Studies of American Fungi. Mushrooms, Edible, Poisonous, etc. Part 14

=Lentinus vulpinus= Fr.--This is a large and handsome species, having a wide distribution in Europe and in this country, but it does not seem to be common. It grows on trunks, logs, stumps, etc., in the woods. It was quite abundant during late summer and in the autumn on fallen logs, in a woods near Ithaca. The =caps= are shelving, closely overlapping in shingled fashion (imbricated), and joined at the narrowed base. The surface is convex, and the margin is strongly incurved, so that each of the individual caps is sh.e.l.l-shaped (conchate). The surface of the pileus is coa.r.s.ely hairy or hispid, the surface becoming more rough with age. Many coa.r.s.e hairs unite to form coa.r.s.e tufts which are stouter and nearly erect toward the base of the cap, and give the surface a tuberculate appearance. Toward the margin of the cap these coa.r.s.e hairs are arranged in nearly parallel lines, making rows or ridges, which are very rough. The hairs and tubercles are dark in color, being nearly black toward the base, especially in old plants, and sometimes pale or of a smoky hue, especially in young plants. The pileus is flesh color when young, becoming darker when old, and the flesh is quite thin, whitish toward the gills and darker toward the surface. The =gills= are broad, nearly white, flesh color near the base, coa.r.s.ely serrate, becoming cracked in age and in drying, narrowed toward the base of the pileus, not forked, crowded, 4--6 mm. broad. The cap and gills are tough even when fresh. The plant has an intensely pungent taste.

Figures 131, 132 represent an upper, front, and under view of the pilei (No. 3315, C. U. herbarium).

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE 42, FIGURE 131.--Lentinus vulpinus. The coa.r.s.e, hairy scales are black in old plants, paler, of a smoky hue, in younger ones (natural size). Copyright.]

=Lentinus lecomtei= Fr., is a very common and widely distributed species growing on wood. When it grows on the upper side of logs the pileus is sometimes regular and funnel-shaped (cyathiform), but it is often irregular and produced on one side, especially if it grows on the side of the substratum. In most cases, however, there is a funnel-shaped depression above the attachment of the stem. The =pileus= is tough, reddish or reddish brown or leather color, hairy or sometimes strigose, the margin incurved. The =stem= is usually short, hairy, or in age it may become more or less smooth. The =gills= are narrow, crowded, the spores small, ovate to elliptical 5--6 2--3 . According to Bresadola this is the same as _Pa.n.u.s rudis_ Fr. It resembles very closely also _Pa.n.u.s cyathiformis_ (Schaeff.) Fr., and _P. strigosus_ B. & C.

=Lentinus lepideus= Fr., [_L. squamosus_ (Schaeff.) Schroet.] is another common and widely distributed species. It is much larger than _L.

lecomtei_, whitish with coa.r.s.e brown scales on the cap. It is 12--20 cm.

high, and the cap is often as broad. The stem is 2--8 cm. long and 1--2 cm. in thickness. It grows on wood.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 132.--Lentinus vulpinus, front and under view (natural size). Copyright.]

=Lentinus stipticus= (Bull.) Schroet. (_Pa.n.u.s stipticus_ Bull.) is a very small species compared with the three named above. It is, however, a very common and widely distributed one, growing on wood, and may be found the year around. The pileus is 1--3 cm. in diameter, whitish or grayish, very tough, expanded in wet weather, and curled up in dry weather. The stem is very short, and attached to one side of the cap.

When freshly developed the plant is phosph.o.r.escent.

SCHIZOPHYLLUM Fr.

This is a very interesting genus, but the species are very few. The plants are tough, pliant when fresh, and dry. The gills are very characteristic, being split along the edge and generally strongly revolute, that is, the split edges curve around against the side of the gill. This character can be seen sometimes with the aid of a hand lens, but is very evident when a section of the cap and gills is made and then examined with a microscope. The spores are white.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 133.--Schizophyllum alneum (==S. commune). View of under side (natural size). Copyright.]

=Schizophyllum alneum= (L.) Schroet.--This species usually goes by the name of _Schizophyllum commune_, but the earlier name is _S. alneum_. It is a very common plant and is world wide in its distribution, growing on wood, as on branches, trunks, etc. It is white, and the =pileus= is very hairy or tomentose, with coa.r.s.e white hairs. It is 1--3 cm. in diameter, and the cap is sessile, either attached at one side when the cap is more produced on one side than on the other, or it may be attached at or near the center of the top, when the cap is more evenly developed on all sides. It is often crenate or lobed on the margin, the larger plants showing this character more prominently. The margin is incurved. The =gills= are white, wooly, branched and extend out toward the margin of the cap like the radiations of a fan. The gills are deeply split along the edge, and strongly revolute. It is a very pretty plant, but one becomes rather tired of collecting it because it is so common. It may be found at all seasons of the year on dead sticks and branches, either in the woods or elsewhere, if the branches are present. It is very coriaceous, and tough. During dry weather it is much shrunken and curled up, but during rains it expands quickly and then it is seen in its beauty.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE 43, FIGURE 134.--Trogia crispa. Large cl.u.s.ter of caps, view of underside (natural size). Copyright.]

