried specimens. The striations of the margin are usually quite deep and long and almost as distant as in the edible species Amanitopsis vaginata. Some European writers have described the flesh or substance of the cap as yellowish. In our plant the flesh is white, but stained with yellow or red immediately under the cuticle. Amanita CÆsarea is the only one of the Amanitas which has yellow gills.

Berkeley, in his "Outlines of British Fungi," describes A. CÆsarea as it is found in some parts of Continental Europe, but states that up to the date of his writing it had not been found in Great Britain. It is not recorded in the more recent lists of British fungi by M. C. Cooke nor in that of Australian fungi by the same author. The species has a wide range in this country, and though not very common in the North, in some localities, as in the pine and oak woods of North Carolina, it is found in great abundance. Dufour states that it is much esteemed as an esculent in France, and though rare in the northern part of that country, it is common in the center and the south of France in autumn. It is well known in different portions of Continental Europe, and is frequently figured in contrast with its very poisonous congener, Amanita muscaria, or "False Orange," commonly known as the "Fly Amanita," or "Fly-Killer."

A careless observer might mistake one for the other, but with a little attention to well-defined details the edible form can be readily distinguished from the poisonous one.

In analyzing the species the attention should be directed to the following characteristics of the two mushrooms: In A. CÆsarea the cap is smooth, the stem, gills and ring lemon-yellow, and the cup-shaped wrapper or volva which sheathes the base of the stem is white and persistently membranous.

In A. muscaria the cap is warty or shows the traces or remains of warts; the gills white, stem white, or only very slightly yellowish, and the wrapper or volva is evanescent, breaking up into ridge-like patches adhering to the base of the stem.

The Amanita CÆsarea has long been esteemed as an esculent in foreign countries, and was known in ancient times to the Greeks and Romans. It is known under the following names: "Orange," "CÆsar's mushroom," "Imperial mushroom," "Yellow-egg," "Kaiserling," etc. Mycologists who have tested it agree as to its edibility and delicate flavor.

The specimens figured in Plate XIV represent the average size of those which I have gathered in the vicinity of the District of Columbia. Much larger ones have been gathered in the woody portions of Druid Hill Park, Baltimore, Md.

Dufour writes: "This mushroom, the "true oronge," is cooked in a variety of ways, and it always constitutes an exquisite dish." This author gives the following recipes for cooking the CÆsarea, which he calls the "Oronge:"

Oronge À la bordelaise.—The stem is minced with fine herbs, bread-crumbs, and garlic, and seasoned with pepper and salt. This hash is placed in the concavity of the caps, and all is put to bake with good oil in a pan steamed in a chafing dish.

Oronge À l'Italienne.—Stew gently with a little butter and salt, then serve with a sauce composed of oil seasoned with the juice of lemon, pepper, garlic, and extract of sweet almond.

The Spanish are fond of this mushroom, and it is said to enter into their national dish, olla podrida, a mixture of meat, vegetables, and spices, whenever it can be obtained.

It is sometimes fried in butter or olive oil and seasoned with sugar.

Plate XIV.

Figs. 5 to 9.—Ag. (Amanita) rubescens Pers. (Amanita rubescens). "The Blusher," "Reddish Brown Amanita."

Edible.

Cap at first convex then expanded, margin even or very slightly striated, usually reddish-brown or reddish-fawn color, covered with mealy, more or loss persistent warts; flesh white, changing to a reddish or pinkish tinge, where cut or bruised, the reddish tinge most intense in the bulbous portion of the base of the stem; gills reaching the stem and forming decurrent lines upon it, white, becoming spotted with rusty or wine red stains when bruised or attacked by insects; stem ringed, whitish or dingy white, becoming brownish or spotted, with reddish-brown stains. The base of the stem is usually bulbous, the bulb sometimes tapering to a point at the root, and in some instances ending abruptly.

The ring or collar which encircles the stem near the top is membranous, and usually well defined.

The volva which completely envelops the young plant is very friable and soon disappears. Fragments of the volva may be seen in the shape of scales or small particles upon the mushroom stem, and in wart-like patches upon the cap. In the representations of this mushroom which appear in European works the cap is a deeper reddish-brown tint than I have found it here. The color of the cap is usually a light reddish brown or reddish gray, sometimes almost white. This species is found usually in light open woods. In a warm moist climate it appears early in the season, and can be gathered until the frosts come. Taste very pleasant.

