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

Plant 2–3 in. high. Stem 4–5 lines thick, the volva ¾ of an in. in diameter, the pileus sometimes half as long as the stem.

Growing on the ground in fields and gardens. Morgan.

North Carolina, Curtis; South Carolina, Ravenel; New England, Wright; New York, Howe, Gerard, Peck.

In the remaining genera, Clathrus, Simblum, Laternea, no species have been reported as tested.

FAMILY II.—LYCOPERDA´CEÆ.

Peridium sessile, usually with a more or less thickened base or sometimes stipitate, at maturity filled with a dusty mass of mingled threads and spores.

This order contains many of our most delicious and important food species. The characteristics of all genera are given. In several of them no species are reported edible, but it is more than probable that all are. The genera are therefore given in this table, but are omitted in place to save room. The omitted genera are Nos. 1, Polyplocium; 2, Batarrea; 3, Myriostoma; 5, Astreus; 6, Mitremyces.

TABLE OF GENERA OF LYCOPERDACEÆ.

I.—VOLVATÆ.

Outer peridium a thick, firm, persistent coat, bursting irregularly or splitting from the apex downward into segments.