Among the Mushrooms Part 12

+HIRNEOLA AURICULA JUDAE.+ +The Jew's Ear.+

There is one species belonging to the order Tremellodon that is quite common. It is called the Jew's ear. It is a very peculiar-looking fungus, shaped somewhat like the human ear, of all sizes, and grows in great quant.i.ties in the same place. It looks as if it were composed of a thick jelly, and becomes soft and tremulous when damp. Its color is dark, sometimes almost black. It is tough and cup-shaped, with ridges across it like an ear. The generic name, Hirneola, means a jug, and the specific name, Auricula Judae, a Jew's ear.

GASTEROMYCETES, OR STOMACH FUNGI.

+SCLERODERMA VULGARE = hard, skin, common.+ +The Common Hard-skinned Mushroom.+

This species closely resembles the common potato in shape and color. It generally measures 2 to 3 inches across, and is of a pale brown color.

It grows close on the earth, is folded toward the base, and firm in texture. The cuticle is covered with warts or scales.

+CRUCIBULUM VULGARE = crucible, common.+ +The Common Crucible.+

This little fungus is about of an inch across. It resembles a tiny bird's-nest with eggs in it. At first it looks like a cottony knot, closely covered; its apex is closed by a membrane, then its covering is thrown off, and the apparent tiny eggs are merely smaller envelopes, called the peridiola. These are lentil-shaped and pale, and are fastened to the inside of the covering by a long cord, which can be seen only through a strong lens.

+CYATHUS VERNICOSUS = varnished.+ +The Varnished Cup.+

This differs from the crucible in color, form and habitat. It is about an inch high. It is bell-shaped, becoming broadly open like a trumpet, and of a slate or ash color. The mouth and lining shine as if varnished, and hence its name. The plants grow on the ground, on wood and on leaves.

+LYCOPERDON CYATHIFORME = cup-shape.+ The Cup-shaped Puff-ball.+

This species of puff-ball is round with a contracted base. It is 4 to 10 inches across, a white or pinkish-brown color, afterward becoming a darker brown and covered with small patches. When the spores mature the upper part of the covering (peridium) becomes torn and only the lower part remains. It looks like a dark-colored cup with a ragged margin, and may be seen by the excursionist in the spring on the roadside. It has survived the winter frosts and storms. It is split and shabby looking.

In August it is a whitish puff-ball, in the spring only a torn, brown cup.

+LYCOPERDON PYRIFORME = pear-shape.+ +The Pear-shaped Puff-ball.+

This species is shaped like a pear. It is from 1 to 4 inches high and is covered with persistent warts so small as to look like scales to the naked eye. It is of a dingy white or brownish-yellow. Its shape separates it from the puff-b.a.l.l.s, especially from the warted puff-ball, L. gemmatum, which is nearly round with a base like a stem, an ashy-gray color, and the surface is also warty, but unequally so, and as the warts fall off they leave the puff-ball dotted. The pear-shaped puff-ball has little fibrous rootlets, and the plants grow in crowds on decaying trees.

+GEASTER HYGROMETRICUS = moisture, measure.+ +The Wandering Earth Star.+

This earth star is from 2 to 3 inches wide. It is sessile, of a brownish color, and changes its form accordingly as the weather is moist or dry, hence the name. It is contracted and round in dry weather, and star-like in damp atmosphere, with its lobes stretched out on the earth.

The covering consists of three layers, the two outermost split from the top into several acute divisions, which spread out like the points of a star. The innermost layer is round and attached by the base. There are one or more openings at the top for the escape of the spores.

+PHALLUS IMPUDICUS = disgusting.+ +The Fetid Wood Witch.+

In the first stages the plant is white, soft and heavy, in shape and size like a hen's egg. It is covered by three layers, the outer one firm, the middle one gelatinous, the third and inner one consists of a thin membrane. This phallus develops under the ground until its spores are mature. At length the apex is ruptured by the growth of the spore receptacle, and the stem expands and elongates, escaping through the top, and elevates the cap into the air. The stem at the early stage is composed of cells filled with a gluten. The stem afterward becomes open and spongy, owing to the drying of the gelatinous matter. The spores are immersed in a strong-smelling, olive-green gluten. They are on the outside of the cap and embedded in its ridges. A part of the volva remains as a sheath at the base of the stem. This plant develops so rapidly as to attain in a few hours the height of seven inches, the stem is of lace-like structure, pure white, and its appearance suggests the silicious sponge so ornamental in collections, commonly known as Venus'

basket. The drooping cap is also lacey with a network, and the spores drip mucus and then dry up, in the meantime spreading around a carrion-like, fetid smell. The Phallus, therefore, differs greatly in appearance from the other genera of the order when it is seen above ground, but if one is successful in finding it at an early stage, under the surface of the earth, he will realize its relationship to the general group, and find it an interesting subject of study.