There is a poisonous species, Amanita pantherinus, rare, which has a viscid brown warted cap bearing a slight resemblance to that of the rubescens, but the gills do not turn red when bruised, and the volva at the base of the stem is well defined and persistent.

The rubescens is very plentiful in the woods of Maryland and Virginia, and specimens have been received from different parts of the country. I have frequently eaten it stewed with butter, and found it very good eating. Hay speaks of it as being eaten in England, where it is called the "Blusher." Cooke says it is pleasant both in taste and odor. It is spoken of by French authors as of delicate flavor, and as well known in some parts of France. In preparing for the table bring the mushroom to a quick boil and pour off the first water, then stew with flavoring to suit the taste.

The specimens of this species represented in Plate XIV were collected in the woods of Forest Glen, Maryland. They are often found of much larger size and much lighter in coloring, with the stains upon the gills redder in color. The very young plants as they burst through the surface of the soil show a distinct volva at the base of the stem. In the mature plant this disappears, often leaving the slightly bulbous base quite smooth.

Plate XIV½.

Ag. (Amanita) strobiliformis Fries (Amanita strobiliformis). "Fir-cone Mushroom."

Edible.

Cap fleshy, convex at first, then expanded, covered with persistent white warts, margin even, white; flesh white, firm and compact; gills rounded behind and free from the stem, white; stem solid, the bulbous base tapering, furrowed with concentric and longitudinal channels at the root, and extending well into the ground, white; ring large, soon splitting; volva breaking up and appearing in concentric ridges upon the stem. Spores white.

This mushroom is very pleasant to the taste when raw as well as when cooked. It is found in light woods or on the borders of woods where the soil is somewhat friable, generally solitary, but sometimes two or three are found clustered together. The plants are sometimes so large that two or three of them would make a very good meal. Specimens have been found with the cap measuring 8 to 9 inches across when expanded, the stem varying from 6 to 8 inches in height, and from 1 to 3 inches in thickness. When young the plants are generally snowy white throughout, changing with age to a dingy white or cinereous hue. The specimens figured in the plate formed one of a cluster of three mushrooms of this species found growing in the fir woods of the District of Columbia.

During some seasons I have found the strobiliformis, or "Fir-cone mushroom," fairly plentiful in some parts of Maryland, and in other seasons it has been rare. The whole plant when young is enclosed in a white membranous wrapper.

Although this species is very generally recognized by mycologists as edible, I would advise great caution in selecting specimens for table use, since there is a dangerous species which might be mistaken for it by one not familiar with the characteristics of both species; I refer to a form of Amanita muscaria with ochraceous yellow cap which, when faded or bleached by the sun and rain, sometimes approaches, in tint, the dingy white of old or faded specimens of the strobiliformis. Both species have white gills, white stems, and white flocculent veil. The volva is evanescent in both, leaving traces of its existence in concentric ridges at the base, and part way up the stem.

In the species strobiliformis, the flesh of the cap is white throughout, as well as the cuticle.

In the yellowish muscaria, the flesh immediately beneath the cuticle of the upper surface of the cap is yellowish, frequently deepening at the disk to orange hue.

The cap of Amanita muscaria is very attractive to flies, but proves to them, as also to roaches and to some other insects, a deadly poison.

The juice of strobiliformis is not poisonous to flies. This fact may aid in identifying the species.

Subgenus Amanitopsis Roze. The species of this subgenus were formerly included in Amanita. The characteristic which separates it from Amanita is the absence of a ring on the stem. The gills are free from the stem, the spores are white, and the whole plant in youth is encased in an egg-shaped volva.[A]

Amanitopsis vaginata Roze. Edible.

This species is very common in pine and oak forests. The plant, as a whole, has a graceful aspect and grows singly or scattered through open places in the woods. It is somewhat fragile and easily broken. The cap in this species is usually a mouse-gray, sometimes slaty gray or brownish, generally umbonate in the center and distinctly striated on the margin.

