[Illustration: AGARICUS ULMARIUS.]
[Sidenote: =Massive growth=]
As its specific name implies--_Ulmus_--this mushroom is devoted to
the elm, upon whose trunk and branches it may be often seen, either
singly, which is rare, or in great dense masses, sometimes, covering a
space of several square feet, often, unfortunately, at an inaccessible
height from the ground. I have in my possession a photograph which has
been sent to me by an interested correspondent representing a dead
tree trunk, apparently a foot in diameter, densely covered to a height
of seven feet from the ground with a mass of the _A. ulmarius_--and
presumably representing thirty or forty pounds in weight. This species
is most frequently seen on apparently healthy branches, or growing from
the wood of a severed limb. Its season is late summer and autumn.
[Sidenote: =Botanical characters=]
A small cluster of these mushrooms is seen in Plate 15. They afford a
good refutation of the old-time discriminating "ban," which excluded
all mushrooms which grow "sidewise," or "upon wood." The individual
mushroom of this species is a horizontal grower, sometimes with a
barely noticeable or obsolete stem; in other specimens this portion
being quite distinct and an inch or more in length, and firm and solid
in texture. The upper surface is pale yellow or buff, smooth in the
younger specimens, becoming disfigured by spots and fissures with
age. The flesh is white, as also are the gills, though more dingy,
becoming tawny-tinted with maturity, when the entire mushroom becomes
quite leathery in substance, and might well awaken doubts as to its
digestibility. The spores are white.
This fungus is known in some sections as the "Fish Mushroom," referring
to its peculiar flavor, the appropriateness of which appellation is
suggested in the incident related by Mr. Palmer, and quoted in my last
chapter.