Part 3

The Polyporaceæ have in place of gills closely packed tubes on the inside of which is the spore-bearing surface; each has a mouth from which to eject the spores.

The Hydnaceæ bear their spores from spines or spicules of various length protruding from the external surface of the cap. Sometimes the spines mock in miniature the stalactites of the Caverns of Luray, sometimes the shaggy mane of the lion, sometimes flowing locks of hair. These three Families belong to the Cohort Hymenomycetes, having their spore-bearing surface exposed early in life by the rupture of the universal veil.

The Lycoperdons or Puff-balls have the hymenium enclosed within an outer case, just as the apple with its seeds is enclosed for a dumpling. When the spores are matured the sack is ruptured and they escape as the dusty powder so well known to all. The Puff-ball belongs to the Cohort Gastromycetes, because its spores are protected within the hymenium until they are matured.

There are other Families which contain edible species. The Clavariaceæ—branched or club-shaped—often found in as beautiful forms as delight us in coral, includes a few.

In Ascomycetes, of the covered spore division Sporidifera, there are several species which are excellent, and as they dry readily are much valued for flavoring purposes when winter forbids the growth of outdoor fungi. Of these the Morell has preference. The cap is covered with sinuosities and pits which bear the spores. There are several varieties of the Morell in the United States. They are known among the country people who cook and pickle them, as Honey-comb mushrooms.

The Tuberaceæ are subterranean fungi. The common truffle so much prized by epicures is a good representative. It is found a foot or more under the surface of the earth, and of such value is it that in some countries pigs are trained to hunt it from its hiding place. It is one of the few foreign growths apparently not taking kindly to our country. Efforts have been made to import and cultivate it, but without success. It is possible, even probable, that it may yet be found in America by assiduous search.

I have said that there is but one way to distinguish the edible from the non-edible fungi; that is by mastering the characteristics of each species one by one. There are signs which point to the evil and those which point to the good, but they must be used as signals, not directors.

A nauseous, fetid odor should condemn a species as non-edible at once. Those having the flavor of flour or fresh meal are generally accepted as worthy of trial. Slimy, water-soaked, partially decomposed plants, or those impressing one as unpleasant in any way, should never find their place upon the table. Do not eat of any toadstool, unknown to the collector, beyond the careful and systematic testing required to determine whether it is edible or not.

A few species have a serious charge remaining against them; that of partiality. They unmistakably signify with whom they will agree and with whom they will not. These are notably Clitocybe illudens, Lepiota Morgani, Panæolus papilionaceus, all specialized in their places in the text.

Other species have hereditary taints upon their reputations. Most, if not all of them have stood present tests and relieved themselves of suspicion. But, alas that it should be so! The stigma must rest upon them for yet a while and until their defenders are so numerous that their purity, without a smirch, is popularly proclaimed.

Wherever wood grows and decays as it will, Polyporus, Panus, Lenzites, Schizophyllum and kindred genera stand prominently forth in countless numbers. The great majority of them are inedible because of their woody substance. A few are valued as food. Very many of them yield their soluble matter and flavor when boiled, and in this way make excellent soups and gravies, just as flax-seed and the bark of the slippery elm yield succulent matter. These, however, are not, with a few exceptions, mentioned in this book. Numbers of Clavarieæ and Hydneæ are in the same category. M.C. Cooke tersely says: “Fruits that are not peaches or apricots may be very good plums.” In the introductions to genera their attributes are given; under “Instructions to Students” every guide to identification and selection will be found.

A Glossary, containing the botanic terms used in this book and, it is believed, all other terms used by mycologists in describing fungi, follows the descriptive text. It is strongly advised that it be carefully studied. The roots and derivatives of the botanic terms are fully and carefully given by Dr. John W. Harshberger, professor of botany, University of Pennsylvania, to whom the author is specially indebted.

The excellent Glossary published by Dr. Edwin A. Daniels, Boston, has furnished many comprehensive definitions. It is the property of the Boston Mycological Club, and can be obtained from its secretary for twenty-five cents.

The determination of the proper accentuation of the generic and specific terms has been in many cases a difficult task, and, in some cases, owing to the dubious origin of the words in question, there is certainly room for difference of opinion. This task has been kindly and conscientiously performed by Prof. M.W. Easton, professor of Comparative and English Philology, University of Pennsylvania. Thanks are due to the Hon. Addison Brown, president of the Torrey Botanical Club, and Dr. Nathaniel L. Britton, professor of Botany in Columbia College, authors of “Illustrated Flora,” for the determination of the accentuation of non-classical words ending in _inus_.

