Paulet was once so indiscreet as to eat a slice of the Griper (Ag. torminosus), which belongs to this genus, and afterwards still more indiscreet in giving it the inviting name of “Mouton zoné;” it is well, however, that the reader should be apprised, as he will frequently come across this ‘mouton’ in his walks, that it is a perfect wolf in sheep’s clothing, nor less to be avoided than one nearly allied to it, which rejoices in the name of necator, or the slayer.[87] Here, as it is a safe rule rather to condemn many that may be innocent than to admit one that is at all suspicious to our confidence, we should, till intimacy has made us familiar with the exceptions, avoid all those the flesh of which is livid, or that, chameleon-like, assume a variety of hues on being broken or bruised.[88] The external colour furnishes no certain information—with the single exception of that of the gills in one or two Agarics—by which to know the good from the bad; thus, the “Boule de Neige” and the Vernal Amanite are both white; but the dress, in one case, is of innocence, in the other of mere hypocrisy; again, the green, which we are so cautioned to avoid in this class of plants as chlorotic and unhealthy, and which is of such bad augury in Amanita viridis, is quite the contrary in the Verdette (Ag. virescens). So that to be led only by colour would certainly be to be misled—a mistake which, in the family of the Russulæ, might readily compromise life.
Some mycologists recommend, with certain exceptions, the avoidance of such Agarics as have lateral stalks, of such as are pectinate (i. e. have equal gills, like a comb), of such as have little flesh in proportion to the depth of their gills, and generally, of all those that are past their prime. Some warn us not to eat after the snail, as we are in the habit of doing in our gardens after the wasp; we may trust, it seems, to him to point out the best greengages, but not to the slug to select our mushrooms for us. Finally, it has been very currently affirmed, though I think without sufficient warrant, that all such funguses as run rapidly into deliquescence ought to be avoided as dangerous. Here, while it might be unsafe to lay down any positive rule beyond one’s own experience, this, so far as it goes, would rather lead me to a different inference; and even the reader will ask—Does not the mushroom deliquesce, and is not ketchup, that “poignant liquor made from boiled mushrooms mixed with salt,”[89] to which we are all so partial, this very deliquescence? But, besides this, the Ag. comatus, which is highly deliquescent, is largely eaten about Lucca; the Ag. atramentarius also is, on our own authority, periculo ventris nostri, as good for ketchup as for that purpose to which its juices are more commonly put, viz. for making ink. Thus, amongst deliquescent Agarics, there are some the juices of which are both safe and savoury, perhaps of more than those here recorded; but as I have not hitherto myself made trial of any others, and as there are some dangerous species mixed up with this group, the public cannot be too much cautioned against making any rash experiment, where the consequences of a mistake might be so serious.
Some trees give origin by preference to good, others to deleterious species; thus, the hazel-nut, the black and perhaps the white poplar, together with the fig-tree, grow only good sorts; whereas the olive has been famous, since the days of Nicander, for none but poisonous species.
The elm, the alder, the larch, the beech, and some other trees, seem capable of supporting both good and bad species at their roots; hence it is not safe to trust implicitly to the tree to determine the wholesomeness or unwholesomeness of the fungus that grows out of it, or in its neighbourhood. The presence of a free acid is by no means conclusive either way, there being many species of both good and bad, which will indifferently turn litmus-paper red. The old and very general practice adopted by cooks of dressing funguses with a silver spoon (which is supposed to become tarnished, then, only when their juices are of a deleterious quality), is an error which cannot be too generally known and exposed, as many lives, especially on the Continent, have been, and still are, sacrificed to it annually. In some cases the kitchen-fire will extract the deleterious property from the funguses, which it would have been unsafe to eat raw, and frequently the acrid lactescent kinds change their nature entirely and become mild by cooking; in other cases, the virus is drawn out by saturating the fungus, sometimes before dressing it, either in vinegar or brine,[91] the liquid then containing the poison which was originally in the plant; but in other species, as in Ag. emeticus, it would seem from the experiments of M. Krapf, of Vienna, upon living animals, that it is to be extracted neither by ebullition nor desiccation.[92]
