Studies of American Fungi. Mushrooms, Edible, Poisonous, etc. Part 18

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 158.--Bolbitius variicolor. Cap viscid, various shades of yellow, or smoky olive; gills yellowish, then rusty (natural size).]

=Bolbitius variicolor= Atkinson.--This plant was found abundantly during May and June, 1898, in a freshly manured gra.s.s plat between the side-walk and the pavement along Buffalo street, Ithaca, N. Y. The season was rainy, and the plants appeared each day during quite a long period, sometimes large numbers of them covering a small area, but they were not cl.u.s.tered nor cespitose. They vary in height from 4--10 cm., the pileus from 2--4 cm. broad, and the stem is 3--8 mm. in thickness.

The colors vary from smoky to fuliginous, olive and yellow, and the spores are ferruginous.

The =pileus= is from ovate to conic when young, the margin not at all incurved, but lies straight against the stem, somewhat unequal. In expanding the cap becomes convex, then expanded, and finally many of the plants with the margin elevated and with a broad umbo, and finely striate for one-half to two-thirds the way from the margin to the center. When young the pileus has a very viscid cuticle, which easily peels from the surface, showing the yellow flesh. The cuticle is smoky olive to fuliginous, darker when young, becoming paler as the pileus expands, but always darker on the umbo. Sometimes the fibres on the surface of the cap are drawn into strands which anastomose into coa.r.s.e reticulations, giving the appearance of elevated veins which have a general radiate direction from the center of the cap. As the pileus expands the yellow color of the flesh shows through the cuticle more and more, especially when young, but becoming light olive to fuliginous in age. In dry weather the surface of the pileus sometimes cracks into patches as the pileus expands. The =gills= are rounded next the stem, adnate to adnexed, becoming free, first yellow, then ferruginous. The basidia are abruptly club-shaped, rather distant and separated regularly by rounded cells, four spored. The =spores= are ferruginous, elliptical, 10--15 6--8 , smooth. The =stem= is cylindrical to terete, tapering above, sulphur and ochre yellow, becoming paler and even with a light brown tinge in age. The stem is hollow, and covered with numerous small yellow floccose scales which point upward and are formed by the tearing away of the edges of the gills, which are loosely united with the surface of the stem in the young stage. The edges of the gills are thus sometimes finely fimbriate.

At maturity the gills become more or less mucilaginous, depending on the weather. Plants placed in a moist chamber change to a mucilaginous ma.s.s.

When the plants dry the pileus is from a drab to hair brown or sepia color (Ridgeway's colors). Figure 158 is from plants (No. 2355 C. U.

herbarium).

PAXILLUS Fr.

In the genus _Paxillus_ the gills are usually easily separated from the pileus, though there are some species accredited to the genus that do not seem to possess this character in a marked degree. The spores are ochre or ochre brown. Often the gills are forked near the stem or anastomose, or they are connected by veins which themselves anastomose in a reticulate fashion so that the meshes resemble the pores of certain species of the family _Polyporaceae_. The pileus may be viscid or dry in certain species, but the plant lacks a viscid universal veil. The genus is closely related to _Gomphidius_, where the gills are often forked and easily separate from the pileus, but _Gomphidius_ possesses a viscid or glutinous universal veil. Peck in the Bull. N. Y. State Mus. Nat. Hist.

2: 29--33, describes five species.

=Paxillus involutus= (Batsch.) Fr. =Edible.=--This plant is quite common in some places and is widely distributed. It occurs on the ground in gra.s.sy places, in the open, or in woods, and on decaying logs or stumps.

The stem is central, or nearly so, when growing on the ground, or eccentric when growing on wood, especially if growing from the side of a log or stump. The plants are 5--7 cm. high, the cap 3--7 cm. broad, and the stem 1--2 cm. in thickness. The plant occurs from August to October.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 159.--Paxillus involutus. Cap and stem gray, olive-brown, reddish brown or tawny (natural size). Copyright.]

