which radiate from the centre to the circumference, like the spokes of a
wheel, are called Gills (_lamellæ_); they are not formed, as some have
supposed, of layers of the reduplicated seed-membrane alone, but by a
prolongation of the fibres of the pileus, which these merely invest.
The fibrous structure is most apparent in Agarics with thick gills;
in those where the flesh changes colour when bruised; or where, the
interposed flesh remaining white, the hymenium is tinged with the colour
of the ripening spores. In those funguses which have little flesh the
upper surface of the pileus, especially towards the circumference, is
frequently furrowed with transverse sulci; these are occasioned by the
sinking in of the epidermis along with the fibres of the flesh between
the layers of the hymenium, and consequently their position always
corresponds precisely to that occupied by the backs of the gills. The end
nearest the stalk is termed posterior (_postica_), the opposite extremity
anterior (_antica_); the terminations of the lesser gills take place at
various distances short of the stalk, which the perfect gills reach, and
down which they sometimes course or are decurrent (_decurrentes_); they
are said to be adnate (_adnatæ_) when connected at their posterior end;
free (_liberæ_) when they do not adhere; remote (_remotæ_) when they
terminate at a certain distance from the stem; emarginate (_emarginatæ_)
when they are obtusely notched or hollowed out posteriorly; denticulate
(_denticulatæ_) when connected by means of a tooth; equal (_æquales_)
when all of the same length; forked (_furcatæ_) and branched (_ramosæ_)
when they divide in their course, once, or more frequently, or are
connected at the sides with the imperfect gills; dedalean (_dædaleæ_)
when they anastomose irregularly together; simple (_simplices_) when
they are free from all connections; distant (_distantes_) when they are
few and wide apart; close (_confertæ_) when they are very numerous and
touch each other; serrated (_serratæ_) when notched like a saw; waved
(_undulatæ_) when the margin is undulating; and imbricating (_imbricatæ_)
when they lie one over another, like tiles.
_The Tubes._—Funguses of the genus _Boletus_, etc., present on their
under surface, in place of gills, series of small hollow cylinders or
tubes; which are for the most part soldered side to side like the cells
of a honeycomb, but in the _Fistulina_ are unconnected. Like the gills,
they are prolongations of the fibres of the pileus, but lined, instead of
coated, by the hymenium; their free extremities are the pores, which at
first are closed, but afterwards open to let the seed escape: they are
generally of equal length and simple, but sometimes in the interior of
a large one smaller tubes may be discerned, in which case the first is
termed compound. With reference to the stalk, they are either adnate or
decurrent, they first appear as a network formed by slight prominences of
the fibres of the pileus; if at this early period a portion be removed
together with a piece of the flesh, it is reproduced in a few days and
the tubes developed as usual. The beautiful reticulations observed on the
stalk of some Boletuses are produced by abortive tubes decurrent along
their surface.
_The Plaits_: Venæ, Plicæ.—The plaits of the Chanterelle are formed like
the gills and tubes of the mushroom and Boletus, _i. e._ by the fibres of
the flesh running down from the pileus, and invested in a reduplication
of the hymenium; with this difference, however, that while in the two
latter the seed membrane is divided into as many portions as there are
gills or tubes, in the former the continuity of its surface is perfectly
unbroken. These plaits (_plicæ_) are always late in appearing, and
sometimes are only developed when the fungus is about to cast its seed.
_The Spines_: Aculei, etc.—The under surface of the pileus in the genus
_Hydnum_ is shagged with vegetable spines or teeth (_dentes_, _aculei_)
of unequal lengths, generally isolated, but sometimes connected at the
base, and formed originally out of a congeries of minute papillæ invested
by the hymenium, which gradually elongate their fibres and assume this
form. Light seems essential to their production, for if a Hydnum grow in
the dark, the teeth shrink up into long threads and are sterile.
METHODICAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE BRITISH ESCULENT FUNGUSES.
The primary division of Funguses into _Hymenomycetes_ and
_Gasteromycetes_ is founded upon the position of their seed, which lies,
as we have seen, externally in the first, and internally in the members
of the second. The funguses described in the present work belong chiefly
to the first division, _Hymenomycetes_; to Tribe 1, _Pileati_; and many
of them to Genus 1, _Agaricus_. This genus includes a great variety of
species, and is distinguished from all other genera by having a fleshy
pileus furnished underneath with _gills_, which are placed at right
angles to the stem. Some species, during their infancy, are enclosed
either in one or more membranes.
