Part 15

Order 2. =Clavariaceæ.= The hymenium is situated on a stroma, and either completely _covers the smooth surface_ of the more or less fleshy _gymnocarpic fruit-body_, or is confined to a tolerably well defined _upper portion_ of it (_Typhula_). Paraphyses absent. The vertical, white, yellow, or red fruit-bodies are roundish or club-like, undivided or richly branched (Fig. 125). Generally on the ground in woods, seldom on tree-stems, etc.

GENERA: _Clavaria_, generally large Fungi with thick, round branches. _C. botrytis_ has a very thick, tubercular stem with numerous short, flesh-coloured branches: it has an agreeable taste. _C. coralloides_ has a brittle, richly-branched fruit-body (Fig. 164); basidia with two large spores. _C. pistillaris_ consists of a single, undivided club of a yellowish-white colour.--_Sparassis_ has compressed, leaf-like, curled branches; _S. crispa_ has fruit-bodies as large as a white cabbage-head, with an agreeable taste.--_Typhula_ and _Pistillaria_ are small Fungi with filamentous stalks, terminating in a small club. The fruit-bodies of the former often arise from a small, spheroid sclerotium; the latter is distinguished by the basidia bearing only two spores.

Order 3. =Thelephoraceæ.= The hymenium is placed on a stroma and _covers the smooth surface_ of the leathery _hemiangiocarpic fruit-body_, generally _on its under side_. The edge of the stroma, which bounds the hymenium, is sometimes especially developed (_Stereum_). Saprophytes.

GENERA: _Thelephora_. The fruit-bodies in this genus are brown, very irregularly shaped, and often lobed. The spores too are brown, but in the other genera colourless. The species are found growing on barren soil. _T. laciniata_ (Fig. 165) has imbricate, semicircular, dark-brown pileus, which is jagged at the edge and upper surface. The fruit-bodies are very often raised above the ground, and although this species is not a parasite, yet it destroys young seedlings by growing above and smothering them.--_Stereum_ has a stiffer fruit-body, with a distinct, fibrous, intermediate layer. It grows on bark and wood, projecting like a series of imbricate brackets. _S. hirsutum_ is yellow; its free edge is provided with a number of stiff hairs, the upper surface being divided into a number of zones. _S. purpureum_ has a red-violet hymenium which distinguishes it from the previous species.--_Cyphella_ has a membranous cup- or bell-shaped fruit-body, often borne on a stalk, the concave surface being covered with the hymenium. They are small, white Fungi, growing on Moss and dead stems.--_Solenia_ is closely related to _Cyphella_; its fruit-bodies are smaller and hairy; they are found clustered together forming a crust-like covering on dead wood.--_Craterellus_ has a large, funnel-shaped fruit-body, the hymenium covering the external surface. _C. cornucopioides_ is shaped like a trumpet or a “horn of plenty.” It is dark-grey, several inches in height, and grows gregariously on the ground in forests. It is distinguished by the basidia bearing only two sterigmata.

Order 4. =Hydnaceæ.= The fruit-body is most frequently fleshy, and varies considerably in shape, the simplest forms being resupinate,[14] the higher ones umbrella-like. The _hymenophore_ is found on the free or downward-turned surface, and always takes the _form of soft emergences_ hanging vertically downwards. The emergencies may be thorn-, awl-, or wart-like. The species are found growing on the soil and on dead wood.

GENERA: _Hydnum_ has subulate, distinct emergences. _H. repandum_ is yellow, the stalk being placed in the centre of the pileus. It is an edible species, and often forms “fairy rings” in woods. _H. auriscalpium_ (Fig. 166) is dark-brown, with stalk placed at the edge of the pileus. It grows on old Fir-cones. _H. erinaceus_ grows on old tree-trunks. The fruit-body is yellow and very large--as big as a human head--with emergences as much as an inch in length.--_Irpex_ has a leathery fruit-body, partly resupinate, partly with free, projecting edge; the under side bears tooth-like emergences which are arranged in rows, and _Irpex_ thus forms a transition to the Agaricaceæ.--_Phlebia_ is entirely resupinate, with radially-arranged folds on the free side, and pectinate border.

Order 5. =Polyporaceæ (Pore-Fungi).= An order very rich in species (about 2000 species are described). The fruit-body is of very different forms--resupinate, projecting like a bracket, hoof-like, or umbrella-shaped. In some it is fleshy and edible, in others leathery or corky, persisting for several years. The hymenophore is situated on the under side of the fruit-body, and consists of wide or narrow _tubes_ or _pores_, whose inner surface is clothed with the hymenium (Fig. 167). In some fruit-bodies large cavities are to be found, which have arisen as interstices between the labyrinthine curved and reticulate folds. Chlamydospores are known in some species. Conidia occur very rarely. Many species work considerable damage: some as parasites on trees, others by destroying timber.