The effects produced by the poison of mushrooms are exceedingly various, that is to say, the virus itself differs in different species, both as to kind and, where that is the same, as to the degree of its concentration; it is generally, however, of the class called acro-narcotic, producing inflammatory affections of the intestines, and exerting a deleterious influence over the whole nervous system. In cases where only a very small quantity has been taken experimentally, a constriction of the fauces has followed, and continued for a period varying from some minutes to several hours, occasioning, or not, nausea, heat, and, in some instances, even pain of the stomach; “sometimes the affection is entirely confined to the head, and a stupor or light delirium succeeds the eating of some species, and continues for two or three days.”[93] Not unfrequently, as in those cases cited by Larber, the symptoms have been altogether those of cholera, without any cerebral disturbance whatever; but in other instances that have come to my knowledge, during a several years’ residence on the Continent, these have been of a mixed character,[94] in which both the head and viscera have participated; and the autopsies after death have, in accordance with the symptoms, shown the stomach and intestines more or less disorganized with the products of inflammation, together with a congested state of the brain or of its investments, or a local or general softening of its substance.[95] The poison, as has been said, exists in very different degrees of intensity in different species. In some, as the Amanita verna, a few grains of the fresh fungus suffice to kill a dog;[96] while the Agaricus muscarius, though equally fatal in sufficient quantities, is not nearly so strong. Some time in general elapses from the swallowing the poison to that in which its deleterious workings first begin to be felt. I have heard of cases (similar to those cited in the last note) of persons who had supped overnight on the meal that was to prove their last, who have slept, risen next morning, gone to work, and continued working for hours, before they have been made aware of their condition. When, however, the symptoms have once set in, they become rapidly more and more alarming, while the chances of arresting or mitigating their excruciating severity lessen every minute. As the evils to be apprehended from the agency of these plants can only be prevented by their instant evacuation, to assist the disposition to vomit, or, if called in early enough, to anticipate it by the milder emetics in sufficient doses (surely not by strong ones, as some have recommended!), and, when the stomach has been thoroughly evacuated, to relieve the violence of the pain by bland mucilaginous drinks, with opiates, are the indications plainly pointed out, and the means by which inflammation and subsequent sphacelus of the gut, as well as the deleterious effects produced on the nervous system by the absorption of the poison into it, have been occasionally averted; but should symptoms of great depression be already present (as too frequently happens before the medical man arrives), he will endeavour, in that case, to rally the vital powers (scanty though the chances of success will then be) by small and repeated doses of sulphuric ether and ammonia combined, or should head symptoms require his interference, he must in that case bleed.
CONDITIONS NECESSARY TO THEIR GROWTH.
Of these, in fact, we know but little, and in the great majority of instances absolutely nothing; in a few cases moisture[97] and heat seem alone sufficient, even in our own hands, to cause some of them to grow; in others, electricity appears indispensable. A wet autumn is generally found to be exceedingly prolific in these plants, with the following notable difference as to kind: all those that are parasitical on trees show themselves, during a wet season, in amount directly varying with that of the previous rain, irrespective of any other influences conspiring to give this effect; whilst those, on the other hand, which issue from the earth, when the surface of this has been long chilled or when the electrical state of the air has not been materially modified for some time, will be found to come up sparingly or not at all, whatever rain may have fallen. An exception to this rule occurs in the common mushroom, which, by the combination of certain degrees of heat and moisture, may be reared throughout the year without the co-operation of electricity. A variety of plans have been recommended for this purpose, many of which are both troublesome and expensive; the following, taken by M. Roques from a scientific work on gardening, and said to be infallible, has, if so, the great advantage of extreme simplicity to recommend it:—“Having observed that all those dunghills which abounded chiefly in sheep- or cow-droppings, began shortly to turn mouldy on their surface and to bear mushrooms, I collected a quantity of this manure, which, so soon as it began to turn white, I strewed lightly over some melon-beds and some spring crops of vegetables, and obtained in either case, and as often as I repeated the experiment, a ready supply of excellent mushrooms, which came up from a month to six weeks after the dung had been so disposed of; but as an equable temperature is in all cases desirable to render the result certain, where this cannot be secured under the protection of glass, the next best plan is to scatter a portion of the above dungs mixed with a little earth in a cave or cellar, to which some tan is an excellent addition; for tan, though it kills other vegetable growths, has quite an opposite effect on funguses.”