DIVISION I. HYMENOMYCETES.
TRIBE 1. _PILEATI._
GENUS 1. AGARICUS.
Old words in Natural History seldom become obsolete, but they change
their meanings strangely. Were Dioscorides and Pliny _redivivi_, they
would find nothing but misnomers! The term _Agaricus_, which anciently
applied indiscriminately to all hard coriaceous funguses growing on
trees (while the word _Fungus_ did imperfect duty for this genus),
was next arbitrarily made by Linnæus to stand representative for such
only as had gills, “fungi lamellati terrestres et _arborei_.”[115]
Persoon, again, under the name _Amanita_ (a Galenic word, but hitherto
unappropriated), made a new genus of such Agarics as were invaginated,
_i. e._ shut up during the earlier period of their development in a
volva; of such as had veins in place of gills, _Merulius_; and of such as
had anastomosing gills formed another, _Dædalea_, a third division. More
recently, Fries has greatly simplified the study of this very large and
difficult genus by eliminating all of a coriaceous texture, and (having
restored to it the genus _Amanita_) by then dividing the whole into
sections; enabling us to arrive at an accuracy in the discrimination of
species which was wholly unattainable before his time. His first grand
series of Agarics comprehends those of white spores (LEUCOSPORI[116]),
and of this his first section is—
Subgenus 1. AMANITA.[117]
All the Agarics belonging to this subgenus are, during the immaturity
of the fungus, furnished with a volva and a ring; some have a velum in
addition, and in this case, the surface of the pileus is covered with
warts, or verrucæ. This natural division was adopted long ago by Micheli,
who gave the name _Uovoli_ to those which had only the first two, and
that of _Tignosi_ to those that had all three. Altogether they form but a
very small group, but one very important to distinguish accurately, as it
includes, besides one or two very delicate species, some which are highly
poisonous.
_Bot. Char._ _Pileus_ at first campanulate, then plane; fleshy towards
the centre, attenuated at the margin; _gills_ ventricose, narrow behind,
free, numerous, at length denticulate, the imperfect ones few, of a
determinate form according to the kind, and, with one exception (that
of _Ag. Cæsareus_), white. _Stalk_ generally enlarged at the base,
frequently bulbous, solid, or stuffed with a cotton-like substance, which
is at length absorbed; _ring_ descending, imperfect, fugacious; _flesh_
white, unchanging.
Esculent species: _Ag. vaginatus_.
Of the _Tignosi_, that is, those with warts on their surface, some have
striated margins, others are without striæ.
Esculent species: _Ag. rubescens_.
Subgenus 2. LEPIOTA.[118]
_Bot. Char._ _Volva_ fugacious, _veil_ single, universal, closely
adhering to and confluent with the epidermis, when burst forming a more
or less persistent ring towards the middle of the stem; _stem_ hollow,
stuffed more or less densely with fine arachnoid threads, thickened at
the base, fibrillose; _pileus_ fleshy, not compact, ovate when young,
soon campanulate, then expanded and umbonate, more or less shagged with
scales; _flesh_ white, soft, sometimes changing colour; _gills_ free,
unequal, white, never decurrent.
Solitary, persistent, autumnal funguses, growing on the ground. Not
dangerous.
Esculent species: _Ag. procerus_, _Ag. excoriatus_.
Subgenus 3. ARMILLARIA.[119]
_Bot. Char._ _Veil_ single, partial, forming a persistent ring, which in
the unexpanded plant is joined to the margin of the pileus;[120] _stem_
solid, firm, subfibrillose, unequal; _pileus_ fleshy, convex, expanded,
obtuse; _epidermis_ entire, even in the scaly species, and not continuous
with the fibres of the ring; _flesh_ white and firm; _gills_ broad,
unequal, somewhat acute behind.
Esculent species: _Ag. melleus_ (?).
Subgenus 4. LIMACIUM.[121]
Esculent species: _none_.