GENERA. _Polyporus_ (Pore-Fungus). The tubes are narrow, accurately fitted together, and forming a thick layer on the under side of the fruit-body, appearing as a number of fine holes. The fruit-body most frequently resembles a bracket, or is hoof-shaped, with one side growing from a tree-trunk; it is very often perennial, and a new layer of tubes arises in each succeeding period of vegetation. Strata, corresponding to the periodically interrupted growth, are thus formed in storeys one above the other, and are visible on the upper surface of the fruit-body, as well as in the interior, as a series of concentric belts, sometimes as many as half a score or more in number. _P. fomentarius_ (Touchwood) attacks trees, especially the Beech. The spores germinate on wounds from broken branches, and the hyphæ, following the course of the medullary rays, find their way into the interior of the tree, from whence the mycelium spreads upwards, downwards, and peripherally, so that the wood becomes rotten (“white-rot”) and thick felts of mycelium are formed in radial and tangential directions. A dark line, caused by the youngest parts of the hyphæ containing a brown juice, marks the boundary between the rotten and the unattacked parts of the stem (Fig. 168); at places where the mycelium extends to the bark, the cambium becomes destroyed and further growth is arrested, so that longitudinal furrows arise on the stem. It is at these places, too, that the hoof-shaped, ash-coloured fruit-bodies are developed, which may attain a circumference of upwards of 7 feet. The interior of the fruit-body consists of a dried-up, loosely felted, red-brown mass of hyphæ, which has been used for tinder and as a styptic (“Fungus chirurgorum”). _P. igniarius_ has a harder, dark-brown, more rounded fruit-body; it grows in a similar manner, but especially attacks Oaks, Poplars, and Plum-trees, the wood of which becomes rotten, and is called touchwood. _P. pini_ (_Trametes pini_), (Fig. 170), a parasite on the stems of _Pinus_, causes a kind of “red-rot” in the stem. _P. sulphureus_ has a soft, cheesy, yellow fruit-body; it produces “rot” in Oaks and Apple-trees. _P. officinalis_, Larch-fungus (“Fungus Laricis” in Pharmocopœia), grows on Larch-trees in the south-east of Europe. _P. versicolor_ has thin, semicircular fruit-bodies, with zones of various colours on the upper side; it is one of the most frequent species on tree-stems. _P. frondosus_ grows on soil in woods, and consists of numerous aggregated fruit-bodies, which become very large and fleshy. This species is edible. _P. perennis_ also grows on the soil in woods; it is very leathery, with central stalk, and has concentric zones on the upper surface of the fruit-body. _P. vaporarius_ destroys the wood of living Pines (_Pinus silvestris_) and Firs (_Picea excelsa_), causing it to become red-brown; in timber this Fungus causes “red-strip” followed by a “dry-rot.” _P. squamosus_ destroys many Walnut-trees, and is also very destructive to Limes and Elms. _P. fulvus_ causes a “white-rot” in _Abies alba_.

_Heterobasidion annosum_ (_Polyporus annosus_, _Trametes radiciperda_, Fig. 169) is characterized by its _Aspergillus_-like conidiophores. It is a parasite on the Pine, Fir, Birch, Beech, etc., and is the chief cause of a root-disease (red-rot) in Pines and Firs; the fruit-bodies develope a large number of basidiospores; they may be very large and are found just beneath the surface of the soil (on living or dead roots), and exposed to the air (on felled stems and roots, in Scandinavia).

_Ptychogaster_ has cushion-like fruit-bodies, which consist chiefly of chlamydospore-chains, formed of ellipsoidal spores, which alternate with short hyphæ having transverse septa and clamp-connections. The hymenial portion is limited to a small group of tubes. _Pt. albus_ (_Oligorus ustilaginoides_) grows on stumps of Conifers and forms irregular cushions, at first white and later on brown, which consist almost entirely of chlamydospores.

_Boletus_ (Fig. 171) has a fleshy fruit-body resembling a common Mushroom, with central stalk. The layer of tubes is easily detached from the pileus, and the tubes are easily separable from one another. They grow on the ground in woods. Edible species are: _B. edulis_, with thick, reticulate stalk; _B. scaber_, with thin stalk and rough pileus; _B. luteus_, with a ring on the stalk. _B. luridus_ is poisonous, its tubes have red openings, and the flesh turns quickly blue when broken and exposed to the air.

_Fistulina hepatica_ (Beef-steak Fungus), has a red, fleshy, edible fruit-body, with red juice. The tubes are individually distinct; conidia are also developed. Grows on old Oaks.

