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.]