Subgenus 5. TRICHOLOMA.[122]
_Bot. Char._ _Veil_ fibrous or floccose, fugacious; _stalk_ generally
solid, firm, fleshy, attenuated upwards, scaly, fibrillose or
striate; _pileus_ fleshy, compact, campanulate or depressed, convex;
margin attenuated, at first involute, shagged with woolly fibres or
lanugo; _gills_ unequal, obtuse behind, emarginate; _flesh_ white and
unchangeable.
Esculent species: _Ag. prunulus_ and _Ag. personatus_.[123]
Subgenus 6. RUSSULA[124] (_Scop._).
_Bot. Char._ No _veil_; _stem_ smooth, equal, glabrous, strong, white,
spongy within; _pileus_ at first campanulate, then hemispherical, in
age depressed, fleshy in the centre, thin at the margin, which is
never reflexed at any period of growth, the epidermis bare, smooth,
occasionally sticky in wet weather; _gills_ juiceless, mostly equal,
occasionally forked, the short ones few, rigid, brittle, broad in front,
behind narrow, acute, properly free but apparently adnato-decurrent,
from the effusion of the stem into the pileus; _flesh_ firm, dry, white,
moderately compact, brittle; _sporules_ white or ochraceous; _gills_
white or yellow.
Large or middle size, persistent, solitary funguses, growing on the
ground.
Esculent species: _Ag. heterophyllus_, _virescens_, and _ruber_.
Acrid species: _Ag. emeticus_, _sanguineus_, and _alutaceus_.
Subgenus 7. GALORRHEUS.[125]
_Bot. Char._ No _veil_; _stalk_ equal, round, solid, effused into the
pileus; _pileus_ fleshy, compact, generally umbilicate, margin even, when
young involute; _gills_ unequal, sometimes very thick, often forked,
narrow, attenuated behind, brittle, connected by a prolonged tooth to the
stalk, down which they are slightly decurrent; _flesh_ firm and juicy,
distilling milk.
Esculent species: _Ag. deliciosus_ and _piperatus_.
Subgenus 8. CLYTOCYBE.[126]
_Bot. Char._ _Veil_ none; _pileus_ at first convex, at length
infundibuliform; _gills_ unequal. The characteristics of this subgenus
are rather negative than positive; many of the contained species vary
considerably amongst themselves, but the subdivisions founded on such
variations are all well marked.
Subdivision _Dasyphylli_.[127] _Gills_ in close juxtaposition, decurrent
or acutely adnate.
Esculent species: _Ag. nebularis_.
Subdivision _Camarophylli_.[128] _Pileus_ subcompact, dry; _gills_ very
distant, vaulted, decurrent.
Esculent species: _Ag. virgineus_.
Subdivision _Chondropodes_.[129] _Pileus_ tough, dry, _gills_ nearly
free, close, white, external coat of stem subcartilaginous.
Esculent species: _Ag. fusipes_.
Subdivision _Scortei_. _Pileus_ subcoriaceous; _gills_ free, subdistant.
Esculent species: _Ag. oreades_.
Subgenus 9. COLLYBIA.[130]
Esculent species: _none_.
Subgenus 10. MYCENA.[131]
Esculent species: _none_.
Subgenus 11. OMPHALIA.[132]
Esculent species: _none_.
Subgenus 12. PLEUROPUS.[133]
_Bot. Char._ _Pileus_ unequal, eccentric or lateral; _stem_, when
present, solid and firm; _gills_ unequal, juiceless, unchangeable, acute
behind, growing on trees or wood; for the most part innocuous, but two
only generally eaten.
Esculent species: _Ag. ostreatus_, in the subdivision _Concharia_; and
_Ag. ulmarius_, in the subdivision _Ægeritaria_.
Series 2. HYPORHODEUS.[134]
_Sporules_ pale rose-colour.
Subgenus 13. CLITOPILUS.[135]
_Bot. Char._ _Veil_ none; _stem_ tolerably firm, subequal, distinct from
the pileus; _pileus_ fleshy, campanulate or convex, at length somewhat
plane, dry, regular; _gills_ unequal, changing colour as the fungus
matures its seed, fixed, or free.
Esculent species: _Ag. orcella_.
Subgenus 14. LEPTONIA.[136]
Esculent species: _none_.
Subgenus 15. NOLANEA.[137]
Esculent species: _none_.
Subgenus 16. ECCILIA.[138]
Esculent species: _none_.
