CHAPTER XXI.

THE HIGHER FUNGI.

=411. The series of the higher fungi.=—Of these there are two large series. One of these is represented by the sac fungi, and the other by the mushrooms, a good example of which is the common mushroom (Agaricus campestris).

Sac Fungi (Ascomycetes).

=412. The sac fungi= may be represented by the “powdery mildews”; examples, uncinula, microsphæra, podosphæra, etc. Fig. 225 is from a photograph of two willow leaves affected by one of these mildews. The leaves are first partly covered with a whitish growth of mycelium, and numerous chains of colorless gonidia are borne on short erect threads. The masses of gonidia give the leaf a powdery appearance. The mycelium lives on the outer surface of the leaf, but sends short haustoria into the epidermal cells.

=413. Fruit bodies of the willow mildew.=—On this same mycelium there appear later numerous black specks scattered over the affected places of the leaf. These are the fruit bodies (_perithecia_). If we scrape some of these from the leaf, and mount them in water for microscopic examination, we shall be able to see their structure. Examining these first with a low power of the microscope, each one is seen to be a rounded body, from which radiate numerous filaments, the _appendages_. Each one of these appendages is coiled at the end into the form of a little hook. Because of these hooked appendages this genus is called _uncinula_. This rounded body is the _perithecium_.

=414. Asci and ascospores.=—While we are looking at a few of these through the microscope with the low power, we should press on the cover glass with a needle until we see a few of the perithecia rupture. If this is done carefully we see several small ovate sacs issue, each containing a number of spores, as shown in fig. 227. Such a sac is an _ascus_, and the spores are _ascospores_.

=415. Number of spores in an ascus.=—The ascus is the most important character showing the general relationship of the members of the sac fungi. While many of the powdery mildews have a variable number of spores in an ascus, a large majority of the ascomycetes have just 8 spores in an ascus, while some have 4, others 16, and some an indefinite number. The asci in a perithecium are more variable. In some ascomycetes there is no perithecium.

=416. The black fungi.=—These are very common on dead logs, branches, leaves, etc., and may be collected in the woods at almost any season. The perithecia are often numerous, scattered or densely crowded as in Rosellinia. Sometimes they are united to form a crust which is partly formed from sterile elements as in Hypoxylon, or they form black clavate or branched bodies as in Xylaria. The black knot of the plum and cherry is also an example.

The lichens are mostly ascomycetes like the black fungi or cup fungi, while a few are basidiomycetes.

=417. The morels (Morchella).=—There are several species of morels which are common in early spring on damp ground. Either one of the species is suitable for use if it is desired to include this in the study. Fig. 231a illustrates the Morchella esculenta. The stem is cylindrical and stout. The fruiting portion forms the “head,” and it is deeply pitted. The entire pitted surface is covered by the asci, which are cylindrical and eight spored. A thin section may be made of a portion for study, or a small piece may be crushed under the cover glass.

=418. The cup fungi.=—These fungi are common on damp ground or on rotting logs in the summer. They may be preserved in 70 per cent alcohol for study. Many of them are shaped like broad open cups or saucers. The inner surface of the cup is the fruiting surface, and is covered with the cylindrical asci, which stand side by side. A bit of the cup may be sectioned or crushed under a cover glass for study.

Mushrooms (Basidiomycetes).

=419. The large group of fungi= to which the mushroom belongs is called the basidiomycetes because in all of them a structure resembling a club, or basidium, is present, and bears a limited number of spores, usually four, though in some genera the number is variable. Some place the rusts (Uredineæ) in the same series (basidium series), because of the short promycelium and four sporidia developed from each cell of the teleutospore.

=420. The gill-bearing fungi (Agaricaceæ).=—A good example for this study is the common mushroom (Agaricus campestris).

This occurs from July to November in lawns and grassy fields. The plant is somewhat umbrella-shaped, as shown in fig. 232, and possesses a cylindrical stem attached to the under side of the convex cap or pileus. On the under side of the pileus are thin radiating plates, shaped somewhat like a knife blade. These are the gills, or lamellæ, and toward the stem they are rounded on the lower angle and are not attached to the stem. The longer ones extend from near the stem to the margin of the pileus, and the V-shaped spaces between them are occupied by successively shorter ones. Around the stem a little below the gills is a collar, termed the ring or annulus.

=421. Fruiting surface of the mushroom.=—The surface of these gills is the fruiting surface of the mushroom, and bears the gonidia of the mushroom, which are dark purplish brown when mature, and thus the gills when old are dark in color. If we make a thin section across a few of the gills, we see that each side of the gill is covered with closely crowded club-shaped bodies, each one of which is a _basidium_. In fig. 234 a few of these are enlarged, so that the structure of the gill can be seen. Each basidium of the common mushroom has two spinous processes at the free end. Each one is a _sterig′ma_ (plural _sterig′mata_), and bears a gonidium. In a majority of the members of the mushroom family each basidium bears four spores. When mature these spores easily fall away, and a mass of them gives a purplish-black color to objects on which they fall, so that a print of the under surface of the cap showing the arrangement of the gills can be obtained by cutting off the stem, and placing the pileus on white paper for a time.