The =pileus= is convex to expanded, and depressed in the center. In the young plant the margin is strongly inrolled, and as the pileus expands it unrolls in a very pretty manner. The young plant is covered with a grayish, downy substance, and when the inrolled margin of the cap comes in contact with the gills, as it does, it presses the gills against this down, and the unrolling margin is thus marked quite prominently, sometimes with furrows where the pressure of the gills was applied. The color of the pileus varies greatly. In the case of plants collected at Ithaca and in North Carolina mountains the young plant when fresh is often olive umber, becoming reddish or tawny when older, the margin with a lighter shade. As Dr. Peck states, "it often presents a strange admixture of gray, ochraceous, ferruginous, and brown hues." The flesh is yellowish and changes to reddish or brownish where bruised. The =gills= are decurrent, when young arcuate, then ascending, and are more or less reticulated on the stem. They are grayish, then greenish yellow changing to brown where bruised. The =spores= are oval, 7--9 4--5 .

The =stem= is short, even, and of the same color as the cap.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE 52, FIGURE 160.--Paxillus rhodoxanthus. Cap reddish brown, stem paler, gills yellow (natural size). Copyright.]

At Ithaca, N. Y., the plant is sometimes abundant in late autumn in gra.s.sy places near or in groves. The Figure 159 is from plants (No. 2508 C. U. herbarium) growing in such a place in the suburbs of Ithaca. At Blowing Rock, N. C., the plant is often very abundant along the roadsides on the ground during August and September.

=Paxillus rhodoxanthus= (Schw.)--This species was first described by de Schweinitz as _Agaricus rhodoxanthus_, p. 83 No. 640, Synopsis fungorum Carolinae superioris, in Schriften der Naturforschenden Gesellschaft 1: 19--131, 1822. It was described under his third section of _Agaricus_ under the sub-genus _Gymnopus_, in which are mainly species now distributed in _c.l.i.tocybe_ and _Hygrophorus_. He remarks on the elegant appearance of the plant and the fact that it so nearly resembles _Boletus subtomentosus_ as to deceive one. The resemblance to _Boletus subtomentosus_ as one looks upon the pileus when the plant is growing on the ground is certainly striking, because of the reddish yellow, ochraceous rufus or chestnut brown color of the cap together with the minute tomentum covering the surface. The suggestion is aided also by the color of the gills, which one is apt to get a glimpse of from above without being aware that the fruiting surface has gills instead of tubes. But as soon as the plant is picked and we look at the under surface, all suggestion of a _Boletus_ vanishes, unless one looks carefully at the venation of the surface of the gills and the s.p.a.ces between them. The plant grows on the ground in woods. At Blowing Rock, N. C., where it is not uncommon, I have always found it along the mountain roads on the banks. It is 5--10 cm. high, the cap from 3--8 cm.

broad, and the stem 6--10 mm. in thickness.

The =pileus= is convex, then expanded, plane or convex, and when mature more or less top-shaped because it is so thick at the middle. In age the surface of the cap often becomes cracked into small areas, showing the yellow flesh in the cracks. The flesh is yellowish and the surface is dry. The =gills= are not very distant, they are stout, chrome yellow to lemon yellow, and strongly decurrent. A few of them are forked toward the base, and the surface and the s.p.a.ce between them are marked by anastomosing veins forming a reticulum suggestive of the hymenium of the _Polyporaceae_. This character is not evident without the use of a hand lens. The surface of the gills as well as the edges is provided with clavate =cystidia= which are filled with a yellow pigment, giving to the gills the bright yellow color so characteristic. These cystidia extend above the basidia, and the ends are rounded so that sometimes they appear capitate. The yellow color is not confined to the cystidia, for the sub-hymenium is also colored in a similar way. The =spores= are yellowish, oblong to elliptical or spindle-shaped, and measure 8--12 3--5 . The =stem= is the same color as the pileus, but paler, and more yellow at the base. It is marked with numerous minute dots of a darker color than the ground color, formed of numerous small erect tufts of mycelium.

Figure 160 is from plants (No. 3977 C. U. herbarium) collected at Blowing Rock, N. C., during September, 1899. As stated above, the plant was first described by de Schweinitz as _Agaricus rhodoxanthus_ in 1822.

In 1834 (Synop. fung. Am. Bor. p. 151, 1834) he listed it under the genus _Gomphus_ Fries (Syst. Mycolog. 319, 1821). Since Fries changed _Gomphus_ to _Gomphidius_ (Epicrisis, 319, 1836--1838) the species has usually been written _Gomphidius rhodoxanthus_ Schweinitz. The species lacks one very important characteristic of the genus _Gomphidius_, namely, the slimy veil which envelops the entire plant. Its relationship seems rather to be with the genus _Paxillus_, though the gills do not readily separate from the pileus, one of the characters ascribed to this genus, and possessed by certain species of _Gomphidius_ in even a better degree. (In Paxillus involutus the gills do not separate so readily as they do in certain species of _Gomphidius_.) Berkeley (Decades N. A.