Series 3. CORTINARIA.[139]
_Sporules_ reddish-ochre; _veil_ arachnoid.
Subgenus 17. TELAMONIA.[140]
Esculent species: _none_.
Subgenus 18. INOLOMA.[141]
_Bot. Char._ _Veil_ fugacious, marginal, consisting of free arachnoid
threads; _stem_ solid, bulbous, fibrillose, more or less diffused into
the pileus, fleshy; _pileus_ fleshy, convex when young, then expanded,
fibrillose, or viscid, regular, juicy; _gills_ emarginato-adnexed, broad,
changing colour; colour of the gills or pileus violet.
Large autumnal funguses growing on the ground.
Esculent species: _Ag. violaceus_.
Subgenus 19. DERMOCYBE.[142]
_Bot. Char._ _Veil_ dry, arachnoid, very fugacious; _stem_ not truly
bulbous, fibrillose, stuffed when young; _pileus_ clothed with fibrillæ,
rarely with gluten; _gills_ rather unequal, broad, close.
Esculent species: _Ag. castaneus_.
Series 4. DERMINUS.
[In the nine subgenera following, from 20 to 28, viz.
_Pholiota_, _Myxacium_, _Hebeloma_, _Flammula_, _Inocybe_,
_Naucoria_, _Galera_, _Tapinia_, and _Crepidotus_, there are no
esculent species.]
Series 5. PRATELLA.[143]
_Bot. Char._ _Veil_ not arachnoid; _gills_ changing colour, clouded, at
length dissolving; _sporidia_ brown-purple.
Subgenus 29. VOLVARIA.
Esculent species: _none_.
Subgenus 30. PSALIOTA.[144]
_Bot. Char._ _Veil_ forming a partial ring-like investment, more or less
persistent; _stalk_ robust, subequal, distinct from the pileus; _pileus_
fleshy, more or less campanulate when young, almost flat when fully
expanded; sometimes sticky, sometimes scaly or else fibrillose, sometimes
naked; _gills_ unequal, free, or connected with the stalk, broad and
deepening in colour.
In addition to the ring, some have a very fugacious _volva_ or _velum_,
some both one and the other.
Esculent species: _Ag. campestris_ and _Georgii_.
[In the four next subgenera, from 31 to 34, _Hypholoma_,
_Psilocybe_, _Psathyra_, and _Coprinarius_, there are no
esculent species.]
Subgenus 35. COPRINUS.[145]
_Bot. Char._ _Gills_ free, unequal, thin, simple, changing colour, at
length deliquescent. _Veil_ universal, floccose, fugacious; _stem_
fistulose, straight, elongated, brittle, subsquamulose, whitish;
_pileus_ membranaceous, rarely subcarnose, when young ovato-conic, then
campanulate, at length torn and revolute, deliquescent, distinct from the
stem, clothed with the flocculose fragments of the veil.
Fugacious funguses, growing in rich dungy places or on rotten wood.
Esculent species: _Ag. comatus_ and _atramentarius_.
Subgenus 36. GOMPHUS.
No esculent species.
GENUS 2. CANTHARELLUS.[146]
_Bot. Char._ These are distinguished from Agarics, which at first sight
they resemble, by having veins in place of gills; that is, by having the
prolongations of the fibres of the pileus invested in an _undivided_,
in place of a divided hymenium, as occurs in Agarics and in the genus
_Boletus_. These veins are prominent, ramifying, seldom anastomosing;
central, eccentric, or wanting; no investments; dust white.
Esculent species: _C. cibarius_.
[In the next three genera, _Merulius_, _Schizophyllum_, and
_Dædalea_, there are no esculent species.]
GENUS 6. POLYPORUS.[147]
_Bot. Char._ _Hymenium_ concrete with the substance of the pileus,
consisting of subrotund pores with thin simple dissepiments.
Esculent species: _P. frondosus_.
GENUS 7. BOLETUS.[148]
_Bot. Char_. The word _Boletus_, which has at different times, and under
different mycologists, been made to represent in turn many very different
funguses, is now restricted to such as have a soft flesh, vertical tubes
underneath, round or angular, slightly connected together and with
the substance of the pileus, open below, and lined by the sporiferous
membrane; the cap horizontal, very fleshy, the stalk generally
reticulated, some have an investment; the flesh of many changes colour.