Next to the common mushroom, in regard to the success attending its cultivation, comes that of the Pietra funghaia, a plant unknown to Clusius, but described by Mathiolus and Imperato, under the name of the ‘stony fungus.’ Cesalpinus has added to their accounts, directions for procuring it the whole year through, which, he says, is to be done either by irrigating the soil over the site of the stone, or by transferring the Pietra funghaia with a portion of the original mould, and watering it in our own garden. Porta adds, that the funguses take seven days to come to perfection, and may be gathered from the naked block (where this has been properly moistened) six times a year; but in preference to merely watering the blocks, he recommends that a light covering of garden mould should be first thrown over them. The Pietra funghaia, though its range of territory be extremely small, lies embedded in a variety of soils, in consequence of which its Polyporus, like our own mushroom, is very various in flavour, depending on the kind of humus in which its matrix happens to be placed. Those that grow on the high grounds above Sorrento, and on the sides of Vesuvius, are in less esteem than such as are brought into the Naples market from the mountains of Apulia.[98]
A third fungus, which we have the means of producing ad libitum, is that which sprouts from the pollard head of the black poplar;[99] these heads it is usual to remove at the latter end of autumn, as soon as the vintage is over, and their marriage with the vine is annulled; hundreds of such heads are then cut and transported to different parts; they are abundantly watered during the first month, and in a short time produce that truly delicious fungus, Agaricus caudicinus, the Pioppini, which, during the autumn of the year, make the greatest show in many of the Italian market-places. These pollard blocks continue to bear, for from twelve to fourteen years; I saw a row of them in the botanic garden at Naples, which, after this period, were still productive, though less frequently, and of fewer Agarics at a crop. The practice of rearing funguses from the poplar is not modern; Dioscorides knew, for he tells us that if we “bark the white or black poplar, cutting the bark into pieces and covering it with horse-dung, an excellent kind of fungus will spring up, and continue to bear throughout the year:” by way of comment to which passage Mathiolus adds, that a little leaven[100] will produce an abundant crop in four days. Another fungus, which I have myself reared (Polyporus avellanus), is to be procured by singeing over a handful of straw a block of the cob-nut tree, which is then to be watered and put by. In about a month the funguses make their appearance, which are quite white, of from two to three inches in diameter, and excellent to eat; while their profusion is sometimes so great, as entirely to hide the wood from which they spring.[101] Dr. Thore says, that in the Landes, the Boletus edulis and Ag. procerus are constantly raised by the inhabitants of that district, from a watery infusion of the said plants; that something more than this, however, is necessary, seems certain, since during the two or three years during which I frequented the baths of Lucca, and was in the habit of using infusions of these and a variety of other funguses, often throwing them over the very spots where each kind grew, my experiments never succeeded. Nor was Dr. Puccinelli, of Lucca, who repeated similar experiments in the botanic garden there, much more successful. Briganti, of Naples, told me much the same story; and Sanguinetti at Rome was equally unsuccessful with Ottaviani at Urbino. On making inquiry of friends in England who have attempted to propagate different kinds of funguses, either by infusion or otherwise, their attempts generally failed. My friend Mrs. Hussey, in particular, acquaints me that she has been in the habit of subjecting many plants to a like experiment, and with similar want of result. Lastly, as concerning truffles, Mr. Bornholtz has given directions how to rear them, which, as they are exceedingly expensive and troublesome, must needs be infallible to secure proselytes, even among the most sworn amateurs of these delicacies. “Prepare your ground,” says he, “with oak leaves in decay; you must also mix some iron with it and take care to make it of a proper consistence, either by adding sand, should it be too compact, or clay, should it be of too light a nature; having then with great care transplanted your truffles, (which must be properly packed with a quantity of the original mould about them,) they are to be placed tenderly in the new settlement, covered over lightly with mould, and this again is to be covered with boughs of oak and Carpinus Betulus to protect the deposit from molestation; neither must you consider your work completed till a sacred grove of these particular trees has been planted round it, which must be done with such precaution, that while they keep the precious ground in a perpetual twilight, they must not obstruct it too much, but leave a certain free passage to the air.” After which injunctions, if they be carefully attended to, Mr. B. assures us that we can reckon, without fear of disappointment, on a dish of truffles, whenever we may want them for ourselves or our friends.
FAIRY RINGS.
We know as little of the origin of fairy-rings, as of any other phenomenon connected with the growth of funguses. These fairy-rings are of all sizes, from one and a half to thirty feet in diameter; the grass composing them is observed in spring, to be of a thicker growth than the surrounding herbage, and, in consequence of the manure afforded by the crop of last year, is of a darker colour. Within these rings are frequently seen certain varieties of this class of plants, very generally Agarics, though puff-balls frequently, and occasionally the Boletus subtomentosus, affect a similar mode of growth. Of the Agarics which appear in these circles, some of the principal are Agaricus oreades, Ag. prunulus, Ag. Orcella, Ag. Georgii, Ag. personatus, and Ag. campestris. As all these feed at the expense of the grass, (by exhausting the ground that would otherwise have furnished it with the necessary supplies,) the richest vegetation in the field is generally the first to become seared. These rings (giving birth to some one species which, dying, is not unfrequently succeeded by another a little later, and this perhaps by a third, in the same order of occurrence) continue to enlarge their boundaries for a long but indefinite period.