Fungi, 116) has described a plant from Ohio under the name _Paxillus flavidus_. It has been suggested by some (see Peck, 29th Report, p. 36; Lloyd, Mycolog. Notes, where he writes it as _Flammula rhodoxanthus_!) that _Paxillus flavidus_ Berk., is identical with _Agaricus rhodoxanthus_ Schw.

_Paxillus rhodoxanthus_ seems also to be very near if not identical with _c.l.i.tocybe pelletieri_ Lev. (Gillet, Hymenomycetes =1=: 170), and Schroeter (Cohn's Krypt, Flora Schlesien, =3=, 1: 516, 1889) transfers this species to _Paxillus_ as _Paxillus pelletieri_. He is followed by Hennings, who under the same section of the genus, lists _P. flavidus_ Berk., from N. A. The figure of _c.l.i.tocybe pelletieri_ in Gillet Hymenomycetes, etc., resembles our plant very closely, and Saccardo (Syll. Fung. =5=: 192) says that it has the aspect of _Boletus subtomentosus,_ a remark similar to the one made by de Schweinitz in the original description of _Agaricus rhodoxanthus_. _Flammula paradoxa_ Kalch. (Fung. Hung. Tab. XVII, Fig. 1) seems to be the same plant, as well as _F. tammii_ Fr., with which Patouillard (Tab. a.n.a.l. N. 354) places _F. paradoxa_ and _c.l.i.tocybe pelletieri_.

=Paxillus atro=tomentosus= (Batsch) Fr.--This plant is not very common.

It is often of quite large size, 6--15 cm. high, and the cap 5--10 cm.

broad, the stem very short or sometimes long, from 1--2.5 cm. in thickness. The plant is quite easily recognized by the stout and black hairy stem, and the dark brown or blackish, irregular and sometimes lateral cap, with the margin incurved. It grows on wood, logs, stumps, etc., during late summer and autumn.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 161.--Paxillus atro-tomentosus, form hirsutus. Cap and stem brownish or blackish (natural size, small specimens, they are often larger). Copyright.]

The =pileus= is convex, expanded, sometimes somewhat depressed, lateral, irregular, or sometimes with the stem nearly in the center, brownish or blackish, dry, sometimes with a brownish or blackish tomentum on the surface. The margin is inrolled and later incurved. The flesh is white, and the plant is tough. The =gills= are adnate, often decurrent on the stem, and easily separable from the pileus, forked at the base and sometimes reticulate, forming pores. =Spores= yellowish, oval, 4--6 3--4 . Stevenson says that the gills do not form pores like those of P.

involutus, but Fig. 161 (No. 3362 C. U. herbarium) from plants collected at Ithaca, shows them well. There is, as it seems, some variation in this respect. The =stem= is solid, tough and elastic, curved or straight, covered with a dense black tomentum, sometimes with violet shades. On drying the plant becomes quite hard, and the gills blackish olive.

=Paxillus panuoides= Fr.--This species was collected during August, 1900, on a side-walk and on a log at Ithaca. The specimens collected were sessile and the =pileus= lateral, somewhat broadened at the free end, or petaloid. The entire plant is pale or dull yellow, the surface of the pileus fibrous and somewhat uneven but not scaly. The plants are 2--12 cm. long by 1--8 cm. broad, often many crowded together in an imbricated manner. The =gills= are pale yellow, and the =spores= are of the same color when caught on white paper, and they measure 4--5 3--4 , the size given for European specimens of this species. The gills are forked, somewhat anastomosing at the base, and sinuous in outline, though not markedly corrugated as in the next form. From descriptions of the European specimens the plants are sometimes larger than these here described, and it is very variable in form and often imbricated as in the following species.

=Paxillus corrugatus= Atkinson.--This very interesting species was collected at Ithaca, N. Y., on decaying wood, August 4, 1899. The pileus is lateral, shelving, the stem being entirely absent in the specimens found. The =pileus= is 2--5 cm. broad, narrowed down in an irregular wedge form to the sessile base, convex, then expanded, the margin incurved (involute). The color of the cap is yellow, maize yellow to canary yellow, with a reddish brown tinge near the base. It is nearly smooth, or very slightly tomentose. The flesh is pale yellow, spongy.

