WASHINGTON, D. C.: A. R. Taylor, Publisher, 238 Ma.s.s. Ave. N.E.

1898.

PUBLISHER'S NOTE.

It has not been possible to represent all the genera of mushrooms which contain species having value as esculents within the compa.s.s of this series of five pamphlets, but the demand for these promises to justify the publication, at a future date, of a second series, which the author now has in preparation.

A. R. T.

Copyright, 1898, by Thomas Taylor, M. D., and A. R. Taylor.

AGARICINI.

LEUCOSPORI--(Spores White).

Subgenus _Pleurotus_ Fries. The Pleuroti are similar in some respects to the Tricholomas and c.l.i.tocybes, some of the species having notched gills near the stem, and others, again, having the gills decurrent, or running down the stem. Most of the species grow upon dead wood or from decaying portions of live trees. Very few grow upon the ground. The stem is mostly eccentric, lateral, or wanting; when present it is h.o.m.ogeneous or confluent with the substance of the cap; the substance may be compact, spongy, slightly fleshy, or membranaceous. Veil evanescent or absent.

The spores are white or slightly tinted.

M. C. Cooke figures over thirty species of Pleurotus found in Great Britain, and describes 45 species found in Australia. With few exceptions, all of these grow upon wood. Very few have value as esculents.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate J.

Agaricus (Pleurotus) ostreatus, Jacq.

Edible.

_T. Taylor, del._]

PLATE J.

=Ag. (Pleurotus) ostreatus= Jacq. "_Oyster Mushroom_."

EDIBLE.

Cap soft, fleshy, smooth, sh.e.l.l-shaped, white or cinereous, turning brownish or yellowish with age. Flesh white, somewhat fibrous. Gills white, broad and decurrent, anastamosing at the base. Stem usually not well defined, lateral, or absent. Spores elliptical, white. The caps are sometimes thickly cl.u.s.tered and closely overlapping, and sometimes wide apart. This mushroom has long been known as edible both raw and cooked.

It has a pleasant but not decided flavor and must be cooked slowly and carefully to be tender and easily digestible. Old specimens are apt to be tough. It is found on decaying wood and often on fallen logs in moist places or upon decaying tree-trunks. It is frequently recurrent on the same tree. I have gathered great quant.i.ties of the Oyster mushroom during several seasons past from a fallen birch tree which spanned a small stream. The lower end of the tree rested on the moist ground at the edge of the stream. Specimens have been found on the willow, ash and poplar trees, and upon the apple and the laburnum.

Pleurotus _sapidus_ Kalchb. _Sapid Pleurotus_. Edible.

This species closely resembles the Oyster mushroom in form and habit of growth, and is by some considered only a variety of _P. ostreatus_. It grows usually in tufts with the caps closely overlapping, varying in color white, ashy, grayish or brownish. Flesh white. The stems are white, smooth and short, mostly springing from a common base. The gills are white and very broad, and decurrent. The spores a.s.sume a very pale lilac tint on exposure to the atmosphere.

Pleurotus _ulmarius_ Bull. "_Elm Pleurotus_." Edible.

The Elm Pleurotus is quite conspicuous by reason of its large size and light color. The cap is smooth and compact, usually whitish with a dull yellowish tinge in the center. Flesh white. The skin cracks very easily, giving it a scaly appearance. The gills are broad, and toothed or notched near their point of attachment to the stem as in the Tricholomas, white in color, turning yellowish with age. The stem is firm and smooth, solid and rather eccentric, thick and sometimes slightly downy near the base, from two to four inches in length.

Although this mushroom seems to prefer the elm and is most frequently found on trees of that species, it is found also upon other trees, but princ.i.p.ally the maple, the ash, the willow, and the poplar. It grows upon live trees, usually where the branches have been cut away, and upon stumps as well. Most authors recommend it as an esculent, although it has not the rich flavor of some other mushrooms. It dries well and can be kept thus for winter use. This species has a wide range and grows most abundantly in the autumn. Its resistance to cold has been frequently remarked.

AGARICINI.

Subgenus _Amanita_. The Amanitas are usually large and somewhat watery, the flesh brittle rather than tough. The very young plants are enveloped in a membranous wrapper, which breaks apart with the expansion of the plant, leaving a more or less persistent sheath at the base of the stem.

The universal veil is distinct and free from the cuticle of the cap. The cap is convex at first, then expanded; in some species naked and smooth; in others, clothed with membranaceous patches of the volva. The stem is distinct from the fleshy substance of the cap, ringed and furnished with a volva or sheath. In some of the species this sheath is connate with the base of the stem, firm and persistent. In others, it is friable, at length nearly obsolete.

