THE ORANGE-AGARIC
“MUSHROOM seeds, or spores, form on these gills, these points, and on
the walls of the tubes of which these holes are the orifices. I
recommend to Jules the following experiment. We will take some mushrooms
whose caps are not yet thoroughly spread. We will place them this
evening on a sheet of white paper. During the night the blossoming will
be finished and the ripe seeds will fall from the gills of the agarics
and the tubes of the boleti. To-morrow morning we shall find on the
paper an impalpable dust, red, rose, brown, according to the kind of
mushroom.
[Illustration: Binocular Microscope]
“This dust is nothing but a mass of seeds, of spores, so fine that they
cannot be seen separately without a microscope, so numerous they cannot
be counted. There are millions and millions of them.”
“A microscope,” interrupted Emile. “Is that the instrument with which
you sometimes look at things so small that the naked eye can scarcely
see them?”
“Yes. A microscope enlarges the objects seen through it, and shows them
to us in all their details of structure, although they would be hidden
from the unaided eye by their smallness.”
“Will you show us through the microscope the mushroom spores when I have
collected them on a sheet of paper?” asked Jules.
“I will show them to you. One spore is enough, under favorable
conditions of heat and moisture, to germinate and develop into white
filaments or mycelium from which will spring at the right time numerous
mushrooms. How many mushrooms would be produced if all the spores that
fall by myriads and myriads from the gills of a single agaric were to
germinate? Here again we have the story of the cod, the louse, all the
feeble creatures, in short, that reproduce their kind in such immense
numbers.”
“To have mushrooms, then, as many as we want, it is only necessary to
sow the spores?” Jules again inquired.
[Illustration: Spores]
“In that you are mistaken, my dear child. Up to this time mushroom
culture has been impossible, because the care required by their
excessively delicate seeds is not understood by us, or may even be
beyond our power. Only one edible mushroom is cultivated, and even in
growing this we use not the spores, but the mycelium.
“They call it the hot-bed mushroom. It is an agaric, satiny white above
and pale rose beneath. In the old stone quarries near Paris they make
beds of horse manure and light earth. In these beds they put pieces of
mycelium known to horticulturists under the name of mushroom-spawn. This
spawn ramifies, pushes out numerous filaments, and from these finally
spring the mushrooms.”
“Good to eat!”
“Excellent. Among the mushrooms we gathered are those that I am going to
acquaint you with.
“Look at this first of all. It is an agaric. The upper surface of the
cap is a beautiful orange-red; the gills underneath are yellow. The
stalk rises from the bottom of a sort of white bag with torn edges. This
bag, called _volva_ at first enveloped the whole mushroom. In growing
and pushing above ground, the cap broke it. This kind, they say, is the
best of all, the most appreciated. It is called the orange-agaric.
“This other agaric, likewise orange-red, and also provided with a bag or
volva at the base of the stalk, is called the false orange-agaric. Would
you not, however, think it was the same kind?”
“I don’t see much difference, for my part,” responded Claire.
“Nor I either,” said Emile.
“I see a difference,” Jules declared, “but it is very slight. The second
agaric has white gills, while the first has yellow.”
“Jules has sharp eyes. I will add that in the false orange-agaric the
upper surface of the cap is sown with shreds of white skin, debris of
the torn volva. The other one has not these shreds, or very few.
“If one did not pay attention to these slight differences, one would
commit a very fatal error. The first mushroom is a delicious viand; the
second, or false orange-agaric, is a deadly poison.”
“I am no longer surprised,” said Jules, “at your telling Simon that it
is impossible for us, without long study, to distinguish the good from
the bad kinds. Here are two mushrooms almost as much alike as two drops
of water: one kills, the other is excellent.”
“Not a year passes without its lamentable cases of poisoning, from a
confusion of the two kinds. Remember carefully their characteristics, so
as not to expose yourself some day to a terrible mistake.”
“I will be very careful not to forget them,” Jules promised. “Both
orange-agarics are orange-red and have a white volva or bag. The eatable
orange-agaric has yellow gills; the poisonous one, white gills.”
“Besides,” added Emile, “the poisonous orange-agaric has numerous shreds
of white skin on the cap.”
“Look at this other that I picked from the trunk of a tree. It is a
large, dark-red boletus. It has no stalk. It fastens itself to old
trunks by one of its sides. It is called the tinder-agaric boletus,
because its flesh, cut in thin slices, dried in the sun, and made
flexible by hammering, makes tinder.”
“I did not dream that tinder came from a mushroom.” said Jules.
“The truffle is the most important of eatable mushrooms. It grows under
ground, like the mycelium that produces it. Its odor betrays its
presence. A very keen-scented animal, the pig, is led into the wood.
Enticed by the smell of the subterranean mushroom, the pig roots with
its snout at the spots where the truffles are hidden. Then the pig is
driven away, but to console him they throw him a chestnut; and finally
the precious mushroom is dug up. In its shape the truffle bears no
resemblance to ordinary mushrooms. It has a bulky round body, wrinkled,
and black flesh marbled with white.”
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