Among the Mushrooms | Page 6

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The Morels and Helvellas belong to this group. One often meets with mushrooms of the former genus in the spring, and they are striking and interesting looking fungi. There are many of both genera that are edible. They will be described in detail later.
Botanists have classified Agarics by means of the color of the spores, and it is the only sure way of determining to what class they belong. We propose in this work also to enumerate the mushrooms according to the color of the pileus or cap, and give a list, with a description of each, after this arrangement. This, of course, is merely superficial, but may interest and attract a beginner in the study of fungi. This list will be placed at the end of the book.
The descriptions will be preceded by a classification according to color of spores, some hints to students, and aids to learning which have been found useful to others.
It is appalling to a beginner when he first reads the long list of names of classes, genera, and species, as the latter are so closely allied in resemblance. One has not always the time nor inclination to condense facts for himself, nor to collect necessary information so as to remember it most easily, all which has to be done in the absence of an American manual or textbook. A great deal has been written for us, it is true, by experienced botanists, but a general and comprehensive work has yet to be compiled.
Before we begin our list of fungi, let us learn what a mushroom is, and know something of its component parts. A mushroom consists of a stem and a cap, or pileus. The cap is the most conspicuous part. The color varies from white and the lightest hues of brown up to the brightest yellow and scarlet. Its size is from an eighth of an inch to sixteen inches and more in diameter. The surface is smooth or covered with little grains (granular) or with minute scales (squamulose) shining like satin, or kid-like in its texture. It may be rounded and depressed (concave), elevated (convex), level (plane), or with a little mound in the centre (umbonate). It may be covered with warts, marked with lines (striate), or zoned with circles. The margin may be acute or obtuse, rolled backward or upward (revolute), or rolled inward (involute); it may be thick or thin.
THE STEM.
The stem is the stalk that supports the cap. It is sometimes attached to one side, and then it is said to be lateral or between the centre and side, and it is called eccentric; when it is in the middle, or nearly so, it is central.
It is either solid, fleshy, stuffed with pith, or hollow, fibrous, firm and tough (cartilaginous). It is often brittle and breaks easily, or it will not divide evenly in breaking. Its color and size both vary, like the cap. It may taper toward the base, or toward the apex, be even or cylindrical. Its surface may be smooth (glabrous), covered with scales (squamulose), rough (scabrous), dotted, lacerated, or be marked with a network of veins (reticulated). The base may be bulbous, or only swollen (incrassated), and it may root in the ground.
[Illustration: Sections of gill bearing mushrooms.
Gills adnexed Gills free Gills adnate Gills decurrent Gills sinuous Gills serrated
Pileus umbonate Pileus umbilicate
Margin involute Margin revolute]
THE GILLS.
The gills or lamell? are the radiating parts, like knife blades, that extend from the centre to the margin underneath the cap. They contain the spores. The group of mushrooms that have gills are called Agaracini or Agarics. The gills vary in color; sometimes they change color when mature. When they are close together they are called crowded, and when far apart distant. There are often smaller gills between the others, and sometimes they are two-forked (bifurcate), and are connected by veins.
They are narrow or wide, swell out in the middle (ventricose), are curved like a bow (arcuate), and have a sudden wave or sinus in the edge near the stem (sinuate).
There are various modes of attachment to the stem. Where the gills are not attached to it they are called free; slightly so, adnexed; and when wholly fastened they are adnate. They may run down on the stem, and are then called decurrent.
THE SPORES.
The color of the spores can be seen by cutting off the cap, and laying it gills downward, on a sheet of paper, two or three hours or more. The impression will remain on the paper. It is better to use blue paper, so that the white spores can be seen more clearly. The Agarics are divided into classes according to the color of the spores, so it is of great importance to examine them. The shape and size of the spores can only be learned