The ring is usually persistent, deflexed, more or less prominent, in rare cases pressed close against the stem, and sometimes scarcely distinguishable from it. The gills in most of the species are free from the stems, but there are exceptions to this rule. Spores white. As to geographical distribution, according to M. C. Cooke, seven-eighths of the species are distinctly located in the temperate zone, one-twentieth at a temperate elevation, and only one-twentieth presumably tropical.

Out of the eighty species, about sixty are North American and European, and one species is found on the slopes of the Andes, in South America.

As heretofore stated, this group among mushrooms is made responsible for most of the well authenticated cases of fatal poisoning by mushrooms. It would be judicious, therefore, for those who are not thoroughly familiar with the characteristics of the edible Amanitas to defer making experiments with them for table use until that familiarity is acquired.

Saccardo in his _Sylloge_ describes no less than fifteen edible species of Amanita as found in different parts of the world. Of those I have personally been able to identify but three which are common in this country, and which have been well tested. Specimens of these three species are ill.u.s.trated in Plates XIV and XIV of this pamphlet. They are each and all found in varying abundance in different parts of the United States.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate XIV.

EDIBLE AMANITAS.

Figs. 1 to 4 Ag. (Amanita) Caesareus, Scop. (Amanita Caesarea) "Orange Amanita."

Figs. 5 to 9 Ag. (Amanita) rubescens. Pers. "The Blusher."

"Reddish Brown Amanita."

EDIBLE.

T. Taylor, del.]

PLATE XIV.

FIGS. 1 to 4. =Ag. (Amanita) Caesareus= Scop. (=Amanita Caesarea=).

"_Orange Amanita_," "_True Orange_."

EDIBLE.

Cap at first convex, afterwards well expanded; _smooth_, free from warts, striate on the margin; color orange-red or bright lemon-yellow, with red disk; gills lemon-yellow, rounded near the stem, and free from it; stem equal or slightly tapering upwards, stuffed with cottony fibrils, or hollow (color clear lemon-yellow), bearing a yellowish ring near the top and sheathed at the base with large, loose, membranous, white volva. Odor faint but agreeable. Spores white, elliptical.

The whole plant is symmetrical in form, brilliant in coloring, clean and attractive in appearance. The American plant seems to differ in some slight respects from the European as figured and described in European works. In Europe the pileus or cap is said to vary in color, being sometimes white, pale yellow, red or even copper color, although it is usually orange-yellow. My own observation of the American plant of this species agrees with that of Prof. Peck in that the cap is uniform in color, being at first bright reddish-orange or even brilliant red, fading with age to yellow, either wholly or only on the margin. No white specimens have been as yet recorded in this country. The red color disappears in the dried specimens. The striations of the margin are usually quite deep and long and almost as distant as in the edible species Amanitopsis _v.a.g.i.n.ata_. Some European writers have described the flesh or substance of the cap as yellowish. In our plant the flesh is white, but stained with yellow or red immediately under the cuticle.

Amanita _Caesarea_ is the only one of the Amanitas which has yellow gills.

Berkeley, in his "Outlines of British Fungi," describes A. Caesarea as it is found in some parts of Continental Europe, but states that up to the date of his writing it had not been found in Great Britain. It is not recorded in the more recent lists of British fungi by M. C. Cooke nor in that of Australian fungi by the same author. The species has a wide range in this country, and though not very common in the North, in some localities, as in the pine and oak woods of North Carolina, it is found in great abundance. Dufour states that it is much esteemed as an esculent in France, and though rare in the northern part of that country, it is common in the center and the south of France in autumn.

It is well known in different portions of Continental Europe, and is frequently figured in contrast with its very poisonous congener, Amanita muscaria, or "False Orange," commonly known as the "Fly Amanita," or "Fly-Killer."

A careless observer might mistake one for the other, but with a little attention to well-defined details the edible form can be readily distinguished from the poisonous one.

In a.n.a.lyzing the species the attention should be directed to the following characteristics of the two mushrooms: In A. _Caesarea_ the cap is _smooth_, the stem, gills and ring _lemon-yellow_, and the cup-shaped wrapper or volva which sheathes the base of the stem is white and _persistently membranous_.

In A. _muscaria_ the cap is _warty_ or shows the traces or remains of warts; the gills _white_, stem _white_, or only very slightly yellowish, and the wrapper or volva is evanescent, breaking up into ridge-like patches adhering to the base of the stem.

The Amanita Caesarea has long been esteemed as an esculent in foreign countries, and was known in ancient times to the Greeks and Romans. It is known under the following names: "Orange," "Caesar's mushroom,"