It seems not easy to determine precisely, to the operation of what cause or causes the increase in the size of these circles from year to year should be attributed. Is it the projectile force with which the spores are disseminated all round, that has carried them so uniformly beyond the margin of the last ring as to form a concentric circle for the next of larger diameter beyond? Or is the cause to be sought underground, in the general spread of the spawn of last year in all directions outwards, but only fertile in a concentric ring beyond the site of the last crop, which had already exhausted the ground, and so rendered it incapable of supporting any new vegetable life? Or do both these causes conspire in this result? The quantity of spawn and of the spores necessarily contained in it, and the depth to which they penetrate under the surface of the soil, renders the possibility of their spreading in the latter way easily conceivable.[102]
ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF FUNGUSES.
It would be an insult to the reader’s understanding, and a most idle waste of his time, to attempt to confute such self-destroying dogmas as those of “spontaneous” or of “equivocal” generation, which last is only a clumsy équivoque expressive of the same thing: we might just as well talk of the pendulum of a clock generating the time and space in which it librated, as of dead matter spontaneously quickening and actuating those new movements of which some of its particles have become the seat; for how, in the name of common sense, can that which we assume to be dead, i. e. emphatically and totally without life, convey such purely vital phenomena as those of intus-susception and growth, which by the very supposition are no longer within itself? Life, on such an hypothesis as this, ceases to be the opposite and antagonist principle to death, of which it then becomes but a different mode and a new phasis. It is not the incomprehensibility of such a notion (be it well understood) against which the objection lies, for as life begins and ends in mystery, that would be no objection; it lies in the rashness of attempting to solve an admitted mystery, by placing a palpable absurdity in its room; vainly and irreverently arrogating to itself the honours of a discovery which we are to believe if we can! At this rate, addled eggs, abandoned by the vital principle, might take to hatching themselves! A more legitimate and very interesting subject for inquiry is, whether those funguses which are parasitical (i. e. derive their support from the structures whence they emanate) are so many separate constituents of a superior life under analysis, or each of itself a new individual? In support of the first view, it is urged that since reproduction in such lower existences is nothing but a modification of nutrition, a new process might well originate from its perversion, and thus give rise to new products; and just as the change in the ordinary nutrition of our bodily organs is prone to give birth to various local disorganizations or morbid growths, such, it is argued, might be the origin of fungoid growth on trees. But then comes the difficulty: such a view does not, and plainly cannot, explain the development of the not parasitical kinds, of which the origin should be the same; no, nor even of all that live by suction at the expense of other plants, since there are as many kinds which quicken in dead and decaying structures, as there are that issue out of decrepit and living ones; here, then, it is plain that perverted nutrition can have nothing to do with their production, for in this case nutrition has, by the supposition, ceased; and to talk of disease after death would be a strange figure of speech indeed! An elm or oak is frequently dead five, seldom less than three, years before these parasitical growths make their appearance, from which it would appear to follow that seeds are not developed by, but that they must be extraneous to, and independent of, any pathological relation of the plant from which they grow. If then fungus life be not to be sought for, and cannot with propriety be said to originate in any morbid conditions of the tissues from which they spring, whence do they derive life—in other words, whence in every instance comes that particular seed which, when quickened, is to produce after its kind? Lies this dormant for a season in those dead and decaying tissues, which a little later the plant originating from it is destined to embellish; or is the living germ first brought to them by the winds, and merely deposited on their surface, as in a fitting nidus on which their future development is to be effected? Some writers take one view, some