Figure 133 shows the plant in the expanded condition, from the under side. The plants were growing on a hickory branch, and were dry and shrunken when brought in the laboratory. The branch and the fungus were placed in water for a few hours, when the fungus expanded, and was then photographed in this condition.

TROGIA Fr.

This genus is characterized, according to Fries, by the gills being channeled along the edge, but singularly the only species attributed to the genus in Europe and in our country has not channeled gills, but only somewhat crisped along the edges. It is usually, therefore, a difficult matter for a beginner to determine the plant simply from this description. The gills are furthermore narrow, irregular, and the plants are somewhat soft and flabby when wet, but brittle and persistent when dry, so that when moistened they revive and appear as if fresh.

=Trogia crispa= Fr.--This species is the princ.i.p.al if not only one in Europe and America. It is widely distributed, and sometimes not very uncommon. It occurs on trunks, branches, etc., often on the birch. The plants are from 0.5--1 cm. broad, usually sessile. The upper surface is whitish or reddish yellow toward the attachment, sometimes tan color, and when young it is sometimes covered with whitish hairs. The gills are very narrow, vein-like, irregular, interrupted or continuous, and often more or less branched. The gills are very much crisped, hence the name, blunt at the edge and white or bluish gray. The caps are usually much crowded and overlapped in an imbricated fashion as shown in Fig. 134; a photograph of a fine specimen after being moistened.

CHAPTER VII.

THE ROSY-SPORED AGARICS.

The spores are rosy, pink, salmon colored, flesh colored, or reddish.

For a.n.a.lytical keys to the genera see Chapter XXIV.

PLUTEUS Fr.

In the genus _Pluteus_ the volva and annulus are both wanting, the gills are usually free from the stem, and the stem is easily broken out from the substance of the cap, reminding one in some cases of a ball and socket joint. The substance of the cap is thus said to be not continuous with that of the stem. The spores seen in ma.s.s are flesh colored as in other genera of this subdivision of the agarics.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 135.--Pluteus cervinus. Cap grayish brown, or sooty, smooth or sometimes scaly, rarely white, stem same color, but paler; gills first white, then flesh color (natural size, often larger).

Copyright.]

=Pluteus cervinus= Schaeff. =Edible.=--This is one of the very common species of the higher fungi, and is also very widely distributed. It varies considerably in size and appearance. It is 7--15 cm. high, the cap 5--10 cm. broad, and the stem 6--12 mm. in thickness. It occurs on the ground from underground roots or rotten wood, or grows on decaying stumps, logs, etc., from spring until late autumn. Sometimes it is found growing in sawdust.

The =pileus= is fleshy, bell-shaped, then convex, and becoming expanded, the surface usually smooth, but showing radiating fibrils, grayish brown, or sometimes sooty, sometimes more or less scaly. The =gills= are not crowded, broad, free from the stem, white, then becoming flesh color with the maturity of the spores. One very characteristic feature of the plant is the presence of =cystidia= in the hymenium on the gills. These are stout, colorless, elliptical, thick-walled, and terminate in two or three blunt, short p.r.o.ngs.

The =stem= is nearly equal, solid, the color much the same as that of the pileus, but often paler above, smooth or sometimes scaly.

In some forms the plant is entirely white, except the gills. In addition to the white forms occurring in the woods, I have found them in an old abandoned cement mine growing on wood props.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 136.--Pluteus tomentosulus. Cap and stem entirely white, gills flesh color, stem furrowed and tomentose (natural size).

Copyright.]