=422. How the mushroom is formed.=—The mycelium of the mushroom lives in the ground, and grows here for several months or even years, and at the proper seasons develops the mature mushroom plant. The mycelium lives on decaying organic matter, and a large number of the threads grow closely together forming strands, or cords, of mycelium, which are quite prominent if they are uncovered by removing the soil, as shown in fig. 236.

=423.= From these strands the buttons arise by numerous threads growing side by side in a vertical direction, each thread growing independently at the end, but all lying very closely side by side. When the buttons are quite small the gills begin to form on the under margin of the knob. They are formed by certain of the threads growing downward in radiating ridges, just as many of these ridges being started as there are to be gills formed. At the same time, threads of the stem grow upward to meet those at the margin of the button in such a manner that they cover up the forming gills, and thus enclose the gills in a minute cavity. Sections of buttons at different ages will show this, as is seen in fig. 237. This curtain of mycelium which is thus stretched across the gill cavity is the veil. As the cap expands more and more this is stretched into a thin and delicate texture as shown in fig. 238. Finally, as shown in fig. 239, this veil is ruptured by the expansion of the pileus, and it either clings to the stem as a collar, or a portion of it remains clinging to the margin of the cap. When the buttons are very young the gills are white, but they soon become pink in color, and very soon after the veil breaks the spores mature, and then the gills are dark brown.

=424. Beware of the poisonous mushroom.=—The number of species of mushrooms, or toadstools as they are often called, is very great. Besides the common mushroom (Agaricus campestris) there are a large number of other edible species. But one should be very familiar with any species which is gathered for food, unless collected by one who certainly knows what the plant is, since carelessness in this respect sometimes results fatally from eating poisonous ones.

=425.= A plant very similar in structure to the Agaricus campestris is the Lepiota naucina, but the spores are white, and thus the gills are white, except that in age they become a dirty pink. This plant occurs in grassy fields and lawns often along with the common mushroom. Great care should be exercised in collecting and noting the characters of these plants, for a very deadly poisonous species, the deadly amanita (Amanita phalloides) is perfectly white, has white spores, a ring, and grows usually in wooded places, but also sometimes occurs in the margins of lawns. In this plant the base of the stem is seated in a cup-shaped structure, the _volva_, shown in fig. 243. One should dig up the stem carefully so as not to tear off this volva if it is present, for with the absence of this structure the plant might easily be mistaken for the lepiota, and serious consequences would result.

=426. Tube-bearing fungi (Polyporaceæ).=—In the tube-bearing fungi, the fruiting surface, instead of lying over the surface of gills, lines the surface of tubes or pores on the under side of the cap. The fruit-bearing portion therefore is “honey-combed.” The sulphur polyporus (Polyporus sulphureus) illustrates one form. The tube-bearing fungi are sometimes called “bracket” fungi, or “shelf” fungi, because the pileus is attached to the tree or stump like a shelf or bracket. One very common form in the woods is the plant so much sought by “artists,” and often called Polyporus applanatus. It is hard and woody, reddish brown, brown or grayish on the upper side, according to age, and is marked by prominent and large concentric ridges. (This form is probably P. leucophæus.) The under side is white and honey-combed by numerous very minute pores. This plant is perennial, that is, it lives from year to year. Each year a new layer is added to the under side, and several new rings usually to the margin. If a plant two or three years old is cut in two, there will be seen several distinct tube layers or strata, each one representing a year’s growth.

In some of these bracket fungi, each ring on the upper surface marks a year’s growth as in the pine polyporus (P. pinicola). In the birch polyporus (P. fomentarius) the tubes are quite large. It also occurs on other trees. The beech polyporus (P. igniarius, also on other trees) often becomes very old. I have seen one specimen over eighty years old. Not all the tube-bearing fungi are bracket form. Some have a stem and cap (see fig. 245). Some are spread on the surface of logs.

=427. Hedgehog fungi (Hydnaceæ).=—These plants are bracket in form or have a stem and cap, or are spread on the surface of wood; but the finest specimens resemble coral masses of fungus tissue (example, Hydnum, fig. 246). In most of them there are slender processes resembling teeth, spines or awls, which depend from the under surface (fig. 247). The fruiting surface covers these spines.

=428. Coral fungi or fairy clubs (Clavariaceæ).=—These plants stand upright from the wood, leaves, or soil, on which they grow (example, Clavaria). The “coral” ones are branched, while the “fairy clubs” are simple. The fruiting surface covers the entire exposed surface of the plants (fig. 248).