The =gills= are orange yellow, 2--3 mm. broad, not crowded, regularly forked several times, thin, blunt, very wavy and crenulate, easily separating from the hymenoph.o.r.e when fresh; the entire breadth of the gills is fluted, giving a corrugated appearance to the side. The =spores= in these specimens are faintly yellow, minute, oblong, broadly elliptical, short, sometimes nearly oval, 3 1.5--2 . The =basidia= are also very minute. The spores are olive yellow on white paper. The plant has a characteristic and disagreeable odor. This odor persists in the dried plant for several months.

Figure 162 is from the plants (No. 3332 C. U. herbarium) collected as noted above on decaying hemlock logs in woods. A side and under view is shown in the figure, and the larger figure is the under-view, from a photograph made a little more than twice natural size, in order to show clearly the character of the gills. The two smaller plants are natural size. When dry the plant is quite hard.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE 53, FIGURE 162.--Paxillus corrugatus. Cap maize yellow to orange yellow, reddish brown near the base; gills orange yellow. Two lower plants natural size; upper one 2-1/2 times natural size. Copyright.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE 54, FIGURE 163.--Paxillus panuoides, pale yellow; natural size. Copyright.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE 55.

FIG. 1.--Boletus felleus.

FIG. 2.--B. edulis.

Copyright 1900.]

CHAPTER IX.

THE TUBE-BEARING FUNGI. POLYPORACEAE.

The plants belonging to this family are characterized especially by a honey-combed fruiting surface, that is, the under surface of the plants possesses numerous tubes or pores which stand close together side by side, and except in a very few forms these tubes are joined by their sides to each other. In _Fistulina_ the tubes are free from each other though standing closely side by side. In _Merulius_ distinct tubes are not present, but the surface is more or less irregularly pitted, the pits being separated from each other by folds which anastomose, forming a network. These pits correspond to shallow tubes.

The plants vary greatly in consistency, some are very fleshy and soft and putrify readily. Others are soft when young and become firmer as they age, and some are quite hard and woody. Many of the latter are perennial and live for several or many years, adding a new layer in growth each year. The larger number of the species grow on wood, but some grow on the ground; especially in the genus _Boletus_, which has many species, the majority grow on the ground. Some of the plants have a cap and stem, in others the stem is absent and the cap attached to the tree or log, etc., forms a shelf, or the plant may be thin and spread over the surface of the wood in a thin patch.

In the genus _Daedalea_ the tubes become more or less elongated horizontally and thus approach the form of the gills, while in some species the tubes are more or less toothed or split and approach the spine-bearing fungi at least in appearance of the fruit-bearing surface.

Only a few of the genera and species will be described.

The following key is not complete, but may aid in separating some of the larger plants:

Tubes or pores free from each other, though standing closely side by side, _Fistulina_.

Tubes or pores not free, joined side by side, 1.

1--Plants soft and fleshy, soon decaying, 2.

Plants soft when young, becoming firm, some woody or corky, stipitate, shelving, or spread over the wood, _Polyporus_.

Tubes or pores shallow, formed by a network of folds or wrinkles, plants thin, sometimes spread over the wood, and somewhat gelatinous, _Merulius_.

2--Ma.s.s (stratum) of tubes easily separating from the cap when peeled off, cap not with coa.r.s.e scales, tubes in some species in radiating lines, _Boletus_.

Stratum of tubes separating, but not easily, cap with coa.r.s.e, prominent scales, _Strobilomyces_.

Stratum of tubes separating, but not easily, tubes arranged in distinct radiating lines. In one species (_B. porosus_) the tubes do not separate from the cap, _Boletinus_.

This last genus is apt to be confused with certain species of Boletus which have a distinct radiate arrangement of the tubes. It is questionable whether it is clearly distinguished from the genus Boletus.

BOLETUS Dill.

Of the few genera in the _Polyporaceae_ which are fleshy and putrescent, _Boletus_ contains by far the largest number of species. The entire plant is soft and fleshy, and decays soon after maturity. The stratum of tubes on the under side of the cap is easily peeled off and separates as shown in the portion of a cap near the right hand side of Fig. 169. In the genus _Polyporus_ the stratum of tubes cannot thus be separated. In the genera _Strobilomyces_ and _Boletinus_, two other fleshy genera of this family, the separation is said to be more difficult than in _Boletus_, but it has many times seemed to me a "distinction without a difference."