another. Many believe the seeds of funguses to come directly from the earth,[103] and to be drawn up with the sap, which, as it penetrates throughout the tissues of the plant, must carry the seeds also along with it. That such is actually sometimes the case is certain, since we can not only plant parasitical blights of a particular kind so as to infect particular plants, but may also by digging a trench between those that have already become diseased, and those that are still healthy, stay the progress of the blight—thus clearly establishing not only the fact of seeds, but also the highly interesting additional one, of their ascent into the structures of plants by intus-susception; and to arrive at a general view from these particular cases, this would seem to be the usual mode of their propagation. Neither does it make against this view nor is it more in favour of the other, which supposes the germs to be derived primarily from the air, and to be thence precipitated on the structures where they grow, that funguses are found on organizations in decay, on withered boughs, and on seared leaves, out of which all sap must of course have been long ago exsiccated; for what then? though the sap does, the seeds do not, evaporate with it. These, once absorbed and diffused during the lifetime of the plant throughout its whole economy, remain there in a state of potential activity, ready to burst forth and germinate whenever the necessary conditions for these wonderful changes shall be presented to them, just as though the seeds of corn now flourishing in different parts of England, had first existed for some thousand years as mummy wheat, potentially and unquickened. Nothing perishes in nature: “destructio unius matrix alterius;” life may change titles, but never becomes extinct; so soon as the more perfect plant dies, a host of other vegetable existences, hitherto enthralled by laws of an organization superior to their own, now that the connection has been dissevered, put forth their separate energies, and severally assert their independence. The poplar may have perished, root, stem, and branch, but its extinction is only the signal for other existences, which had been heretofore bound up and hid within its own, to assert themselves; and accordingly a Polyporus sprouts out here; here a Thelephora embellishes the dead bark; and here an Agaric springs out of the decaying fibres of its head: these in turn also decay, but as they moulder away they languish into a new kind of fungous life, of an inferior type to the last, as if their own vitality were inferior in kind to that of the decayed poplar, whence they lately issued.[104] Thus, since the seeds of funguses actually exist in great quantity in other plants, and since they occur in the closed interior of fruits and in corollas which are still in their envelopes (in either case out of the reach of the external air); since finally, the Pietra funghaia, which produces a Polyporus unknown to England, may be, notwithstanding, made to germinate in England by furnishing the stone with adequate supplies of water and of heat, that seems the more tenable hypothesis of the two, which, in every case, supposes the nidus of the fungus to furnish the seed, and the atmosphere, the conditions necessary for its quickening. How the seed is first made to quicken is another and most interesting question, still evolved in mystery. As there is no ocular evidence to be obtained of the usual organs of sex, some mycologists have separated funguses from the family of the clandestinely married Cryptogamia, to place them with the Agamia, which repudiate the marriage tie;[105] but as every argument from ignorance is unsafe, (and such would appear to be particularly the case here, when we consider how many things undoubtedly exist, which the imperfection of lenses and the circumscribed power of the eye prevent our seeing,) we should rather make use of what is displayed to us in the economy of other plants, in the way of analogy as applied to these, than deny what is likely, merely because it is not an object of sense. It would appear then, from what has been stated, that certain funguses are produced like other plants, from seeds; and more likely at least, in the parasitic kinds, that such seeds are derived by the plant which supports them from the ground, than deposited from the atmosphere. Before we proceed to the description of species, a few more words remain to be said about these spores, and a brief notice to be taken of those parts that are essential to all, and more especially of such as are characteristic of those higher forms of funguses which are the more immediate subject of the present work.
SPORES OR SEEDS.