They are all innocuous, according to Vittadini, which is not strictly the
case, though many species hitherto reputed unwholesome, or worse, appear
to lose their bad properties by drying. The kinds generally eaten are _B.
edulis_ and _scaber_.
GENUS 8. FISTULINA.[149]
_Bot. Char._ _Hymenium_ formed of a distinct substance, but concrete with
the fibres of the pileus; _tubes_ at first wart-like, somewhat remote,
radiato-fimbriate, closed; at length approximated, elongated, open.
Esculent species: _F. hepatica_.
GENUS 9. HYDNUM.[150]
_Bot. Char._ In this genus the under surface presents a series of conical
teeth or bristles of unequal length, solid, continuous with the flesh of
the pileus and covered entirely by the sporiferous membrane. The species
composing it have no investments; the _flesh_ is dry, frequently corky or
coriaceous; the _pileus_ irregular in shape, and its margin arched and
undulated. There are no dangerous species, but which to eat must depend
upon the united consent of the stomach and of the teeth.
Esculent species: _H. repandum_.
[In the last five genera of this tribe, namely, _Sistotrema_,
_Irpex_, _Radulum_, _Phlebia_, and _Thelephora_, there are no
esculent species.]
TRIBE 2. _CLAVATI._[151]
_Hymenium_ above, smooth; _receptacle_ club-shaped or cylindrical, with
no distinct margin; _substance_ fleshy.
GENUS 15. CLAVARIA.
_Bot. Char._ _Receptacle_ erect, homogeneous, smooth, not distinguishable
from the stalk, simple or entirely covered by the hymenium.
All the species in this genus are good to eat.
[In the remaining six genera of this tribe there are no
esculent species.]
TRIBE 3. _MITRATI._
_Receptacle_ bullate, pileiform, margined; _hymenium_ superior, never
closed.
GENUS 22. MORCHELLA.
_Bot. Char._ _Receptacle_ hollow and confluent with stalk, club-shaped,
or, like the pileus, fissured above with lacunæ more or less deep,
limited by thick folds, anastomosed with reticulations, entirely covered
with sporiferous membrane; _flesh_ waxy in texture; _stalk_ constant.
There are two esculent kinds, _M. esculenta_ and _semilibera_; the
_esculenta_ and _hybrida_ of Sowerby.
GENUS 23. HELVELLA.
_Bot. Char._ _Substance_ fleshy; _margins_ sinuous; only the upper
portion of the pileus sporiferous.
Esculent species: _H. crispa_, _lacunosa_, and _esculenta_.
[In Genera 24 to 26 there are no esculent species.]
TRIBE 4. _CUPULATI._
_Hymenium_ concrete, superior, smooth, shut in while young by the margins
of the receptacle; _sporules_ disseminated with elasticity or otherwise;
_receptacle_ bowl-shaped, flat or concave; some of this tribe when young
have an involucrum.
GENUS 27. PEZIZA.
Series ALEURIA. Subgenus MEGALOPYXIS.
Esculent species: _P. acetabulum_.
[In Genera 28 to 45, which conclude the first great division,
_Hymenomycetes_, there are no esculent species.]
DIVISION II. GASTEROMYCETES.
_Bot. Char._ The _receptacle_ a close cavity with or without a hymenium;
_spores_ at last free and variously disseminated.
[In Genera 46 to 73 there are no esculent species.]
GENUS 74. BOVISTA.[152]
_Bot. Char._ _Peridium_ papyraceous, furnished with a distinct back,
which at length peels off altogether, fertile within; _capillitium_ equal.
Esculent species: _B. plumbea_.
GENUS 75. LYCOPERDON.
_Bot. Char._ A sessile _peridium_, membranaceous; at first filled with a
white, consistent, homogeneous substance, which after a time is converted
into a dust of various hues, and is interspersed with copious filaments.
The funguses of this genus are invested in two membranes; the innermost
of which, or _peridium_, is tough and smooth on the outside, shaggy with
floccose threads within. The external membrane, which is very fragile and
tender, frequently falls off during the maturation of the seed, which
then escapes through the peridium by an irregular orifice at the apex.
Esculent species: _L. plumbeum_ and _Bovista_.
DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES.
AGARICUS PRUNULUS, _Vitt._
PLATE I. FIG. 1.