ASCOMYCETES, OR SPORE-SAC FUNGI.

+PEZIZA AUKANTIA = golden.+ +The Golden Peziza.+

This species is 2 to 3 inches in diameter, its disc is bright orange color, while its exterior is pale and downy, owing to the presence of short, stout hairs. It is sessile or nearly so, and grows in tufts on the ground near stumps of trees. At first the disc is thin and brittle, with a raised margin, much waved, becoming incised, and finally spreads flat on the ground.

+MORCh.e.l.lA ESCULENTA = food.+ +The Edible or Common Morel.+

This is 2 to 4 inches high, stem about inch in diameter. The cap is of a dull yellow color, olivaceous, darkening with age to a brownish tinge.

It is oval-shaped, with dark hollows.

+HELVELLA INFULA = name of a woollen head-dress.+ +The Cap-like Helvella.+

This species is named Infula, because it is supposed to resemble in shape the sacred woollen head-dress worn by priests of Rome, by supplicants and victims, tied around the head by a ribbon or bandage, which hangs down on both sides. The stem is surmounted with a lobed cap, with two to four irregularly drooping lobes of reddish or cinnamon-brown color, and is about 3 inches in diameter. The stem is 2 or 3 inches high, usually smooth, but sometimes pitted. We found our specimen in the woods in August.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Cortinarius distans.

Photographed by C. G. Lloyd.]

DIRECTIONS FOR USING KEYS.

Let us suppose that the beginner finds a mushroom and wishes to name it.

He has learned its component parts. He has remarked the names of the cla.s.ses into which mushrooms are divided. How then shall he make use of the Keys? We will imagine that he has found a Cantharellus. The cap is yellow color, so let him turn to the list of fungi described under the section "Yellow and Orange," and see if it agrees in appearance with anyone of these. (It is necessary before consulting a key to find the color of the spores. This is done by cutting off the cap, and placing it, gills downward, on paper, and leaving it there for two or three hours. Having followed these directions in this case it will have been seen that the spores are white.)

After consulting the list of "Yellow and Orange" he will find that the first one mentioned is Cantharellus cibarius, the Chantarelle. The description resembles that of the mushroom found in every particular.

Now let the beginner go further, and prove the correctness of the name in another way. Turning to the section called "General Helps to the Memory," on page 68, and reading the names of the different genera under the headings until he comes to the name Cantharellus, he will find it in the table called "Mushrooms with gills running down the stems (decurrent)." This distinction is apparent in the specimen found. Again, let him turn to the list of white-spored Agarics, page 73, and he will find the name of the genus Cantharellus there. Now, as an additional test, let him turn to the key at the end of this work, the key to Hymenomycetes. He must have learned enough by this time to know that his mushroom belongs to this cla.s.s, namely, the one that has spores produced upon the lower part of the cap, and, also, that it is an Agaric, from its having gills on the under side. Let him begin with Section A, "with cap." 1. Mushrooms with radiating gills beneath caps (Agarics). The key then follows: 1. Plants fleshy, soon decaying. 2. Turn to number 2.

There are two descriptions, juice milky and juice watery; he will choose the second one, which is followed by the number 3. Then follows, stem central or nearly so; this agrees with the plant, and leads to 4. The first line reads "white spores," which is correct; then comes 5. There are four lines with descriptions, the last one, "no ring and no volva,"

is right, which leads to 7. There are here two lines belonging to 7, the second one, "gills in the form of folds, obtuse edge," is correct, and points to 10. This reads, "Gills decurrent, plant terrestrial, Cantharellus." The Key gives the name of the _genus_ only. In the list of descriptions an attempt is made to mention some of the commonest species. These directions apply to all the keys alike.

DIVISION I.

Key to Hymenomycetes, Membrane Fungi.

Hymenomycetes or membrane fungi are divided into two sections:

Section A, with cap.

Section B, without cap.

Section A is divided into four cla.s.ses:

I. Mushrooms with radiating gills beneath caps, gill-bearing mushrooms (Agarics).

II. With pores or tubes beneath caps (Polyporei).

III. With spines or teeth beneath the cap or branches (Hydnei).

IV. Where the spore-bearing surface beneath the cap is even, smooth, or slightly wrinkled (Theleph.o.r.ei).

Section B is divided into two cla.s.ses:

I. Plants club-shaped and simple, or bush-like and branched (Clavariei).

II. Plants gelatinous and irregular (Tremellinei).