Three indexes are given: the first refers to the general contents, the second to the genera, the third to species and their genera, alphabetically arranged.

Mrs. Emma P. Ewing and Mrs. Sarah T. Rorer have kindly furnished some of their recipes for the preparation of several varieties of toadstools. The best results of the author’s long experience in cooking toadstools are given in the chapter “Recipes for Cooking and Preparing for the Table,” together with others selected from many sources. The personal taste of the server must be guide to the choice.

A child-friend of the writer, in telling him of her mother’s cook, said: “She’s a good cooker, but she has a bad temper.” A good “cooker” will soon learn how to best display the individual flavor of each species. And be it known that each species of toadstool has a flavor of its own. These flavors vary as much as among meats and vegetables. No one species can be taken as standard of excellence.

The greatest care has been taken to secure illustrations correct in every botanic detail. With few exceptions the colored figures were drawn and painted by the writer. To obtain this important feature the requirements of art have frequently been sacrificed. An artist can make a picture of a toadstool; the mycologist must guide his brush or pencil in the making of a correct presentation. The happy combination of artist and mycologist occurs in Mr. Val. W. Starnes, Augusta, Ga., to whom this volume owes many of its illustrations. Mr. Frank D. Briscoe, widely known as an artist of rare ability, has arranged and painted in groups the studies made by the writer from typical plants, and added to the illustrations many excellent drawings of his own.

The unfailing reliability of the sun has been masterfully used by Dr. J.R. Weist, ex-Secretary of the American Society of Surgeons, Richmond, Ind.; H.I. Miller, Superintendent Terre Haute and Indianapolis Railroad, Terre Haute, Ind., and Mr. Luther G. Harpel, Lebanon, Pa., in making the unexcelled photographs generously contributed by them. The author is most thankful to them and to Mr. C.G. Lloyd, Cincinnati, Ohio—a scientific gentleman devoting lavishly of his time and money to the spread of mycological knowledge—for the privilege of selecting from his extensive collection of realistic photographs those adaptable to the species described herein.

The author’s thanks are gratefully given to the many who have by help and encouragement furthered his efforts in producing this, the first American text-book upon fungi. Space precludes the naming of the many, but the few named do not outrank them in their interest, help and the author’s appreciation:

Miss Lydia M. Patchen, President of the Westfield, N.Y., Toadstool Club (the first in America); Mrs. E.C. Anthony, Thomas J. Collins, E.B. Sterling, Berry Benson, Melvil Dewey, New York State Librarian; Dr. J.E. Schadle, Prof. J.P. Arnold, University of Pennsylvania; Prof. W.S. Carter, University of Texas; Boston School of Natural History; Massachusetts Horticultural Society; Prof. Wm. G. Farlow, University of Harvard.

Thus aided the author believes that his own conscientious, patient, loved labor in the study of edible and non-edible fungi and the production of this volume will be far-reaching in its one object—encouraging the study of toadstools.

The time for writing a complete flora of the United States has not yet come; a large part of the country remains as yet unexplored by mycologists; new species are being constantly discovered in the districts best known. Every book on the subject must be necessarily incomplete.

On the other hand, so far as concerns the known fungus-flora, there is imperative need of some guide to the student, which shall at least save him some part of the weary toil of hunting through the scattered literature in which alone, as things are at present, can be found the information he seeks. In this book I have tried to meet this need. It is not complete, but I have tried to so arrange the matter that the student can always decide whether the particular specimen in hand is or is not included, and, at least for all of our more conspicuous fungi, determine the family and genus. If the student can do so much, the task of finding the specific name, even when not included in this book, becomes very much simpler.

So much for the more scientific aspect of my book. But I have also kept in constant view the needs of the large and constantly growing number of persons who have no aim further than to learn to know the principal toadstools seen in their walks, just as they wish to know the principal trees and the more conspicuous birds. For such as these, the difficulty of deciding whether or no a particular individual fungus is described in the brief (sketching) manuals hitherto accessible is even more formidable than with the special student of botany.

Finally, I have kept in view throughout the work the needs of the mycophagists. They are not pot-hunters; they care much less for the physical pleasure of the appetite than for the close study of Nature that their inclination leads them into. Some day the delights of a mushroom hunt along lush pastures and rich woodlands will take the rank of the gentlest craft among those of hunting, and may perchance find its own Izaak Walton.

AUTHOR’S AND PUBLISHER’S NOTE.

It is the intention of the author and the publisher to keep this book up to date. Recognizing that future testing will prove many more species of toadstools to be edible, and that scientists will have more exact knowledge of toadstool poisons and their antidotes, they announce that illustrated sheets publishing new edible species and current information upon fungi will be, from time to time, issued, conforming in shape and style to this volume and at an acceptable price.