=Pluteus tomentosulus= Pk.--This plant was described by Peck in the 32d Report, N. Y. State Mus., page 28, 1879. It grows on decaying wood in the woods during July and August. The plants are 5--12 cm. high, the cap 3--7 cm. broad, and the stem 4--8 mm. in thickness. The description given by Peck is as follows: "Pileus thin, convex or expanded, sub.u.mbonate, dry, minutely squamulose-tomentose, white, sometimes pinkish on the margin; lamellae rather broad, rounded behind, free, crowded, white then flesh colored; stem equal, solid, striate, slightly p.u.b.escent or subtomentose, white; spores subglobose, 7 in diameter, generally containing a large single nucleus." From the plant collected at Ithaca the following notes were made. The =pileus= and stem are entirely white, the gills flesh color. The pileus is expanded, umbonate, thin except at the umbo, minutely floccose squamulose, no pinkish tinge noted; the flesh is white, but on the umbo changing to flesh color where wounded. The =gills= are free, with a clear white s.p.a.ce between stem and rounded edges, crowded, narrow (about 3--4 mm. broad) edge finely fimbriate, probably formed by numerous bottle-shaped cystidia on the edge, and which extend up a little distance on the side of the gills, but are not distributed in numbers over the surface of the gills; =cystidia= thin walled, hyaline. The =spores= are flesh colored, subglobose, 5--7 . =Stem= cylindrical, even, twisted somewhat, white, striate and minutely squamulose like the pileus, but with coa.r.s.er scales, especially toward the base, solid, flesh white.

The species received its name from the tomentose, striate character of the stem. The plants (No. 3219, C. U. herbarium) ill.u.s.trated in Fig. 136 were collected in Enfield Gorge, vicinity of Ithaca, July 28, 1899.

VOLVARIA Fr.

This genus takes its name from the volva, which means a wrapper, and which, as we know from our studies of _Amanita_, entirely envelops the plant at a young stage. The genus is characterized then by the rosy or reddish spores, the presence of a volva, and the annulus is wanting. The stem is easily separable from the pileus at its junction, in this respect being similar to _Amanita_, _Amanitopsis_, _Lepiota_ and others.

The gills are usually, also, free from the stem. The species grow on rotting wood, on leaf mould and on richly manured ground, etc. They are of a very soft texture and usually soon decay.

=Volvaria bombycina= (Pers.) Fr. =Edible.=--The silky volvaria is so called because of the beautiful silky texture of the surface of the cap.

It is not very common, but is world wide in its distribution, and occurs on decayed wood of logs, stumps, etc., during late summer and in autumn. It is usually of a beautiful white color, large, the volva large and thick, reminding one of a bag, and the stem is ascending when the plant grows on the side of the trunk, or erect when it grows on the upper side of a log or stump. The plant is from 8--16 cm. high, the cap 6--20 cm. broad, and the stem 1--1.5 cm. thickness.

The =pileus= is globose, then bell-shaped, and finally convex and somewhat umbonate, white, according to some becoming somewhat reddish.

The entire surface is silky, and numerous hairs stand out in the form of soft down, when older the surface becoming more or less scaly, or rarely becoming smooth at the apex. The flesh is white. The =gills= are crowded, very broad along the middle, flesh colored, the edge sometimes ragged. The =spores= are rosy in ma.s.s, oval to broadly elliptical, 6--9 5--6 , smooth. The =stem= tapers from the base to the apex, is solid, smooth. The =volva= is large and bag-like. The plant is considered edible by some. Figure 137 is from a plant (No. 3096, C. U. herbarium) collected on a log of Acer rubrum in Cascadilla woods, Ithaca, on August 10th, 1898.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 137.--Volvaria bombycina. Cap, stem and volva entirely white, gills flesh color (natural size). Copyright.]

=Volvaria speciosa= Fr.--This plant seems to be rare, but it has a wide distribution in Europe and the United States. It occurs on richly manured ground, on dung, etc. The plants are 10--20 cm. high, the cap 6--12 cm. broad, and the stem 1--2 cm. in thickness. The entire plant is white or whitish, sometimes grayish, especially at the center, where it is also sometimes darker and of a smoky color.

The =pileus= is globose when young, then bell-shaped, and finally more or less expanded, and umbonate, smooth, very viscid, so that earth, leaves, etc., cling to it. The flesh is white and very soft. The =gills= are free, flesh colored to reddish or fulvous, from the deeply colored spores. The =spores= are broadly elliptical, or oval, 12--18 8--10 .

The =stem= is nearly cylindrical, or tapering evenly from the base, when young more or less hairy, becoming smooth. The =volva= is large, edge free, but fitting very close, flabby and irregularly torn.

The species is reported from California by McClatchie, and from Wisconsin by Bundy.

Specimens were received in June, 1898, from Dr. Post of Lansing, Mich., which were collected there in a potato patch. It was abundant during May and June. Plants which were sent in a fresh condition were badly decayed by the time they reached Ithaca, and the odor was very disagreeable. It is remarkable that the odor was that of rotting potatoes! In this connection might be mentioned Dr. Peck's observation (Bull. Torr. Bot.

Club 26: p. 67, 1899) that _Agaricus maritimus_ Pk., which grows near the seash.o.r.e, possessed "a taste and odor suggestive of the sea."

McClatchie reports that it is common in cultivated soil, especially grain fields and along roads, and that it is "a fine edible agaric and our most abundant one in California."

c.l.i.tOPILUS Fr.