Subgenus TRICHOLOMA, _Fries_. Subdivision PERSONATA, _ibid._
AGARICUS MOUCERON, _Bulliard_. _Cæsalpinus_, p. 617.
MOUCERON GRIS, _Paulet_, _Persoon_.
“Cogitatione ante pascuntur succineis novaculis aut argenteo
apparatu comitante.”—_Pliny._
“Tout ce qui fait l’ornement des festins s’embaume du parfum de
ces cryptogames.”—_Persoon._
_Bot. Char._ Gregarious, or growing in rings[153] on the ground; _pileus_
thick, convex, irregular in shape, more or less tuberculated, sometimes
lobed;[154] margin not striate, wavy, expanding unequally; _epidermis_
cream-coloured, grey, reddish, or of a dirty nankeen hue, paler towards
the circumference, soft to the touch like kid, minutely tomentose,
fragile, dry, firmly attached to the flesh; flesh firm, compact; _gills_
watery, white, very numerous, irregular, with many smaller ones (from
5-11, _Vitt._) interposed, lying over each other like the plaits of a
frill, adnato-emarginate,[155] the imperfect gills rounded off at their
posterior end. _Stem_ white, robust, firm, solid, somewhat irregular in
form, generally thickened at the base, constantly so in young specimens,
but in older ones, though occasionally bulging, it presents not
unfrequently an equal cylinder throughout, and sometimes tapers slightly
downwards. The fibres are effused into the pileus, spreading out like a
fan through its substance; _smell_ strong, _taste_ agreeable; _spores_
white, elliptical, adhering firmly to the body on which they fall. The
dried plant retains much the same form it had when fresh.
On tracing this fungus to its origin, (spring is the only time, and the
borders of the woodlands the proper place, to look for it,) if we dig up
the earth where it grows, this will be found mouldy to a considerable
depth beneath the surface, and strongly impregnated with the peculiar
odour which the _Prunulus_ exhales; this apparent mouldiness being,
in fact, the spawn, amidst the white filaments of which many minute
Agarics, in various stages of their development, may be found; some, in
the earliest, presenting merely white cones destitute of heads, whilst
in others a slight protuberance indicates the future pileus forming or
already formed. The pileus is at first almost spherical, and involute
in its borders, the gills whitish, very minute, and so thickly set as
to press one against the other, each communicating to the membrane that
lines the next the impressions of its own fibres, which remain in the
form of transverse striæ, and furnish a characteristic to this fungus
retained during all its subsequent growth (_Vitt._). The greatest size
which I have known the _Prunulus_ attain has been in England, where I
have picked specimens measuring six inches across, and weighing between
four and five ounces; as to the fecundity of this fungus, I collected
this spring, from a single ring on the War-Mount at Keston (Kent), from
ten to twelve pounds, and in the one field from twenty to twenty-five
pounds. In this neighbourhood they are generally destroyed, as injurious
to his grass-crops, by the over-careful farmer, quite ignorant, of
course, of their value; to which the following extract from a letter of
Professor Balbi to Persoon bears testimony:—“This rare and most delicious
Agaric, the _Mouceron_ of Bulliard, and the _Ag. prunulus_ of other
authors, abounds on the hills above the valley of Stafora, near Bobbio,
where it is called Spinaroli, and is in great request; the country people
eat it fresh in a variety of ways, or they dry and sell it for from
twelve to sixteen francs a pound.” Vittadini says, truly enough, that the
fresh is better than the dried _Prunulus_, the substance of the latter
being rather coriaceous, but the gravy prepared from it in this state,
being very rich and well-flavoured, is largely used by those who reject
the body of the mushroom; three or four thrown into a pot of the lighter
broths or of beef-tea render them more savoury. To dry the _Prunulus_ it
is usual to cut it into four or more pieces, which are exposed for some
days to a dry air and then threaded: it acquires an aroma by the process,
and communicates this to any dish of which it is afterwards an ingredient.
It would be extremely difficult to confound this Agaric with any other;
its mode of growth in circles, the extreme narrowness of its gills,
which are moreover striate, the thickness of its pileus, and the bulging
character of its stalk, would render a mistake almost impossible, even
did it grow in autumn when other funguses abound, in place of appearing
only in spring when few species comparatively abound.