THE FLOWERLESS PLANTS
In a walk of less than two miles in a wet summer, may be found twenty different kinds of fungi—some no larger than a pea, some eight inches in diameter. They may be round, oval, flat, cup-shaped, horn-shaped, cushion-shaped, saucer-shaped; they are snow-white, gray, tan, yellow, lavender, orange, dark brown, pink, crimson, purple, and variously mottled, scaly or smooth as with varnish. Placed on a large platter among dark green mosses, they will be, for one day, a magnificent collection.
One large, egg-shaped variety, growing in pairs, is of a purple shade, very solid, and when broken open seems filled with glittering matter like iron or steel filings. Another tan-colored, plum-shaped fungus, firm and smooth, is of a nearly royal purple within.
September is a good month for the study of fungi, especially after the early fall rains, when the woods and pastures will be found well-filled, not only with brilliant, useless, or poisonous varieties, but with delicious edible kinds. Popularly, people call the edible specimens “mushrooms,” and the rest “toadstools,” the number of poisonous or of edible instances so named depending rather upon the amount of knowledge of the collector than upon the real qualities of the fungi, for many denominate as “toadstools” what others know to be an excellent food.
Many varieties not usually eaten are wholesome, and many which human beings reject, other animals thrive upon. One large, brown “toadstool” of the woods is, at this season of the year, the chief food of that epicure, the wood-tortoise.
In general a fungus may be defined as a thallophyte without any chlorophyl or leaf-green in its composition. Among the brilliant colors displayed by fungi no green or blue can be found.
The most popular and most useful fungus is the table mushroom. This rarely ever grows in the woods, in shade, on wet lands, or on decaying stumps. It prefers the open, breezy, well-sunned pastures, where the grass is kept short by the grazing of sheep or cattle. Early in the morning or shortly before sunset, the dainty white or cream-colored buttons, borne on snow-white stalks, push up through the soil and gradually expand until the discs are flat or slightly convex. From two to six inches is the diameter, seldom more than three.
Varieties of the pasture mushroom are few and can readily be learned. The mushroom is composed of stem and cap; the stem is finger-shaped, with the roundish end in the earth. About half way up is usually a ring of the covering skin, where, in the button shape, the veil of the mushroom was attached.
This veil extends over the cap and is left at the edge of a little frill; it can be easily stripped off. Under the veil the flesh is ivory-white, and is smooth and firm.
The under side of the cap is laid in plaits, called gills, from their resemblance to fish gills. They never grow fast to, or down upon, the stem, usually stopping short off, about one-tenth of an inch from its juncture with the cap. Mushrooms are cultivated in gardens or cellars. They grow from spores or little finger-like lengths, called spawn, which are produced by the spores. Mushrooms turn black or purplish after the first twenty hours of growth. When the gills have taken this dark hue, the mushroom is unfit to eat.