That the author and publishers may keep in touch with the owner of each volume, and be informed of new discoveries in species and of new experience, owners are requested to communicate their book numbers to Captain Charles McIlvaine, or the Bowen-Merrill Co., Indianapolis, Ind.

INSTRUCTIONS TO STUDENTS

To catch fish one must know more than the fish; to find toadstools one must know their season and habitats. They are propagated by their spores and from their mycelium—that web-like growth which is the result of spore germination.

The spores of ground-growing kinds, when shed upon the ground, are washed by rains along the natural drainage; therefore, when a specimen of one of these kinds is found, it is well to look up and down the natural water-shed, and follow it. Good reward will usually come of it. Few fungi are strictly solitary.

Careful observation of the habitats of the various genera and species will enable the student to know what may and may not be expected in a particular locality, and will save many a hunt.

When an unknown species is found, collect it carefully, examine it closely, note all its features. Determine to which division of fungi it belongs. If to the gilled family (Agaricaceæ) obtain the color of the spores (see directions). Look at the chart “Tabular View of Genera of Agaricaceæ,” Plate I, p. 2 (after W.G. Smith, but enlarged, redrawn and emended). If the spores are white, it belongs to one of the genera in the first column—Leucosporæ; if pink, to one in the second column, and so on. It is often difficult to determine the spore color, because spores vary through many shades of the typical color. What are called white spores may be creamy, dirty, yellowish or brownish-white; pink spores will vary from almost white to reddish and salmon-color; brown spores from light-ochraceous through cinnamon to rusty; purple spores from dark-violet to purplish-black. Experience alone will enable the student to decide which color series is present. The Genera Charts, preceding the five different color series, show typical spore colors only. Again, authors describing the species frequently fail to see colors alike; if they do, their names for them frequently vary. For instance, few persons will agree upon a color expressed as “livid.”

The color system principally used by botanists is Saccardo’s “Chromotaxia,” costing fifty cents. It is decidedly inadequate. Ridgway’s “Nomenclature of Colors for Naturalists” is far better, but it is out of print and obtainable only at the principal libraries. “The Prang Standard of Color” is the most complete ever issued, but it is inapplicable to existing descriptions of fungi.

[Sidenote: Make and Preserve Spore Prints.]

Take, to print upon, sheets of Bristol-board or any stiff, hard-surfaced white paper 6×9 inches or larger. Cut a round hole, four inches in diameter, in one of the sheets. Use this as a stencil. Lay it upon a print-sheet and where the opening occurs, paint with a weak solution of gum arabic—⅛ oz. (one teaspoonful) to one pint of water. Dry the print-sheets.

When a spore-print is to be taken, select a fully-grown specimen, remove the stem, place the spore-bearing surface upon the gummed paper, cover tightly with an inverted bowl or saucer, and allow to stand undisturbed for eight or ten hours. The moisture in the plant will soften the gummed surface; the spores will be shed and will adhere to it, making a perfect, permanent print. When the print is plain, remove the specimen carefully and dry the print. Number the print-cards to correspond with the number of the specimen in the “Record of Fungi,” and place them in a box or cover. Some genera shed their spores sooner and more freely than others. A surplus of spores is objectionable. In order to know when a print is plainly made, without disturbing the process, have either a specimen of the same age, or a piece of the one under the bowl, on another piece of gummed paper, covered in like manner. This can be examined and will give the desired information. A little experience will enable the student to obtain good and lasting prints.

The large black figures on some calendars, if cut with the white about them, are convenient as trial sheets for spore-printing. Lay the specimen partly on the white, partly on the black. If the spores are light, they show best on black ground, and if colored, they show best on the light.

Spore measurements, as given by different observers, vary to such a degree that they are of little value, excepting as determining a few species, but spore shapes and characteristics are of use as a last resort, in accurate determinations. A microscope of considerable power is needed.

A metrical scale and table of measures is here given, that the student may have a present guide to such measurements as are given in mycological publications.

Measures

1 Metre 39.371 Inches

1 Decimetre 3.9371 ”

1 Centimetre (C M.) .39371 ”

1 Millimetre (M.M.) .039371 ”

1 Micron (µ) 1 Millionth of a 1⁄25400 of an Inch. Metre

1 Line (″) 1⁄12 of an Inch

1 Gramme 15.433 Troy Grains

1 Decigramme 1.543 ” ”

1 Centigramme .1543 ” ”

1 Milligramme .01543 ” ”

[Sidenote: Use of Charts of Genera.]

