The species of fungi thus far described have been confined to the two
great orders of the Agarics and the Polyporei, which include the large
majority of our edible mushrooms and toadstools.
The remainder of my selection in the present chapter comprises
scattered examples from four other orders: Hydnei (Spine-bearers),
Clavariei (Coral-fungi), and the Trichogastres (Puff-balls),
all belonging to the first great division of the Sporifera. The
remaining two species considered--Morel and Helvella, of the order
Elvellacei--are my only representatives of the second grand cohort of
the Sporidiifera, whose botanical characters are described on page 77.
In our previous examples the hymenium or spore-bearing surface has
been disposed upon "gills," as in the Agarics, and on "tubes" in the
Polypores. In the Hydnei group, which we will first consider, this
disseminating surface is spread over _spines_ or _teeth_.
[Illustration: SECTION OF A HYDNUM]
The examples selected from this order are both in the typical genus
Hydnum; and the object of this present book on fungi being especially
the presentation of only such varieties as are conspicuously
self-placarded by some distinctive marks for identification, these
delicious spine-bearing or "hedgehog" mushrooms should of course be
included--a genus which cannot be mistaken for any other, and which
is _instantly_ recognized by its own peculiar character, already
mentioned, its spore surface being beset with _soft, drooping spines_
instead of pores or gills. There are more than a score of species. The
two more or less common with us are the _Hydnum repandum_, in outline
suggesting an ordinary mushroom, and of which the above cut represents
a section, and the _H. caput-medusæ_, or Medusa-head Hydnum. None of
the group is accounted poisonous, though some of them are too tough to
be acceptable as food.
[Illustration: _Hydnum repandum_]
_PLATE XXVII_