Studies of American Fungi. Mushrooms, Edible, Poisonous, etc. Part 8

=Lepiota acutesquamosa= Weinm.--This is a medium or small sized plant with a floccose pileus adorned with small, acute, erect scales, and has a loose, hairy or wooly veil which is often torn irregularly. The erect scales fall away from the pileus and leave little scars where they were attached.

=Lepiota cristata= A. & S. =Edible.=--The crested lepiota, _Lepiota cristata_, occurs in gra.s.sy places and borders of woods, in groves, etc., from May to September, and is widely distributed. The plant is small, 3--5 cm. high, the cap 1--4 cm. broad, and the stem 2--5 mm. in thickness. It grows in cl.u.s.ters or is scattered.

The =pileus= is ovate, bell-shaped, then convex and expanded, and thin.

The surface is at first entirely dull reddish or reddish brown, but soon cracks into numerous scales of the same color arranged in a crested manner, more numerous between the margin and the center, and often arranged in a concentric manner. The center of the cap often preserves the uniform reddish brown color because the pileus at this point does not expand so much and therefore the surface does not crack, while the margin often becomes white because of the disappearance of the brown covering here. The =gills= are free from the stem, narrow, crowded, and close to the stem. The =spores= are more or less angular, elongated, more narrowed at one end, and measure 5--8 3--4 . The =stem= is slender, cylindrical, hollow, whitish, smooth. The =ring= is small, white, and easily breaks up and disappears.

The characters of the plant are well shown in Fig. 83 from plants collected at Ithaca. _Lepiota angustana_ Britz. is identical, and according to Morgan _L. miamensis_ Morgan is a white form of _L.

angustana_.

=Lepiota asperula= Atkinson.--This lepiota resembles _A. asper_ in some respects, but it is smaller and the spores are much smaller, being very minute. The plant is 5--8 cm. high, the pileus 2--4 cm. broad, and the stem 4--6 mm. in thickness. It grows in leaf mould in the woods and has been found at Ithaca, N. Y., twice during July and September, 1897.

The =pileus= is convex and bell-shaped, becoming nearly or quite expanded. It is hair brown to olive brown in color. The surface is dry, made up of interwoven threads, and is adorned with numerous small, erect, pointed scales resembling in this respect _A. asper_ Fr. The =gills= are white or yellowish, free, but rather close to the stem, narrow, often eroded on the edge, sometimes forked near the stem, and some of them arranged in pairs. The spores are oblong, smooth, and very minute, measuring 5 2 . The =stem= is the same color as the pileus, cylindrical, hollow, with loose threads in the cavity, enlarged into a rounded bulb below, minutely downy to p.u.b.escent. The outer portion of the bulb is formed of intricately interwoven threads, among which are entangled soil and humus particles. The =veil= is white, silky, hairy, separating from the stem like a dense cortina, the threads stretched both above and below as shown in Fig. 84 from plants (No. 3157 C. U.

herbarium), collected at Ithaca.

In some specimens, as the pileus expands, the s.p.a.ces between the pointed scales are torn, thus forming quite coa.r.s.e scales which are often arranged in more or less concentric rows, showing the yellow-tinged flesh in the cracks, and the coa.r.s.e scales bearing the fine point at the center. A layer connecting the margin of the pileus with the base of the stem and covered with fine brown points, sometimes separates from the edge of the cap and the base of the stem, and clings partly to the cortina and partly to the stem in much the same way that portions of the volva cling to the stem of certain species of _Amanita_, as seen in _A.

velatipes_ (Fig. 66). Sometimes this is left on the base of the stem and then resembles a short, free limb of a volva, and suggests a species of _Amanita_. The scales, however, are concrete with the pileus, and the species appears to show a closer relationship with _Lepiota_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE 26, FIGURE 84.--Lepiota asperula. Cap hair-brown to olive-brown, scales minute, pointed, gills and stem white (natural size). Copyright.]

ARMILLARIA Fr.

In the genus _Armillaria_ the inner veil which forms a ring on the stem is present. The stem is fibrous, or the outer portion cartilaginous in some species, and not easily separable from the substance of the pileus (continuous with the hymenoph.o.r.e), and the gills are attached to the stem, sinuate, or decurrent, spores white. Peck, 43rd Report N. Y. State Mus., p. 40--45, describes 6 species.

Some of the species resemble very closely certain species of _Amanita_ or _Lepiota_, but can be distinguished by the firm continuity of the substance of the stem and cap.

=Armillaria mellea= Vahl. =Edible.=--This is one of the most common of the late summer and autumn fungi, and is widely distributed over the world. It grows about the bases of old stumps or dead trees, or from buried roots. Sometimes it is found attached to the living roots of trees. The plant occurs in tufts or cl.u.s.ters, several to many individuals growing together, the bases of their stems connected with a black rope-like strand from which they arise. The entire plant is often more or less honey colored, from which the plant gets its specific name.

Its cl.u.s.tered habit, the usually prominent ring on the stems, and the sharp, blackish, erect scales which usually adorn the center of the cap, mark it as an easy plant to determine in most cases. The colors and markings, however, vary greatly, so that some of the forms are very puzzling. The plant varies in height from 10--15 cm., the cap from 5--10 cm. broad, and the stem 4--10 mm. in thickness.

The =pileus= is oval to convex and expanded, sometimes with a slight umbo or elevation at the center. The color varies from honey color to nearly white, or yellowish brown to dull reddish brown, usually darker on the center. In typical forms the pileus is adorned with pointed dark brown, or blackish, erect, scales especially abundant over the center, while the margin is often free from them, but may be marked with looser floccose, brownish, or yellowish scales. Sometimes there are no blackish pointed scales anywhere on the cap, only loose floccose colored scales, or in some forms the cap is entirely smooth. The margin in old specimens is often striate. The pileus is usually dry, but Webster cites an instance in which it was viscid in wet weather.

The =gills= are attached to the stem squarely (adnate) or they are decurrent (extend downward on the stem), are white, or whitish, becoming in age more or less dingy or stained. The spores are rounded or elliptical, 6--9 . The =stem= is elastic, spongy within and sometimes hollow. It is smooth or often floccose scaly below the ring, sometimes with prominent transverse bands of a hairy substance. It is usually whitish near the upper end, but dull brown or reddish brown below the annulus, sometimes distinctly yellowish. The =veil= varies greatly also.

It may be membranaceous and thin, or quite thick, or in other cases may be absent entirely. The =ring= of course varies in a corresponding manner. As shown in Fig. 85 it is quite thick, so that it appears double on the edge, where it broke away from the inner and outer surfaces of the margin of the cap. It is frequently fixed to the stem, that is, not movable, but when very thin and frail it often disappears.

The honey colored agaric is said by nearly all writers to be edible, though some condemn it. It is not one of the best since it is of rather tough consistency. It is a species of considerable economic importance and interest, since it is a parasite on certain coniferous trees, and perhaps also on certain of the broad-leaved trees. It attacks the roots of these trees, the mycelium making its way through the outer layer, and then it grows beneath the bark. Here it forms fan-like sheets of mycelium which advance along both away from the tree and towards the trunk. It disorganizes and breaks down the tissues of the root here, providing a s.p.a.ce for a thicker growth of the mycelium as it becomes older. In places the mycelium forms rope-like strands, at first white in color, but later becoming dark brown and shining. These cords or strands, known as _rhizomorphs_, extend for long distances underneath the bark of the root. They are also found growing in the hollow trunks of trees sometimes. In time enough of the roots are injured to kill the tree, or the roots are so weakened that heavy winds will blow the trees over.

The fruiting plants always arise from these rhizomorphs, and by digging carefully around the bases of the stems one can find these cords with the stems attached, though the attachment is frail and the stems are easily separated from the cords. Often these cords grow for years without forming any fruit bodies. In this condition they are often found by stripping off the bark from dead and rotting logs in the woods. These cords were once supposed to be separate fungi, and they were known under the name _Rhizomorpha subcorticalis_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE 27, FIGURE 85.--Armillaria mellea. Showing double ring present in some large specimens; cap honey colored, scales minute, more numerous at center, blackish, often floccose, and sometimes wanting (3/4 natural size, often smaller). Copyright.]

=Armillaria aurantia= Schaeff. (_Tricholoma peckii_ Howe) =Suspected.=--This is a very pretty species and rare in the United States. The plants are 6--8 cm. high, the cap 4--7 cm. broad, and the stem 6--8 mm. in thickness. It occurs in woods. It is known by its viscid pileus, the orange brown or ochraceous rufus color of the pileus and stem, and the color of the stem being confined to the superficial layer, which becomes torn into concentric floccose scales, forming numerous minute floccose irregular rings of color around the stem.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 86.--Armillaria aurantia Schaeff. (=Tricholoma peckii Howe). Cap orange-brown or ochraceous rufus, viscid; floccose scales on stem same color (natural size). Copyright.]

The =pileus= is convex to expanded, with an umbo, and the edge inrolled, fleshy, thin, viscid, ochraceous rufus (in specimens collected by myself), darker on the umbo, and minutely scaly from tufts of hairs, and the viscid cuticle easily peeling off. The =gills= are narrow, crowded, slightly adnexed, or many free, white, becoming brown discolored where bruised, and in drying brownish or rufus. The =spores= are minute, globose to ovoid, or rarely sub-elliptical when a little longer, with a prominent oil globule usually, 3--3.5 3--5 , sometimes a little longer when the elliptical forms are presented. The =stem= is straight or ascending, even, very floccose scaly as the pileus is unrolled from it, scales same color as the pileus, the scales running transversely, being separated perhaps by the elongation of the stem so that numerous floccose rings are formed, showing the white flesh of the stem between.

The upper part of the stem, that above the annulus, is white, but the upper part floccose.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 87.--Tricholoma personatum. Entire plant grayish brown, tinged with lilac or purple, spores light ochraceous (natural size, often larger).]

This plant has been long known in Europe. There is a rather poor figure of it in Schaeffer Table 37, and a better one in Gillet Champignons de France, Hymenomycetes, =1=, opposite page 76, but a very good one in Bresadola Funghi Mangerecci e Velenosi, Tavel 18, 1899. A good figure is also given by Barla, Les Champignons des Alpes--Maritimes, Pl. 19, Figs.

1--6. The plant was first reported from America in the 41st Report, State Museum, N. Y., p. 82, 1888, under the name _Tricholoma peckii_ Howe, from the Catskill Mountains, N. Y. Figure 86 is from plants (No.

3991, C. U. herbarium) collected in the Blue Ridge mountains, at Blowing Rock, N. C., during September, 1899. The European and American description both ascribe a bitter taste to the flesh of the pileus, and it is regarded as suspicious.

There does not seem to be a well formed annulus, the veil only being present in a rather young stage, as the inrolled margin of the pileus is unrolling from the surface of the stem. It seems to be more in the form of a universal veil resembling the veil of some of the lepiotas. It shows a relationship with _Tricholoma_ which possesses in typical forms a delicate veil present only in the young stage. Perhaps for this reason it was referred by Howe to _Tricholoma_ as an undescribed species when it was named _T. peckii_. If its affinities should prove to be with _Tricholoma_ rather than with _Armillaria_, it would then be known as _Tricholoma aurantium_.

TRICHOLOMA Fr.

In the genus _Tricholoma_ the volva and annulus are both wanting, the spores are white, and the gills are attached to the stem, but are more or less strongly notched or sinuate at the stem. Sometimes the notch is very slight. The stem is fleshy-fibrous, attached to the center of the pileus, and is usually short and stout. In some specimens when young there is a slight cobwebby veil which very soon disappears. The genus is a very large one. Some species are said to be poisonous and a few are known to be edible. Peck, 44th Report, N. Y. State Mus., pp. 38--64, describes 46 species.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 88.--Tricholoma personatum. Section (natural size).]

=Tricholoma personatum= Fr. =Edible.=--This plant occurs during the autumn and persists up to the winter months. It grows on the ground in open places and in woods. The stem is short, usually 3--7 cm. long 1--2 cm. in thickness, and the cap is from 5--10 cm. or more broad. The entire plant often has a lilac or purple tint.

The =pileus= is convex, expanded, moist, smooth, grayish to brownish tinged with lilac or purple, especially when young, fading out in age.