All funguses have not seeds,—at least, seeds apparent to us;[106] but if we reflect that these, even where visible, can do no more than present to our senses the visible tabernacle of that life which is still invisible, and which, not being material, must ever elude our search,[107] then it will not appear so difficult to conceive that the apparently seedless threads of some particular moulds should include, in their interior, vital germs of some sort, which, being homogeneous with, or of the same colour as, the parenchyma of the mould itself, are invisible—just as we know them to be for a season in puff-balls, in the veins of truffles, or in the Agyrium, the receptacle of which last breaks up, when ripe, into sporidia, which then and not till then become manifest. The seeds of funguses are called spores: in the great majority of cases, the microscope, which brings their shapes under observation (for to the naked eye they appear as dust), presents them to us as round, oval, oblong, or even angular corpuscules, and, more rarely still, echinulate or with a tail. They are as various in size as in shape, the first bearing no proportion whatever to the dimensions of the future plant. They vary, too, greatly in colour, being sometimes of a pure white, and continuing so throughout the whole of their seminal existence; at other times, the white acquires a yellow tinge on drying. Some are brown, some yellow, some pink, some purple, some purple-black, and some pass successively from pink to purple, and from purple to purple-black.[108] These seeds or spores are sometimes naked, but are much more commonly shut up in little pouches or receptacles, either of a regular or of an irregular shape; the first are called thecæ, the latter sporanges; thecæ (which are in shape similar to the cases of the same name that used to receive the ancient εἱλίγματα, or scrolls) are small, cylindrical bodies, in which the seeds lie one over the other, as in a rouleau; they are themselves let into a receptacle (or that part of the fungus the office of which is to receive and support the reproductive organs) in a regular and symmetrical manner, and at length occupy it completely. Not all are prolific; for some, pressing upon others, cause them to abort, leaving wherever this happens, sterile thecæ, or paraphyses, between those that are fertile. Sporanges are little globose or turbinated receptacles, frequently furnished with a pedicle, in which the seeds lie without order, as they are themselves inserted symmetrically, or without order, into the receptacle. Sometimes these seeds are packed in series of fours, as in the fimetary Agarics; in other genera, as in the Helvellæ and Morels, they are stored away in series of eights. The spores, so soon as they are ripe, either drop out of the sporiferous membrane (hymenium), or, as more frequently happens, are projected from it with an elastic jerk, or else, as is the case of Agarics of a deliquescent kind, return to the earth mixed up with the black liquid into which these ultimately resolve themselves. Sometimes the whole external surface of the fungus is dusted with seed; but much more frequently they are restricted to some particular part, and either lie on the upper side, as in the Pezizæ, or on that which is beneath, as in the mushroom. The spores generally lie on the outside of the fungus, but in the puff-ball, as every one knows, they are internal, and in such prodigious quantity as sometimes entirely to fill its cavity. It is a speculation from Germany, that spores are capable of altering their forms, and that according to the accidents of climate or soil, they assume this or that type, and give rise at different times to different kinds of funguses; on which it is sufficient to remark, that while there is not the least foundation for such an hypothesis, there is in fact much evidence against it; nature acts by immutable laws and has no changelings. To appeal to experience, when did mushrooms ever spawn toadstools? When was the Pietra funghaia ever seen to bring forth anything but its own Polyporus? or the fig, the poplar, or the hazel (when singed and watered to render them prolific) exhibit any but their own particular mushroom? Spores are endowed, like other seeds, with an extraordinary vitality, which may lie dormant in them for an indefinite period; but unlike most other seeds, they seem capable of resisting the prolonged heat of boiling water, infused in which, and poured upon the ground, they are still capable of producing each after its kind. The specific gravity of spores is greater than that of water, as may be seen by placing a mushroom over a glass which contains it, when, falling upon the surface, they presently subside to the bottom. These spores sometimes merely multiply without any further progress in development; sometimes they proceed a certain way only, and then, the conditions necessary for their further advance failing, this is arrested; sometimes, as in the Sistotrema, the plant appears twice under a perfect form, being for part of its existence a Hydnum, and during the other half a Boletus; but, generally speaking, these minute corpuscular bodies are destined to receive an infinite variety of protean and imperfect forms, and to pass stage by stage, and step by step, to the full attainment of that ultimate one which they assume when their growth has reached its natural limits. Sometimes the spore expands outright into a puff-ball; sometimes it shoots up straight into a club, as in some of the Clavarias; or lies like a bowl, resupinate on the ground and stalkless, as in the Peziza; in other cases, it assumes the more perfect but much less simple forms of Chanterelle, Boletus, Dædalea, Morel, or Mushroom.
DEVELOPMENT OF SEEDS.