The stem is white, equal, and slender in proportion to the width of the cap, and sheathed quite far up with a loose white membranous wrapper. This sheath is so slightly attached to the base of the stem that it is often left in the ground if the plant is carelessly pulled. The gills are white, or whitish, free from the stem and rounded at the outer extremity.

There is a white variety, (variety alba) A. nivalis, in which the whole plant is white, and a tawny variety (A. fulva Schaeff.) in which the cap is a pale ochraceous yellow, with the gills and stem white or whitish. In the variety A. livida or A. spadicea Grev. the cap is brown, while the stem and gills are tinged a smoky brown.

These are all edible and of fairly good flavor. Except in the absence of the ring upon the stem, the light varieties might be mistaken for small forms of the poisonous species Amanita verna or of phalloides. Great caution should therefore be observed, in gathering for the table, to be sure of the species.

Plate XV.

Figs. 1 to 7.—Ag. (Amanita) muscarius Linn. (Amanita muscaria). "Fly Mushroom," "False Orange."

Poisonous.

Cap warty, margin striate; gills white, reaching the stem, and often forming decurrent lines upon it; stem white, stuffed, annulate, bulbous at the base, concentrically ridged or scaly at the base, and sometimes part way up, with fragments of the ruptured wrapper. Spores widely elliptical, white, .0003 to .0004 of an inch in length.

The plants of this species vary very much in size and in the color of the cap. The latter is sometimes a bright scarlet and again it is orange color, more frequently ochraceous yellow, fading to a very pale yellow tint. In the variety albus it is white. The stem is stuffed with webby fibrils and varies very much in thickness: sometimes in young specimens it is very stout, with a thick ovate bulb reaching well up towards the cap, and again it is comparatively slender and nearly equal from the cap down to a very slight bulb at the base. The very young plant is completely enveloped in a white or yellowish egg-shaped wrapper or volva, which, being friable, generally breaks up into scales, forming warts upon the upper surface of the cap. When the plant is young and moist the cap is slightly sticky. A thickish white veil extends from the stem to the inner margin of the cap. This breaks away with the growth and expansion of the plant and falls in lax folds, forming a deflexed ring round the upper portion of the stem.

This mushroom is very common in woods and forests in summer and autumn, and has a wide geographical range. It is recorded by all mycologists as poisonous. One author states that when eaten in very small quantities it acts as a cathartic, but that it causes death when eaten freely. Flies find in it a deadly poison, and the poisonous alkaloids are not destroyed by drying.

Although cases are cited where this mushroom has been eaten without injury, its fatally poisonous effects have been too well and too often tested to allow of any doubt as to the danger of eating it, even in small quantities.

Amanita Frostiana, Frost's Amanita, is a much smaller species than A. muscaria. It bears a very close resemblance to the Fly Amanita, and might easily be taken for a small form of the same. The cap is yellowish and warted, and specimens occur in which the stem and gills are slightly tinged with yellow. It is poisonous.

Plate XV.

Fig. 8.—Ag. (Amanita) phalloides Fries (Amanita phalloides) A. vernalis Bolt., A. verrucosus Curtis. "Poisonous Amanita," "Death Cup."

Poisonous.

Cap bell-shaped or ovate at first, then expanded, smooth, obtuse, viscid, margin even, creamy-white, brown, or greenish, without warts; flesh white; stem white, hollow or stuffed, bulbous at the base, annulate; gills rounded and ventricose, coarse, and persistently white, free from the stem; volva conspicuous, large, loose, adhering to the base, but free from the stem at the top, with the margin irregularly notched. In the white forms there is frequently a greenish or yellow tinge at the disk or centre of the cap. The white form is most common, but the brownish is often found in this country. I have not yet found the green-capped variety sometimes figured in European works. In the brown variety the stem and ring are often tinged with brown, as also the volva. The cap is usually from 2 to 3 inches broad, and the stem from 3 to 5 inches long. The whole plant is symmetrical in shape and clean looking, though somewhat clammy to the touch when moist. It is very common in mixed woods, in some localities, and is universally considered as fatally poisonous.

