Cantharellus Cibarius.
In Cantharellus the gills—vein-like and generally thick with an obtuse edge—are entirely different from those of all the preceding genera. In those they are thin, and distinct from the pileus and from each other. In Hygrophorus the gills are frequently thick, but the edge is always sharp. The species of Craterellus are funnel-shaped, resembling some of those in Cantharellus, but are distinguished by their lack of evident gills.
Monograph New York Species of Cantharellus, Peck, Bull. 1887.
The members of this genus are few, but they are choice. Of them is the Cantharellus cibarius, of which Trattinik quaintly says: “Not only this same fungus never did any one harm, but might even restore the dead.”
The writer first made its acquaintance when among the West Virginia mountains in 1881. The golden patches of single and clustered cibarius, fragrant as ripened apricots, tufting the short grass or mossy ground under beeches, oaks and like-growing trees, through which the sunlight filtered generously, were so tempting, that he determined there must be luxury, even in death, from such toadstools.
Experiments made by the writer in West Virginia where the species grows luxuriantly and is of much higher flavor than any he has found elsewhere, prove that it is easy to transplant within congenial habitats, either by the mycelium or spores. Nature, there, resorts to washing masses of leaves containing the propagating parts of the fungus along the depressions of the water-sheds, and it is found growing plentifully where the wind has drifted forest leaves against trees, brush, and fence-corners.
Grouped by F.D. Briscoe—Studies by C. McIlvaine. Plate XLVI.
| Fig. | Page. | Fig. | Page. |
| 1. Cantharellus floccosus, | [218] | 4. Cantharellus cibarius, | [215] |
| 2. Morchella esculenta, | [542] | 5. Cantharellus brevipes, | [219] |
| 3. Craterellus cantharellus, | [508] |