When young the pileus is sometimes adorned with white mealy particles, and when old the margin may be more or less upturned and wavy. The =gills= are crowded, rounded next the stem, and nearly free but close to the stem, violet or lilac when young, changing to dull reddish brown when old. The =spores= when caught in ma.s.s are dull pink or salmon color. They measure 7--9 long. The =stem= is solid, fibrous, smooth, deep lilac when young and retaining the lilac color longer than the pileus. Sometimes the base is bulbous as in Fig. 87.

This plant is regarded by all writers as one of the best of the edible fungi. Sometimes the pileus is water soaked and then the flavor is not so fine. The position of the plant is regarded as doubtful by some because of the more or less russety pink color of the spores when seen in ma.s.s, and the ease with which the gills separate from the pileus, characters which show its relationship to the genus _Paxillus_.

=Tricholoma sejunctum= Sowerb. =Edible.=--This plant occurs on the ground in rather open woods during late summer and in the autumn. It is 8--12 cm. high, the cap 5--8 cm. broad, and the stem 10--15 mm. in thickness.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 89.--Tricholoma sejunctum. Cap light yellow, streaked with dark threads on the surface, viscid. Stem and gills white (natural size, often larger). Copyright.]

The =pileus= is convex to expanded, umbonate, viscid when moist, light yellow in color and streaked with dark threads in the surface. The flesh is white, and very fragile, differing in this respect from _T.

equestre_, which it resembles in general form. The =gills= are broad, rather distant, broadly notched near the stem, and easily separating from the stem. The =stem= is solid, smooth and shining white. Figure 89 is from plants collected at Ithaca. It is said to be edible.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE 28, FIGURE 90.--c.l.i.tocybe candida. Entirely white (natural size). Copyright.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE 29, FIGURE 91.--c.l.i.tocybe candida. Under view of nearly lateral stemmed individual (natural size). Copyright.]

c.l.i.tOCYBE Fr.

The volva and annulus are wanting in this genus, and the spores are white. The stem is elastic, spongy within, the outside being elastic or fibrous, so that the fibres hold together well when the stem is twisted or broken, as in _Tricholoma_. The stem does not separate readily from the pileus, but the rather strong fibres are continuous with the substance of the pileus. The gills are narrowed toward the stem, joined squarely or decurrent (running down on the stem), very rarely some of them notched at the stem while others of the same plant are decurrent.

In one species at least (_C. laccata_, by some placed in the genus _Laccaria_) the gills are often strongly notched or sinuate. The cap is usually plane, depressed, or funnel-shaped, many of the species having the latter form. The plants grow chiefly on the ground, though a number of species occur on dead wood. The genus contains a very large number of species. Peck describes ten species in the 23rd Report, N. Y. State Mus., p. 76, et. seq., also 48th Report, p. 172, several species.

Morgan, Jour. Cinn. Soc. Nat. Hist. =6=: 70--73, describes 12 species.

=c.l.i.tocybe candida= Bres. =Edible.=--This is one of the large species of the genus. It occurs in late autumn in Europe. It has been found on several occasions during late autumn at Ithaca, N. Y., on the ground in open woods, during wet weather. It occurs in cl.u.s.ters, though the specimens are usually not crowded. The stem is usually very short, 2--4 cm. long, and 2--3 cm. in thickness, while the cap is up to 10--18 cm.

broad.

The =pileus= is sometimes regular, but often very irregular, and produced much more strongly on one side than on the other. It is convex, then expanded, the margin first incurved and finally wavy and often somewhat lobed. The color is white or light buff in age. The flesh is thick and white. The =gills= are white, stout, broad, somewhat decurrent, some adnate.

The taste is not unpleasant when raw, and when cooked it is agreeable. I have eaten it on several occasions. Figures 90, 91 are from plants (No.

4612 C. U. herbarium) collected at Ithaca.

=c.l.i.tocybe laccata= Scop. =Edible.=--This plant is a very common and widely distributed one, growing in woods, fields, roadsides and other waste places. It is usually quite easily recognized from the whitish scurfy cap, the pink or purplish gills, though the spores are white, from the gills being either decurrent, adnate, or more or less strongly notched, and the stem fibrous and whitish or of a pale pink color. When the plants are mature the pale red or pink gills appear mealy from being covered with the numerous white spores.

The =pileus= is thin, convex or later expanded, of a watery appearance, nearly smooth or scurfy or slightly squamulose. The =spores= are rounded, and possess spine-like processes, or are prominently roughened.