Student's Hand-book of Mushrooms of America, Edible and Poisonous.

by Thomas Taylor.

INTRODUCTION.

In the year 1876, as Microscopist of the Department of Agriculture, I prepared, as a part of the exhibit of my Division at the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia, a large collection of water-color drawings representing leading types of the edible and poisonous mushrooms of the United States, together with representations of about nine hundred species of microscopic fungi detrimental to vegetation.

In the preparation of the first collection I had the valuable a.s.sistance of Prof. Charles H. Peck, State Botanist of New York, and in the second the hearty co-operation of Rev. M. J. Berkeley and Dr. M. C. Cook, the eminent British mycologists.

The popular character of this exhibit attracted the attention of the general public, and many letters were received at the Department showing an awakening interest in the study of fungi, particularly with regard to the mushroom family, as to methods of cultivation, the means of determining the good from the unwholesome varieties, etc.

My first published paper on the subject of edible mushrooms, ent.i.tled "Twelve Edible Mushrooms of the U. S.," appeared in the annual report of the Department of Agriculture for 1885. This was followed by others to the number of five, and as the demand for these reports increased, reprints were made and issued, by order of the Secretary of Agriculture, in pamphlet form, under the general t.i.tle of "Food Products." Numerous editions of these reprints were issued by the Department up to 1894.

During the year 1894, and the first half of 1895, 36,600 of these reports were sent out by the Department, and the supply was exhausted.

They have been out of print for more than two years. It is in view of this fact, and in response to a great and constant demand for these publications, that I have undertaken to publish a series of five pamphlets on the edible and poisonous mushrooms of the United States, which shall embody the substance of the five pamphlets on "Food Products" above alluded to, supplemented by new matter relating to cla.s.sification, general and specific, a.n.a.lytical tables of standard authors, and a continuation of the chapters on structure, etc.

Additional plates, representing leading types of edible and poisonous mushrooms, will also be inserted in each number.

In the compilation and extension of this work I have the a.s.sistance of my daughter, Miss A. Robena Taylor, who has given considerable attention to the study of fungi, and who has been my faithful coadjutor in the work of collecting specimens, etc., for a number of years.

For valuable suggestions as to structural characteristics and methods of cla.s.sification I am especially indebted to Prof. Chas. H. Peck, of Albany, New York, Dr. M. C. Cooke, of England, and Prof. P. A. Saccardo, of Italy.

The colored plates in pamphlet No. 1, together with a few of those which will appear in the succeeding numbers of this series, are reproductions of those prepared, under my direct supervision, for the pamphlets ent.i.tled "Food Products" published by the Department of Agriculture and referred to above.

THOMAS TAYLOR, M. D.

May 7, 1897.

CRYPTOGAMS.

The cryptogamic or flowerless plants, _i. e._, those having neither stamens nor pistils, and which are propagated by spores, are divided, according to Dr. Hooper, into the following four cla.s.ses:--Pteridophyta or vascular acrogens, represented by the ferns, club-mosses, etc.; Bryophyta or cellular acrogens, represented by the musci, scale-mosses, etc.; Algae, represented by the "Red Seaweeds," Diatomacae, etc.; Fungi or Amphigens, which include the molds, mildews, mushrooms, etc. The lichens, according to the "Schwendener Hypotheses," consist of ascigerous fungi parasitic on algae.

FUNGI.

Botanists unite in describing the plants of this cla.s.s as being dest.i.tute of chlorophyll and of starch. These plants a.s.sume an infinite variety of forms, and are propagated by spores which are individually so minute as to be scarcely perceptible to the naked eye. They are entirely cellular, and belong to the cla.s.s Amphigens, which for the most part have no determinate axe, and develop in every direction, in contradistinction to the Acrogens, which develop from the summit, possessing an axe, leaves, vessels, etc.

Fungi are divided by systematists into two great cla.s.ses:

1. Sporifera, in which the spores are free, naked, or soon exposed.

2. Sporidifera, in which the spores are not exposed, but instead are enclosed in minute cells or sacs, called asci.

These cla.s.ses are again subdivided, according to the disposition of the spores and of the spore bearing surface, called the hymenium, into various families.