The mode in which the organs immediately containing the seeds are formed, differs according to the family. In the tribe of puff-balls, where the seed is formed in the interior of the fungus, there is no hymenium; a few of the internal cells (when the Lycoperdon has attained its full size) begin to enlarge, and these in a short time are found to contain small granules, generally of a determinate number, and moistened by a fluid secreted from within the walls. In such funguses as have an hymenium it is only some of the superficial cells, and these in a particular position in reference to the receptacle, that contain seeds; though perfect identity of structure throughout, is evinced in a conclusive manner if we invert the head of a young fungus on its stalk; for then these thecæ begin to form and to fill themselves with seed, not on the side where they were about to do so previous to this inversion of the head, but on that which was the uppermost and sterile surface, and which, now that it is the undermost, has become prolific. The expansion of a fungus, according to Vittadini, is effected as follows:—“These thecæ,” of which we have been speaking, “as they swell, become distended with the contained seed, and mostly so at their free extremity, since they have more room for expansion in that direction than at the other, which is impacted into the substance of the pileus; in consequence of this, a series of wedges are formed which, as the seed continues to distend them, force out the pileus, loosen its marginal connections with the stalk, uncurl its involuted borders, and finally open up its cells, pores, and sinuses.”[109]
In those subterranean funguses which mature their seeds below the surface of the ground, the lower portion, so soon as this is accomplished in the upper, suddenly takes to grow upwards, carrying along with it the bag, which, on reaching the surface of the ground, bursts its envelopes and scatters its prolific dust to the winds. All funguses, as has already been observed, have in all probability spores, though in a few instances, of byssoid growths, (Hyphas, Himantias, and Æthelias,) these are not apparent; in most cases too, they are attached to an hymenium, into which, or on the surface of which, they are placed till ripe. One very large tribe, by far the largest, are called Hymenomycetes, from ὑμήν, a membrane, and μύκος, a fungus; i. e. funguses with a seed membrane: to distinguish them from those other kinds, very small numerically in proportion to themselves, Gasteromycetes, in which the seeds, arranged and stored away in particular receptacles, named sporanges or thecæ, are with them included in the belly (γαστήρ) of the fungus, as is the case in truffles and puff-balls. The hymenium, like that curiously doubled-down sheet of paper which conjurors turn into so many shapes, assumes a great variety of forms; running down the gills of the mushrooms and the plaits of the Cantharellus, up into the tubes of the Boletuses; sheathing the vegetable teeth of Hydna, forming an intricate labyrinth of anastomosing plates in Dædalea; now rising into little rough eminences on the surface of the Thelephoræ, and now affording a smooth investment to that of the Clavariæ. It is covered with a veil, which disappears so soon as the spores begin to ripen, and its protection is no longer required; seen under the microscope, it appears to be wholly made up of thecæ.
SUCCESSIVE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SPORES.
When the spore is to cease to be a spore, and to become a mushroom, the first thing it does is to send forth certain cotton-like filaments, whose interfacings entangle it completely while they also serve to attach it to the place of its birth; these threads (like the spongioles attached to the roots of phænogamous plants, whose name sufficiently explains their office) absorb and bring nourishment to the quickened spore, which then maintains itself entirely by intus-susception. All this takes place before the germ has burst, or the embryo fungus begun to develope its organs. In some instances, these elementary threads are, like the ordinary roots of plants, spread out to a considerable distance underground, forming here and there in their course small bulbs or tubercles, each of which, in turn, becomes a new individual; in others, and more commonly, these spores are sprinkled about unconnectedly, as in the Pietra funghaia, affecting certain spots only, which become so many small matrices whereof each furnishes a crop. The union of many germinating granules together with their connecting threads, constitutes mushroom spawn, or, as it is technically called, carcytes.[110] Examined a short time after quickening, the spore is found to have swelled out into a fleshy kernel; which in puff-balls, truffles, and the uterine subterranean families generally, constitutes of itself the whole fungus; this only grows in size afterwards, the substance and original form remaining the same through the entire period of development. In those destined to live under the influence of air and light, this same rudimental nucleus gradually evolves new parts, and assumes, as we have seen, a vast variety of forms, (whereof each particular one is predetermined by the original bias imprinted upon every spore at its creation,) and here there is a manifest analogy with the progressive development of new parts in the higher plants. In such funguses as are wrapped up in a volva or bag, during the earliest period of growth, this furnishes them not only with the means of protection, but of nourishment also. This volva, which is formed by the mere swelling out of the original fleshy bulb, when it has grown to a certain size, exhibits towards its centre the rudiments of the young fungus; of which the receptacle appears first, and all the other parts in succession. The embryo, next taking to grow, in its turn approaches the circumference of the volva, which, having by this time ceased to expand, is burst open, and sometimes with much violence, by the emerging Amanite. As soon as the hymenium has parted with its seed, which falls from it in the form of fine dust, the fungus, collapsing, either withers on its stem, or else dissolves into a black liquid and so escapes to the earth. In such funguses as have not a volva, the basilar or primary nucleus shoots up at once in the form of a cone, and a little later presents at its apex the rudiments of a receptacle or head; by degrees, and frequently by slow degrees,[111] the perfected structures of the plant are elaborated and spread themselves out into some of the forms mentioned above, of which the clavate is the most simple, and that with gills the most complex. The primary nucleus is formed out of simple cellular membrane, the cells of which, at first elongating, and at length uniting into little bundles, assume a fibrous appearance; sometimes these fascicular bodies effuse themselves unchanged into the substance of the receptacle, in which they spread out and are lost; at others, a transverse line makes the demarcation between the pileus and stem.[112] The last part formed in a fungus, generally, is that which bears the seed; and whenever an exception to this occurs, and the seed is formed at an earlier period than usual, nature has in this case provided three membranes, to cover and protect these delicate organs till the plant shall have attained maturity: these are the ring (annulus), the veil (velum), and the wrapper (volva).