The spore color being determined, turn to the Genera Chart, showing spores of like color. Ascertain from the specimen whether or not its cap or hymenophore is distinct or easily separable from the stem and the gills free from the stem; if they are, it may belong to one of the genera in the upper row of figures; if the cap is not easily separable nor the gills free, look at the shape of the gills, and find on the chart a corresponding gill-shape. It is probable that the genus can thus be determined. Then turn to this genus in the text, read the heading, look over the “Analysis of Tribes,” go to the tribe nearest in designating the properties of the specimen; comparing the specimen with the descriptions of species given thereunder, will probably enable the seeker to decide upon its name.

It should be remembered that the descriptions in the text are of the specimen or specimens which the author of the species saw. What the author says fixes the type of the species. Specimens of the species may, and very frequently do, vary greatly from the type. If the first attempt to fix the genus is not satisfactory, try again, and keep on trying until reasonably sure. The amateur will find, however good an opinion may exist in his mind of the stock of patience on hand, that the territory of patience has just been reached.

[Sidenote: Making and Preserving Notes.]

An excellent blank form for “Collectors’ Notes” is published by the Boston Mycological Club, at one cent. It is desirable that there should be uniformity in collectors’ notes, and that they should be as full as possible. A form of this, or a similar kind, should be filled in and kept, and should also be used when specimens are sent to an expert for identification. Such specimens should be fresh, wrapped separately in tissue paper, numbered, and _a few_ should be packed in a box that will _not crush in the mail_. The address of the sender should be upon the outside. The collector’s notes should be sent in a letter, with a postage stamp for reply enclosed. If the specimens have to go a great distance, they should be partially dried in a slow, open oven, or they will be a rotten mass when they reach their destination.

[Sidenote: To Test Edibility of Species.]

There is but one way by which to determine the edibility of a species. If it looks and smells inviting, and its species can not be determined, taste a very small piece. Do not swallow it. Note the effect on the tongue and mouth. But many species, delicious when cooked, are not inviting raw. Cook a small piece; do not season it. Taste again; if agreeable eat it (unless it is an Amanita). After several hours, no unpleasant effect arising, cook a larger piece, and increase the quantity until fully satisfied as to its qualities. Never vary from this system, no matter how much tempted. No possible danger can arise from adhering firmly to it. Recipes for preparing, cooking and serving are given in chapter on cooking.

It is better for the student to first become familiar with the common species, one at a time, than to attempt tracing the rare or many. Worry, fatigue and uncertainty are plentiful in an indiscriminate gathering of fungi. One species a day, properly traced and named, means learning three hundred and sixty-five species a year.

[Sidenote: The Glossary.]

Unfamiliar terms will be encountered in the descriptive text. The Glossary defines them; and not only those in this book, but, it is believed, all those found in other books upon fungi. Where possible throughout the text, botanical terms have been anglicized. The meanings of those remaining unchanged should be memorized. It is quite as easy, and far better, to learn the botanical names of species and their characteristics, as to learn their common names; easier in fact, for the common names often vary with locality. The writer received a letter from an Alsatian living in St. Louis, telling him of favorite fungi he used to eat when in his own country. To all he gave local names, not one of which could be referred to the particular species meant.

Success and pleasure in the study of fungi will attend the student who observes carefully and who systematically records that which is observed.

ABBREVIATIONS OF THE NAMES OF AUTHORS OF SPECIES

A. and S., Albertini and Schweinitz Arrh., Arrhenius B. or Bull., Bulliard Bad., Badham Bagl., Baglietto Bat. or Batsch, Batsch Batt., Battara Berk. or M.J.B., Berkeley Berk. and Br., Berkeley and Broome Bolt., Bolton Bon., Bonorden Boud., Boudier Boud. and Pat., Boudier and Patonillard Bref., Brefeld Bres., Bresadola Brig., Briganti Brond., Brondeau Brot., Brotero

Cav. and Sech., Cavalier and Séchier C.B.P., Plowright Chev., Chevalier Cke., Cooke Cord., Corda Crn., Crouan Cum., Cumino Curt., Curtis

D. and L., Durieu and Léveillé D.C., De Candolle De Guern., De Guernisac Desm., Desmazieres Dill., Dillenius Dittm., Dittmar Dun., Dunal

Ehrb., Ehrenberg Ellis or J.B.E., J.B. Ellis Eng., English Botany

Fayod, Fayod Fl. d., Flora danica Forq., Forquignon Fr., Elias Fries Fckl. or Fuck., Fuckel