Toadstools, mushrooms, fungi, edible and poisonous; one thousand American fungi / How to select and cook the edible; how to distinguish and avoid the poisonous, with full botanic descriptions. Toadstool poisons and their treatment, instructions to students, recipes for cooking, etc., etc.

by Charles McIlvaine; Robert K. Macadam

Gr—many; a passage, pore.

Pileus fleshy, moist, tough, becoming harder in age, internally composed of radiating fibers; the spore-bearing surface is within passages or pores which are made by the descending substance of the pileus forming the dissepiments or separating walls, hence they are not easily separable from the pileus or from one another. The pores not appearing at first, then becoming rounded, angular or torn. They form a distinct strata. Stem central, eccentric, lateral or absent.

With few exceptions growing from wood. Section Merisma contains species which are conspicuous among fungi for their size and beauty.

The majority of this genus are unedible, because of their being woody, tough or bitter. Few of the edible species are of the first class.

Excellent dishes are made by stewing the species well, serving them in patties or in croquettes. The cooking of P. intybaceus is a guide to all.

ANALYSIS OF TRIBES.

I.—Mesopus. (Gr—middle; a foot.) Page [479].

Stem single, distinct, central or eccentric; not black at the base.

II.—Pleuropus. (Gr—the side; a foot.) Page [480].

Stem single, lateral or eccentric; base black.