Pileus not at first resupinate, lateral, prolonged without a definite margin behind, into a very short lateral, stem-like base.
Resupinati. Page [146].
Pileus resupinate from the first, then reflexed.
If any odium attaches to the word toadstool, it should be forgotten and forever banished in presence of this cleanly, neat, handsome genus, choice in its growing places from lichen-covered stumps, or bark-clad boles, or highly perched limbs, or the scented surfaces of decaying wood. Several of its species perfume themselves throughout with pleasant spicy odors. Many are most accommodating in their constant coming.
Mr. H.I. Miller, superintendent Terre Haute and Indianapolis Railroad, writes: “Most of the mushroom books give greatest space to the A. campester. For some parts of the country this may be desirable, but for Indiana and Ohio, considering the food value, the P. ostreatus is the best fungus we have in these states, from the fact that anybody wanting a mess can nearly always obtain a basketful of this variety, whereas the others depend upon a good many weather conditions. Having located a few logs and stumps in the spring, where the P. ostreatus grows, these same stumps and logs can be used all season. The crops are successive, and while some of the spots seem to be barren for a few days at a time, the others will be bearing. It does not make much difference what the kind of log or stump, whether it be beech, oak or elm, or what the species of tree. I think I have found them on all our forest trees, and it is not necessary for the tree to be dead. If there is a decaying portion, the spores seem to be carried by the little black beetle that infests the ostreatus, from one place to another, and wherever a small spot of dead wood is found we are likely to find the P. ostreatus. This being the only edible mushroom that we can find in large quantities all through the season in this neck of the woods, it seems to me that a general knowledge of it will serve the economic purpose more than any other fungi.”
The presence of the P. ostreatus and its esculent companions is noted from our northern boundary to the gulf. Poplar, maple, birch, hickory, ash, apple, laburnum and oak trees are its favored residences. Deer feed upon it, and kine are attracted by its scent even when deep under snow. When properly selected and slowly cooked, the Pleuroti are toothsome.
From the fact that the spores of this fleshy and valuable genus find fostering lodgment in many trees when in decay, it is more than probable that the several species can be propagated by planting their spores upon such decaying woods, or by transplanting the mycelium.
Growths of P. ostreatus, P. sapidus, P. salignus, and probably other species of Pleurotus, can be forced, by watering the spots upon which they are known to grow. Dr. Kalchbrenner mentions that the P. sapidus is in this way cultivated in Hungary. Acting upon this mention the writer had good success with P. ostreatus. Experiments in this direction are likely to be interesting and rewarding.
No species is suspected of being noxious.
An analysis of P. ostreatus is given by Lafayette B. Mendel, Sheffield Laboratory of Physiological Chemistry, Yale University, as follows: