Part 6

When the spore is to cease to be a spore, and to become a mushroom, the first thing it does is to send forth certain cotton-like filaments, whose interfacings entangle it completely while they also serve to attach it to the place of its birth; these threads (like the spongioles attached to the roots of phænogamous plants, whose name sufficiently explains their office) absorb and bring nourishment to the quickened spore, which then maintains itself entirely by intus-susception. All this takes place before the germ has burst, or the embryo fungus begun to develope its organs. In some instances, these elementary threads are, like the ordinary roots of plants, spread out to a considerable distance underground, forming here and there in their course small bulbs or tubercles, each of which, in turn, becomes a new individual; in others, and more commonly, these spores are sprinkled about unconnectedly, as in the _Pietra funghaia_, affecting certain spots only, which become so many small matrices whereof each furnishes a crop. The union of many germinating granules together with their connecting threads, constitutes mushroom spawn, or, as it is technically called, _carcytes_.[110] Examined a short time after quickening, the spore is found to have swelled out into a fleshy kernel; which in puff-balls, truffles, and the uterine subterranean families generally, constitutes of itself the whole fungus; this only grows in size afterwards, the substance and original form remaining the same through the entire period of development. In those destined to live under the influence of air and light, this same rudimental nucleus gradually evolves _new parts_, and assumes, as we have seen, a vast variety of forms, (whereof each particular one is predetermined by the original bias imprinted upon every spore at its creation,) and here there is a manifest analogy with the progressive development of new parts in the higher plants. In such funguses as are wrapped up in a volva or bag, during the earliest period of growth, this furnishes them not only with the means of protection, but of nourishment also. This volva, which is formed by the mere swelling out of the original fleshy bulb, when it has grown to a certain size, exhibits towards its centre the rudiments of the young fungus; of which the receptacle appears first, and all the other parts in succession. The embryo, next taking to grow, in its turn approaches the circumference of the volva, which, having by this time ceased to expand, is burst open, and sometimes with much violence, by the emerging Amanite. As soon as the hymenium has parted with its seed, which falls from it in the form of fine dust, the fungus, collapsing, either withers on its stem, or else dissolves into a black liquid and so escapes to the earth. In such funguses as have not a volva, the basilar or primary nucleus shoots up at once in the form of a cone, and a little later presents at its apex the rudiments of a receptacle or head; by degrees, and frequently by slow degrees,[111] the perfected structures of the plant are elaborated and spread themselves out into some of the forms mentioned above, of which the clavate is the most simple, and that with gills the most complex. The primary nucleus is formed out of simple cellular membrane, the cells of which, at first elongating, and at length uniting into little bundles, assume a fibrous appearance; sometimes these fascicular bodies effuse themselves unchanged into the substance of the receptacle, in which they spread out and are lost; at others, a transverse line makes the demarcation between the pileus and stem.[112] The last part formed in a fungus, generally, is that which bears the seed; and whenever an exception to this occurs, and the seed is formed at an earlier period than usual, nature has in this case provided three membranes, to cover and protect these delicate organs till the plant shall have attained maturity: these are the ring (_annulus_), the veil (_velum_), and the wrapper (_volva_).

OF THE ANNULUS, THE VELUM, AND THE VOLVA.

Of these involucra the first two are partial, the other universal. The Volva is a thick membranaceous covering, originating at the base of the fungus, which it thus connects with the earth, and furnishes, during its fœtal life, with the means of support and nourishment. When this has ceased, and the plant has quitted its wrapper, if this still adhere to the base of the stalk, it is styled manifest (_manifesta_), but if there be no traces of it left, obliterated (_obliterata_). It is _free_ when it can be easily detached, and _congenital_ when it cannot without laceration. In funguses with bulbous roots it is congenital, in those without bulbs it is free. All funguses that have a volva are of course _volvati_, but as this organ exists in many only so long as they are underground, mycologists are agreed to restrict the term to such alone as retain it afterwards.

_The Ring._—This, which differs considerably in form, substance, and in its attachments, is composed either of a continuous sheet of membrane or else of a number of delicately-spun threads, resembling a spider’s web,[113] which in either case passing from the margin of the pileus to the corresponding upper portion of the stem, give way as the plant expands, and either festoon for a season the margin of the cap, or encircle the stalk with a ring. The marginal remains of the Annulus are extremely fugacious, but the ring round the stalk, though generally transitory, is sometimes persistent; it is _superior_ or _descending_ when originating from the summit of the stem, it descends outwards and downwards to form connections with the rim of the pileus; _inferior_ or _ascending_ when, coming off from that portion of the stalk which is below the pileus, it ascends to attach itself to this. In a few cases the ring is partly membranaceous and partly composed of radiating arachnoid threads.

_The Veil._—Some funguses not only present the ring just mentioned, their hymenium or seed membrane being further protected from harm by a second investment, the veil, _Velum_, the stalk origin of which, when existing in conjunction with an annulus, is below it, but when the fungus is not annulate, the velum rises higher up on the stalk, stretches across to meet and is afterwards reflected over the whole surface of the pileus; on the expansion of the Agaric this investment is entirely broken up, and exhibits those well-known flocks, which have been called by the learned _verrucæ_, but which, as they are generally of a dirty leprous hue, and affect more or less of a circular arrangement, have procured for this whole tribe of Amanites in Italy the uncomely epithet of _tignosi_, or scald-heads. Where there has been both a volva and a velum, as sometimes happens in the same fungus, these verrucæ are of different colours according as they are remnants of the first merely, or of both together.[114] The velum in the subgenus _Limacium_ is a slimy coating adhering to the head of the fungus, which then looks as if it had been dipped in gum mucilage; this generally disappears after a time, leaving the epidermis dry, though sometimes, like the solid membranaceous veil, it is more or less persistent. The waxy covering on the pileus of the _Ag. virescens_, which after a time cracks and tessellates its surface, is only an exudation limited to the upper portion of the cap, and not a veil.

_The Stalk._—This, which is absent in many parasitical funguses of the Order _Pileati_, when present, either effuses itself uninterruptedly into the substance of the pileus, which it then, in fact, _forms_, or else supports merely as on a pillar, a distinct line of demarcation showing where the fibres terminate. It assumes a great variety of forms, which serve in many instances to characterize species; besides which peculiarities there are others to be noted, as the mode of its insertion into the pileus, its having or not having a ring, the circumstance of its being scabrous, glossy, or tomentose, reticulated, spotted, or striped, of one colour above and another below, or of its changing colour when bruised, any of which may sometimes assist our diagnosis.

_The Pileus._—By far the larger number of funguses mentioned in this work have a pileus, or cap; all such belong to the first great tribe _Pileati_; they include the genera _Agaricus_, _Boletus_, _Cantharellus_, _Morchella_, _Hydnum_, _Fistulina_, and _Polyporus_, each of which furnishes its quota of alimentary species, together with many others not esculent. The form of the pileus, like that of the stalk, is various in these different genera, besides being variable in the different species of the same genus; generally it assumes an orbicular or umbrella shape, especially in such funguses as grow solitary on the ground, whilst in others, parasitical on trees, (particularly when they have no stalk,) it is more or less of a half-hemisphere.

_The Gills._—Those vertical plates on the under surface of the mushroom, which radiate from the centre to the circumference, like the spokes of a wheel, are called Gills (_lamellæ_); they are not formed, as some have supposed, of layers of the reduplicated seed-membrane alone, but by a prolongation of the fibres of the pileus, which these merely invest. The fibrous structure is most apparent in Agarics with thick gills; in those where the flesh changes colour when bruised; or where, the interposed flesh remaining white, the hymenium is tinged with the colour of the ripening spores. In those funguses which have little flesh the upper surface of the pileus, especially towards the circumference, is frequently furrowed with transverse sulci; these are occasioned by the sinking in of the epidermis along with the fibres of the flesh between the layers of the hymenium, and consequently their position always corresponds precisely to that occupied by the backs of the gills. The end nearest the stalk is termed posterior (_postica_), the opposite extremity anterior (_antica_); the terminations of the lesser gills take place at various distances short of the stalk, which the perfect gills reach, and down which they sometimes course or are decurrent (_decurrentes_); they are said to be adnate (_adnatæ_) when connected at their posterior end; free (_liberæ_) when they do not adhere; remote (_remotæ_) when they terminate at a certain distance from the stem; emarginate (_emarginatæ_) when they are obtusely notched or hollowed out posteriorly; denticulate (_denticulatæ_) when connected by means of a tooth; equal (_æquales_) when all of the same length; forked (_furcatæ_) and branched (_ramosæ_) when they divide in their course, once, or more frequently, or are connected at the sides with the imperfect gills; dedalean (_dædaleæ_) when they anastomose irregularly together; simple (_simplices_) when they are free from all connections; distant (_distantes_) when they are few and wide apart; close (_confertæ_) when they are very numerous and touch each other; serrated (_serratæ_) when notched like a saw; waved (_undulatæ_) when the margin is undulating; and imbricating (_imbricatæ_) when they lie one over another, like tiles.

_The Tubes._—Funguses of the genus _Boletus_, etc., present on their under surface, in place of gills, series of small hollow cylinders or tubes; which are for the most part soldered side to side like the cells of a honeycomb, but in the _Fistulina_ are unconnected. Like the gills, they are prolongations of the fibres of the pileus, but lined, instead of coated, by the hymenium; their free extremities are the pores, which at first are closed, but afterwards open to let the seed escape: they are generally of equal length and simple, but sometimes in the interior of a large one smaller tubes may be discerned, in which case the first is termed compound. With reference to the stalk, they are either adnate or decurrent, they first appear as a network formed by slight prominences of the fibres of the pileus; if at this early period a portion be removed together with a piece of the flesh, it is reproduced in a few days and the tubes developed as usual. The beautiful reticulations observed on the stalk of some Boletuses are produced by abortive tubes decurrent along their surface.

_The Plaits_: Venæ, Plicæ.—The plaits of the Chanterelle are formed like the gills and tubes of the mushroom and Boletus, _i. e._ by the fibres of the flesh running down from the pileus, and invested in a reduplication of the hymenium; with this difference, however, that while in the two latter the seed membrane is divided into as many portions as there are gills or tubes, in the former the continuity of its surface is perfectly unbroken. These plaits (_plicæ_) are always late in appearing, and sometimes are only developed when the fungus is about to cast its seed.

_The Spines_: Aculei, etc.—The under surface of the pileus in the genus _Hydnum_ is shagged with vegetable spines or teeth (_dentes_, _aculei_) of unequal lengths, generally isolated, but sometimes connected at the base, and formed originally out of a congeries of minute papillæ invested by the hymenium, which gradually elongate their fibres and assume this form. Light seems essential to their production, for if a Hydnum grow in the dark, the teeth shrink up into long threads and are sterile.

METHODICAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE BRITISH ESCULENT FUNGUSES.

The primary division of Funguses into _Hymenomycetes_ and _Gasteromycetes_ is founded upon the position of their seed, which lies, as we have seen, externally in the first, and internally in the members of the second. The funguses described in the present work belong chiefly to the first division, _Hymenomycetes_; to Tribe 1, _Pileati_; and many of them to Genus 1, _Agaricus_. This genus includes a great variety of species, and is distinguished from all other genera by having a fleshy pileus furnished underneath with _gills_, which are placed at right angles to the stem. Some species, during their infancy, are enclosed either in one or more membranes.

DIVISION I. HYMENOMYCETES.

TRIBE 1. _PILEATI._

GENUS 1. AGARICUS.

Old words in Natural History seldom become obsolete, but they change their meanings strangely. Were Dioscorides and Pliny _redivivi_, they would find nothing but misnomers! The term _Agaricus_, which anciently applied indiscriminately to all hard coriaceous funguses growing on trees (while the word _Fungus_ did imperfect duty for this genus), was next arbitrarily made by Linnæus to stand representative for such only as had gills, “fungi lamellati terrestres et _arborei_.”[115] Persoon, again, under the name _Amanita_ (a Galenic word, but hitherto unappropriated), made a new genus of such Agarics as were invaginated, _i. e._ shut up during the earlier period of their development in a volva; of such as had veins in place of gills, _Merulius_; and of such as had anastomosing gills formed another, _Dædalea_, a third division. More recently, Fries has greatly simplified the study of this very large and difficult genus by eliminating all of a coriaceous texture, and (having restored to it the genus _Amanita_) by then dividing the whole into sections; enabling us to arrive at an accuracy in the discrimination of species which was wholly unattainable before his time. His first grand series of Agarics comprehends those of white spores (LEUCOSPORI[116]), and of this his first section is—

Subgenus 1. AMANITA.[117]

All the Agarics belonging to this subgenus are, during the immaturity of the fungus, furnished with a volva and a ring; some have a velum in addition, and in this case, the surface of the pileus is covered with warts, or verrucæ. This natural division was adopted long ago by Micheli, who gave the name _Uovoli_ to those which had only the first two, and that of _Tignosi_ to those that had all three. Altogether they form but a very small group, but one very important to distinguish accurately, as it includes, besides one or two very delicate species, some which are highly poisonous.

_Bot. Char._ _Pileus_ at first campanulate, then plane; fleshy towards the centre, attenuated at the margin; _gills_ ventricose, narrow behind, free, numerous, at length denticulate, the imperfect ones few, of a determinate form according to the kind, and, with one exception (that of _Ag. Cæsareus_), white. _Stalk_ generally enlarged at the base, frequently bulbous, solid, or stuffed with a cotton-like substance, which is at length absorbed; _ring_ descending, imperfect, fugacious; _flesh_ white, unchanging.

Esculent species: _Ag. vaginatus_.

Of the _Tignosi_, that is, those with warts on their surface, some have striated margins, others are without striæ.

Esculent species: _Ag. rubescens_.

Subgenus 2. LEPIOTA.[118]

_Bot. Char._ _Volva_ fugacious, _veil_ single, universal, closely adhering to and confluent with the epidermis, when burst forming a more or less persistent ring towards the middle of the stem; _stem_ hollow, stuffed more or less densely with fine arachnoid threads, thickened at the base, fibrillose; _pileus_ fleshy, not compact, ovate when young, soon campanulate, then expanded and umbonate, more or less shagged with scales; _flesh_ white, soft, sometimes changing colour; _gills_ free, unequal, white, never decurrent.

Solitary, persistent, autumnal funguses, growing on the ground. Not dangerous.

Esculent species: _Ag. procerus_, _Ag. excoriatus_.

Subgenus 3. ARMILLARIA.[119]

_Bot. Char._ _Veil_ single, partial, forming a persistent ring, which in the unexpanded plant is joined to the margin of the pileus;[120] _stem_ solid, firm, subfibrillose, unequal; _pileus_ fleshy, convex, expanded, obtuse; _epidermis_ entire, even in the scaly species, and not continuous with the fibres of the ring; _flesh_ white and firm; _gills_ broad, unequal, somewhat acute behind.

Esculent species: _Ag. melleus_ (?).

Subgenus 4. LIMACIUM.[121]

Esculent species: _none_.

Subgenus 5. TRICHOLOMA.[122]

_Bot. Char._ _Veil_ fibrous or floccose, fugacious; _stalk_ generally solid, firm, fleshy, attenuated upwards, scaly, fibrillose or striate; _pileus_ fleshy, compact, campanulate or depressed, convex; margin attenuated, at first involute, shagged with woolly fibres or lanugo; _gills_ unequal, obtuse behind, emarginate; _flesh_ white and unchangeable.

Esculent species: _Ag. prunulus_ and _Ag. personatus_.[123]

Subgenus 6. RUSSULA[124] (_Scop._).

_Bot. Char._ No _veil_; _stem_ smooth, equal, glabrous, strong, white, spongy within; _pileus_ at first campanulate, then hemispherical, in age depressed, fleshy in the centre, thin at the margin, which is never reflexed at any period of growth, the epidermis bare, smooth, occasionally sticky in wet weather; _gills_ juiceless, mostly equal, occasionally forked, the short ones few, rigid, brittle, broad in front, behind narrow, acute, properly free but apparently adnato-decurrent, from the effusion of the stem into the pileus; _flesh_ firm, dry, white, moderately compact, brittle; _sporules_ white or ochraceous; _gills_ white or yellow.

Large or middle size, persistent, solitary funguses, growing on the ground.

Esculent species: _Ag. heterophyllus_, _virescens_, and _ruber_.

Acrid species: _Ag. emeticus_, _sanguineus_, and _alutaceus_.

Subgenus 7. GALORRHEUS.[125]

_Bot. Char._ No _veil_; _stalk_ equal, round, solid, effused into the pileus; _pileus_ fleshy, compact, generally umbilicate, margin even, when young involute; _gills_ unequal, sometimes very thick, often forked, narrow, attenuated behind, brittle, connected by a prolonged tooth to the stalk, down which they are slightly decurrent; _flesh_ firm and juicy, distilling milk.

Esculent species: _Ag. deliciosus_ and _piperatus_.

Subgenus 8. CLYTOCYBE.[126]

_Bot. Char._ _Veil_ none; _pileus_ at first convex, at length infundibuliform; _gills_ unequal. The characteristics of this subgenus are rather negative than positive; many of the contained species vary considerably amongst themselves, but the subdivisions founded on such variations are all well marked.

Subdivision _Dasyphylli_.[127] _Gills_ in close juxtaposition, decurrent or acutely adnate.

Esculent species: _Ag. nebularis_.

Subdivision _Camarophylli_.[128] _Pileus_ subcompact, dry; _gills_ very distant, vaulted, decurrent.

Esculent species: _Ag. virgineus_.

Subdivision _Chondropodes_.[129] _Pileus_ tough, dry, _gills_ nearly free, close, white, external coat of stem subcartilaginous.

Esculent species: _Ag. fusipes_.

Subdivision _Scortei_. _Pileus_ subcoriaceous; _gills_ free, subdistant.

Esculent species: _Ag. oreades_.

Subgenus 9. COLLYBIA.[130]

Esculent species: _none_.

Subgenus 10. MYCENA.[131]

Esculent species: _none_.

Subgenus 11. OMPHALIA.[132]

Esculent species: _none_.

Subgenus 12. PLEUROPUS.[133]

_Bot. Char._ _Pileus_ unequal, eccentric or lateral; _stem_, when present, solid and firm; _gills_ unequal, juiceless, unchangeable, acute behind, growing on trees or wood; for the most part innocuous, but two only generally eaten.

Esculent species: _Ag. ostreatus_, in the subdivision _Concharia_; and _Ag. ulmarius_, in the subdivision _Ægeritaria_.

Series 2. HYPORHODEUS.[134]

_Sporules_ pale rose-colour.

Subgenus 13. CLITOPILUS.[135]

_Bot. Char._ _Veil_ none; _stem_ tolerably firm, subequal, distinct from the pileus; _pileus_ fleshy, campanulate or convex, at length somewhat plane, dry, regular; _gills_ unequal, changing colour as the fungus matures its seed, fixed, or free.

Esculent species: _Ag. orcella_.

Subgenus 14. LEPTONIA.[136]

Esculent species: _none_.

Subgenus 15. NOLANEA.[137]

Esculent species: _none_.

Subgenus 16. ECCILIA.[138]

Esculent species: _none_.

Series 3. CORTINARIA.[139]

_Sporules_ reddish-ochre; _veil_ arachnoid.

Subgenus 17. TELAMONIA.[140]

Esculent species: _none_.

Subgenus 18. INOLOMA.[141]

_Bot. Char._ _Veil_ fugacious, marginal, consisting of free arachnoid threads; _stem_ solid, bulbous, fibrillose, more or less diffused into the pileus, fleshy; _pileus_ fleshy, convex when young, then expanded, fibrillose, or viscid, regular, juicy; _gills_ emarginato-adnexed, broad, changing colour; colour of the gills or pileus violet.

Large autumnal funguses growing on the ground.

Esculent species: _Ag. violaceus_.

Subgenus 19. DERMOCYBE.[142]

_Bot. Char._ _Veil_ dry, arachnoid, very fugacious; _stem_ not truly bulbous, fibrillose, stuffed when young; _pileus_ clothed with fibrillæ, rarely with gluten; _gills_ rather unequal, broad, close.

Esculent species: _Ag. castaneus_.

Series 4. DERMINUS.

[In the nine subgenera following, from 20 to 28, viz. _Pholiota_, _Myxacium_, _Hebeloma_, _Flammula_, _Inocybe_, _Naucoria_, _Galera_, _Tapinia_, and _Crepidotus_, there are no esculent species.]

Series 5. PRATELLA.[143]

_Bot. Char._ _Veil_ not arachnoid; _gills_ changing colour, clouded, at length dissolving; _sporidia_ brown-purple.

Subgenus 29. VOLVARIA.

Esculent species: _none_.

Subgenus 30. PSALIOTA.[144]

_Bot. Char._ _Veil_ forming a partial ring-like investment, more or less persistent; _stalk_ robust, subequal, distinct from the pileus; _pileus_ fleshy, more or less campanulate when young, almost flat when fully expanded; sometimes sticky, sometimes scaly or else fibrillose, sometimes naked; _gills_ unequal, free, or connected with the stalk, broad and deepening in colour.

In addition to the ring, some have a very fugacious _volva_ or _velum_, some both one and the other.

Esculent species: _Ag. campestris_ and _Georgii_.

[In the four next subgenera, from 31 to 34, _Hypholoma_, _Psilocybe_, _Psathyra_, and _Coprinarius_, there are no esculent species.]

Subgenus 35. COPRINUS.[145]