_Merulius lacrymans_ (“Dry-rot”) has a resupinate fruit-body with white, cotton-like border, and the remaining portions covered by reticulate, ramified veins of a rust-brown colour. In favourable vegetative conditions it is fleshy and exudes large drops of water--hence its specific name and also the name “Tear Fungus.” The mycelium is at first colourless, and then yellow-brown; when dry it is tough and leathery. It destroys the timber in damp houses, extends far and wide over boards and beams and even over the masonry, giving rise to a disagreeable smell in the rooms in which it lodges. In woods the Fungus lives on Pine-stems. It is brought from the forest on the logs of timber, and is distributed from log to log by the mycelium and the basidiospores. The living mycelium can be recognised by the clamp-connections shooting out branches. The basidiospores are often ejected a distance of a metre; they are elliptical (10–11µ long and 5–6µ broad), and germinate easily on damp wood, or in fruit-juice which has been neutralized with urine or alkaline carbonates.

_Dædalea_ (Labyrinth Fungus), has bracket-like, corky fruit-bodies with irregularly-folded plates or discs on the under side. It forms a transition to the Agaricaceæ. _D. quercina_ is frequent on Oak-stumps.

Order 6. =Agaricaceæ= (=Mushrooms=, =Toadstools=). _The hymenophore consists_ of knife-like plates (_lamellæ_, _gills_), which are situated on the under side of the umbrella-like pileus of the fruit-body, and radiate from the central stalk. Those which are first formed extend from the edge of the pileus to the stalk; those formed later reach only a longer or shorter portion of this distance, according to their age. In structure the lamellæ (Fig. 174) consist of a central mass of hyphæ, the _trama_, continuous with the hyphæ of the pileus; these terminate in a layer of shorter cells, the _subhymenial layer_, immediately beneath the hymenium which is composed of basidia and paraphyses. In a few species, but not in the majority, the lamellæ are branched, and in some they are decurrent. A few have the stalk placed excentrically, or it may be entirely absent.

In the early stages of its development the fruit-body is more or less enclosed in a hyphal tissue--the “veil” (_velum universale_, or _volva_). The veil at first completely encloses the young fruit-body, but is afterwards ruptured as the latter grows, part remaining at the base of the stalk as the “sheath” (_annulus inferus_), and part on the pileus as scales or warts. In the “Fly Mushroom” (_Amanita muscaria_) the remains of the veil are especially conspicuous as white patches on the bright red ground of the upper surface of the pileus, and as a sheath at the base of the stalk (Fig. 178 _v._). Another veil--the _velum partiale_--a hyphal tissue (Figs. 178 _a_; 173) stretches from the edge of the pileus to the stalk, and encloses the lamellæ. This veil is ruptured as the pileus expands, a portion attached to the stalk remaining as the “upper ring” (_annulus superus_) (Figs. 173, 178 _a_), or a part attached to the pileus hanging down as a fringe round its edge.--Some genera have no veil, the under side of the pileus being exposed from the first (_gymnocarpic_ Agaricaceæ). Those which have a veil (_hemiangiocarpic_ A.) afford a transition to the angiocarpic Gasteromycetes.

The mycelium mostly grows in soils rich in humus or dung, on decaying trees and similar objects. Many species, _e.g. Tricholoma personatum_ and _Marasmius oreades_, form the so-called “fairy rings.” The fruit-bodies in these species are confined to a larger or smaller surface on which they are very regularly arranged in a ring. The reason for this is found in the radial growth of the mycelium, so that the oldest portion, or the starting point, is found at the centre of the ring, and the younger ones, on which the fruit-bodies are formed, at the circumference. The older hyphæ gradually die, and at the same time, the radial growth continuing, the ring of fruit-bodies becomes larger and larger. The “fairy-rings” are marked not only by the fruit-bodies, but also by the more vigorous growth and darker colour of the grass upon these spots.

Some species are _parasites_. An example is presented by _Armillaria mellea_, a remarkable and very destructive Fungus in woods and forests (Figs. 176, 177). ~In addition to the filamentous, white mycelium, it has also black, or black-brown, horny, root-like mycelium-strands (rhizomorpha) which were formerly considered to belong to a special genus of Fungi described under the name “_Rhizomorpha_.” The mycelium lives parasitically on the Conifers and other trees, forcing its hyphæ into the bark and between the bark and wood, and thence penetrating into the wood so that the tree is very severely attacked. It may also live saprophytically, and clusters of fruit-bodies are often found on old stumps and stems, on old timber, and in the rich soil of woods. The rhizomorpha, living underground, can extend for considerable distances and infect the roots of neighbouring trees, and spreads in this way the diseases known as “Harzsticken” and “Bark-Canker,” which are very destructive to young trees.~

The chief characteristics by which the numerous genera are separated are the presence or the absence of the two kinds of veils, the nature of the fruit-body, the form, branching of the lamellæ, and their position and relation with respect to the stem, the shape of the pileus, the colour of the spores, etc., etc. A knowledge of the colour may be obtained by placing the pileus with the lamellæ turned downwards on a piece of white or coloured paper, so that the spores, as they fall off, are collected on the paper, and the arrangement of the lamellæ can then be clearly seen.