OF THE ANNULUS, THE VELUM, AND THE VOLVA.
Of these involucra the first two are partial, the other universal. The Volva is a thick membranaceous covering, originating at the base of the fungus, which it thus connects with the earth, and furnishes, during its fœtal life, with the means of support and nourishment. When this has ceased, and the plant has quitted its wrapper, if this still adhere to the base of the stalk, it is styled manifest (manifesta), but if there be no traces of it left, obliterated (obliterata). It is free when it can be easily detached, and congenital when it cannot without laceration. In funguses with bulbous roots it is congenital, in those without bulbs it is free. All funguses that have a volva are of course volvati, but as this organ exists in many only so long as they are underground, mycologists are agreed to restrict the term to such alone as retain it afterwards.
The Ring.—This, which differs considerably in form, substance, and in its attachments, is composed either of a continuous sheet of membrane or else of a number of delicately-spun threads, resembling a spider’s web,[113] which in either case passing from the margin of the pileus to the corresponding upper portion of the stem, give way as the plant expands, and either festoon for a season the margin of the cap, or encircle the stalk with a ring. The marginal remains of the Annulus are extremely fugacious, but the ring round the stalk, though generally transitory, is sometimes persistent; it is superior or descending when originating from the summit of the stem, it descends outwards and downwards to form connections with the rim of the pileus; inferior or ascending when, coming off from that portion of the stalk which is below the pileus, it ascends to attach itself to this. In a few cases the ring is partly membranaceous and partly composed of radiating arachnoid threads.
The Veil.—Some funguses not only present the ring just mentioned, their hymenium or seed membrane being further protected from harm by a second investment, the veil, Velum, the stalk origin of which, when existing in conjunction with an annulus, is below it, but when the fungus is not annulate, the velum rises higher up on the stalk, stretches across to meet and is afterwards reflected over the whole surface of the pileus; on the expansion of the Agaric this investment is entirely broken up, and exhibits those well-known flocks, which have been called by the learned verrucæ, but which, as they are generally of a dirty leprous hue, and affect more or less of a circular arrangement, have procured for this whole tribe of Amanites in Italy the uncomely epithet of tignosi, or scald-heads. Where there has been both a volva and a velum, as sometimes happens in the same fungus, these verrucæ are of different colours according as they are remnants of the first merely, or of both together.[114] The velum in the subgenus Limacium is a slimy coating adhering to the head of the fungus, which then looks as if it had been dipped in gum mucilage; this generally disappears after a time, leaving the epidermis dry, though sometimes, like the solid membranaceous veil, it is more or less persistent. The waxy covering on the pileus of the Ag. virescens, which after a time cracks and tessellates its surface, is only an exudation limited to the upper portion of the cap, and not a veil.
The Stalk.—This, which is absent in many parasitical funguses of the Order Pileati, when present, either effuses itself uninterruptedly into the substance of the pileus, which it then, in fact, forms, or else supports merely as on a pillar, a distinct line of demarcation showing where the fibres terminate. It assumes a great variety of forms, which serve in many instances to characterize species; besides which peculiarities there are others to be noted, as the mode of its insertion into the pileus, its having or not having a ring, the circumstance of its being scabrous, glossy, or tomentose, reticulated, spotted, or striped, of one colour above and another below, or of its changing colour when bruised, any of which may sometimes assist our diagnosis.
The Pileus.—By far the larger number of funguses mentioned in this work have a pileus, or cap; all such belong to the first great tribe Pileati; they include the genera Agaricus, Boletus, Cantharellus, Morchella, Hydnum, Fistulina, and Polyporus, each of which furnishes its quota of alimentary species, together with many others not esculent. The form of the pileus, like that of the stalk, is various in these different genera, besides being variable in the different species of the same genus; generally it assumes an orbicular or umbrella shape, especially in such funguses as grow solitary on the ground, whilst in others, parasitical on trees, (particularly when they have no stalk,) it is more or less of a half-hemisphere.
The Gills.—Those vertical plates on the under surface of the mushroom, 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.