The white form of A. phalloides, although in reality bearing very little resemblance to the common field mushroom, has been mistaken for it as also for the Smooth white lepiota, and in some instances has been eaten with fatal results by those who gathered it.

The distinction between this most poisonous Amanita and the common field mushroom is well marked. In the common mushroom the gills are pink, becoming dark brown, the spores purplish brown, and the whole mushroom is stout and short stemmed, the stem being shorter than the diameter of the cap, and having no volva, or wrapper at its base. In the species A. phalloides the gills are persistently white and the bulb is distinct and broad at the base, the white cup-shaped wrapper sheathing the base of the stem like the calyx of a flower. The Smooth white lepiota shows neither volva nor trace of one, and has other distinct characteristics which distinguish it from A. phalloides. See page 14, No. 4 of this series.

The specimen figured in Plate XV grew in Maryland, where it is quite common.

Plate XV.

Fig. 9.—Ag. (Amanita) mappa (Amanita mappa) Linn., Amanita citrina, A. virosa.

Poisonous.

Cap at first convex, then expanded, dry, without a separable cuticle, not warty but showing white, yellowish, or brownish scales or patches on its upper surface; gills white, adnexed; flesh white, sometimes slightly yellowish under the skin; stem stuffed, then hollow, cylindrical, yellowish white, nearly smooth, with a distinctly bulbous base; volva white or brownish. Odor pleasant. Spores spheroidal. The cap in this species is somewhat variable in color, but those having a white cap are most common. The plant is not so tall as those of the species phalloides. It is solitary in habit, and is found usually in open woods.

Curtis and Lowerby figure mappa and phalloides under the same name.

Plate XVI.

Figs. 1 to 4.—Ag. (Amanita) vernus Bull. (Amanita verna) Linn., Amanita bulbosa, Ag. solitarius. "Vernal Mushroom," "Spring Mushroom," etc.

Poisonous.

Cap at first ovate, then expanded, becoming at length slightly depressed, viscid, white; margin smooth; flesh white; gills white, free; stem white, equal, stuffed or hollow, easily splitting, floccose, with bulbous base; volva white, closely embracing the stem, but free from it at the margin; ring reflexed; spores globose, .0003 in. broad. The plant is creamy white throughout and does not seem to be easily distinguishable from the white forms of A. phalloides. Fries and some others consider this species merely a variety of Amanita phalloides, and it is regarded as equally poisonous, the poisonous principle being the same as that of A. phalloides. It is very common in mixed woods from early spring to frosty weather.

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ALKALOIDS OF THE POISONOUS MUSHROOMS.

Schrader, after some experiments made in 1811, stated that the poisonous principle of the "Fly mushroom," Amanita muscaria, seemed to be combined with its red coloring matter and might be extracted by water or aqueous alcohol, but that it was not soluble in ether.

Vaquelin, as the result of more extended investigations made in 1813, expressed the opinion that this poison was not confined to the coloring matter of the mushroom, but that it was an integral part of the fatty constituents not only of muscaria but of several species of mushrooms. In 1826 and 1830, and again in 1867, important investigations were made and published by Letellier relating to the medical and poisonous properties of mushrooms growing around Paris. Letellier's early investigations led him to the conclusion that there were two poisons contained in certain fungi—(1) an acrid principle easily destroyed by drying or boiling or by maceration in alcohol or in alkaline solution, and (2) a peculiar poisonous alkaloid found only in certain of the Amanita group. Letellier in 1866 named this latter alkaloid amanitin. He then considered it to be the active poison of Amanita muscaria, Amanita phalloides, and Amanita verna, but a subsequent analysis by the German chemists Schmiedeberg and Koppe showed the amanitin of Letellier to be identical with cholin, a substance found in bile. Kobert says that amanitin is non-poisonous in itself, but states that it may be changed on decay of the mushroom to the muscarin-like acting neurin, which is highly poisonous. He thinks it highly probable that nearly all of the edible and non-edible mushrooms contain pure amanitin (cholin) partly in primitive condition and partly in a more intricate organic connection, as lecithin. It has been demonstrated that amanitin separates very readily from lecithin during the decay or careless drying of mushrooms and changes into the poisonous neurin; hence the necessity of using mushrooms only when perfectly fresh or when quickly dried.