About 4,600 species belonging to this order have been described.

On account of the large number of species the order is divided into several sections:

1. =Agaricinei=; fruit-body fleshy; lamellæ membranous, knife-like, with sharp edge; basidia crowded together. The FOLLOWING HAVE WHITE SPORES:--_Amanita_ (Fly Mushroom), with volva, and generally also the upper ring on the stalk; many are poisonous, such as _A. muscaria_ (Fig. 178) which has bright red pileus with white spots, _A. pantherina_ and _A. phalloides_; _A. cæsarea_ is edible.--_Lepiota procera_ (Parasol Fungus) is one of the largest Mushrooms; it has a scaly pileus and moveable ring (edible).--_Armillaria mellea_ has been mentioned above (Figs. 176, 177).--_Tricholoma_, lamellæ indented near the stalk; _T. gambosum_ (Pomona Fungus) belongs to the best of edible Fungi; _T. personatum_ often forms fairy rings (see above).--_Clitocybe_, lamella decurrent; _C. nebularis_ is edible.--_Pleurotus_, stalk eccentric; _P. ostreatus_ (Oyster Mushroom) grows in clusters on tree-stems (edible).--_Collybia_ and _Mycena_, species numerous, small.--SPORES ROSE-RED: _Volvaria_ and _Hyporhodius_.--SPORES BROWN: _Cortinarius_, with cobweb-like veil; _Pholiota_, membranous veil and ring; _P. squarrosa_ in clusters on tree-stems; _P. mutabilis_, on tree-stumps (edible).--SPORES VIOLET-PURPLE: _Hypholoma_, _Psalliota_; to this section the common edible Mushroom (Fig. 172–174) belongs, with annulus and chocolate-coloured lamellæ; it is cultivated for the sake of the fine flavour.--SPORES BLACK: _Coprinarius_.

2. =Marasmiei.= Fruit-body tough, almost leathery, and persistent; spores white. _Marasmius oreades_ forms large, regular fairy-rings on pastures and commons; it is used as seasoning in food.--_Panus stipticus_ with eccentrically-placed stalk, in clusters on tree-stumps.--_Schizophyllum_ has the edge of the lamellæ divided longitudinally, and the split portions revolute.--_Lentinus_ affords a transition to _Dædalea_ among the Polyporaceæ.

3. =Russulei.= Fruit-body fleshy and fragile, in which two different systems of hyphæ may be distinguished; spores thorny, white, or pale-yellow. Many are poisonous.--_Russula_ has generally fragile and thick lamellæ reaching from stalk to edge of pileus; pileus frequently red.--_Lactarius_ has white or yellow milky juice, which often is very acid. _L. deliciosus_ has red-yellow milky juice, and is of a pleasant flavour. _L. torminosus_ is poisonous.

4. =Hygrophorei.= Lamellæ thick and waxy, widely separated; spores white. Many species of _Hygrophorus_ have brightly-coloured pileus and grow among the grass on moors and commons.--_Nyctalis_ is parasitic on larger Toadstools. It is remarkable for its abundant formation of chlamydospores, whilst the basidiospores are little developed.

5. =Coprinei.= Fruit-bodies very soft, quickly perishable; lamellæ membranous and deliquescent. The basidia are separated from each other by paraphyses. _Coprinus_ has coal-black spores, grows on manure, and sometimes developes sclerotia.

6. =Paxillei.= Fruit-body fleshy; lamellæ easily detached from the pileus and reticulately-joined near the stalk. They form a connecting link between the Agaricaceæ and _Boletus_.

7. =Cantharellei.= Lamellæ reduced to dichotomously-divided folds, decurrent on the stalk. _Cantharellus cibarius_ (Fig. 175) is yolk-yellow, and grows on the ground in woods (edible). It is allied to _Craterellus_.

Family 3. =Phalloideæ.=

The fruit-bodies before they are ripe are spherical or ovoid, and enclosed by a _fleshy covering_, the peridium, which is _perforated at maturity_ and remains as a sheath (Fig. 179); the fruit-bodies are _hemiangiocarpic_.

Order 1. =Phallaceæ= (=Stink-horns=). The peridium has a complicated structure and is composed of three layers, the intermediate one being thick and gelatinous. The gleba (the tissue which bears the hymenium) is situated upon a peculiar receptacle which expands into a porous stalk and by its sudden distension, rupturing the peridium, elevates the gleba and hymenium above the peridium, which remains as a sheath. _The gleba becomes gelatinous and dissolves away as drops._ To this order belong many peculiar and often brightly coloured forms, which are natives of the Southern Hemisphere.