The sporiferous fungi are arranged into four families, viz:

1. _Hymenomycetes_, in which the hymenium is free, mostly naked, or soon exposed. _Example, "Common Meadow Mushroom."_

2. _Gasteromycetes_, in which the hymenium is enclosed in a second case or wrapper, called a peridium, which ruptures when mature, thus releasing the spores. _Example, Common Puff Ball._

3. _Coniomycetes_, in which the spores are naked, mostly terminal on inconspicuous threads, free or enclosed in a perithecium. Dust-like fungi. _Example, Rust of Wheat._

4. _Hyphomycetes_, in which the spores are naked on conspicuous threads, rarely compacted, Thread-like fungi. _Example, Blue Mold._

Of these four subdivisions of the Sporifera, only the Hymenomycetes and the Gasteromycetes contain plants of the mushroom family, and these two together const.i.tute the cla.s.s known as the Basidiomycetes. The chief distinction of the Basidiomycetes is that the naked spores are borne on the summits of certain supporting bodies, termed basidia. These basides are swollen, club-shaped cells, surmounted by four minute tubes or spore-bearers, called sterigmata, each of which carries a spore. See Figs. 3 and 4, Plate A.

These basides together with a series of elongated cells, termed paraphyses, packed closely together side by side, and intermixed with other sterile cells, called cystidia, const.i.tute the spore-bearing surface or hymenium of the plant.

To the naked eye this hymenium appears simply as a very thin smooth membrane, but when a small portion of it is viewed through a microscope with high powers its complex structure is readily observed and can be carefully studied.

The _Sporidiferous_ fungi are represented by the families Physomycetes and Ascomycetes. The first of these consists wholly of microscopic fungi.

_Ascomycetes._--In the plants of this family the spores are not supported upon basidia, but instead are enclosed in minute sacs or asci formed from the fertile cells of a hymenium. In this connection it would be well to state that Saccardo does not recognize the divisions _Sporifera_ and _Sporidifera_ by those names.

They are nearly the equivalent of Basidiomycetes and Ascomycetes.

What Cooke names Physomycetes, Saccardo calls Phycomyceteae, introducing it in his work between Gasteromyceteae and Myxomyceteae, which some mycologists consider somewhat out of place.

Saccardo calls its asci (sacs which contain the spores) sporangia. He does not regard them as genuine asci, but as corresponding more to the peridium of the _Gasteromyceteae_ and _Myxomyceteae._

Peck says that this group seems to present characters of both Hyphomycetes and Ascomycetes, with a preponderance towards Hyphomycetes.

It is a small group, however, and since it consists wholly of microscopic fungi, need not be farther considered in this work.

In the Ascomycetes are included the sub-families Discomycetes, Pyrenomycetes, and Tuberacei. Of these the Discomycetes and the Tuberacei are the only groups which contain any of the mushrooms, and but few of these are large enough or sufficiently tender to possess value as esculents. A good example of the first (Discomycetes) is found in the Morel, and of the second (Tuberacei) in the Truffle.

In the Discomycetes or "disk fungi," the spores are produced in minute membraneous sacs, each sac usually containing eight spores. These spore sacs are imbedded in the flesh of the exterior and upper surface of the mushroom cap.

In the four cla.s.ses, Hymenomycetes, Gasteromycetes, Discomycetes, and Tuberacei, therefore, are included all of the plants which are here designated under the generic term of "mushrooms."

Some idea of the relative numerical value of these cla.s.ses may be obtained from the following figures given by the distinguished British mycologist, M. C. Cooke:

"Hymenomyceteae--total number of described species 9,600 Gasteromycetae-- " " " " " 650 Discomyceteae-- " " " known " 3,500"

(The Tuberacei comprise a very small group of subterranean fungi, and comparatively few of the species are described.)

Saccardo in his Sylloge gives a total of 42,000 described species of fungi of all cla.s.ses, including the most minute. Of these the Hymenomycetes include by far the largest number of edible mushrooms.

The family Hymenomycetes is divided into the following six orders: Agaricini, Polyporei, Hydnei, Theleph.o.r.ei, Clavarei, Tremellini.

In the order Agaricini the hymenium is found on the under surface of the mushroom cap, covering pleats or gills, technically called lamellae.

These gills vary in character in the different genera, being "persistent in such as the Agaricus, Russula, and Lentinus, deliquescent (melting) in Coprinus, Bolbitius, etc. The edge of the gills is acute in Agaricus, Marasmius, etc., but obtuse and vein-like in Cantharellus, longitudinally channelled in Trogia, and splitting in Schyzophyllum."