The Mushroom, Edible and Otherwise Part 101

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 435.--Peziza floccosa. Natural size.]

This is a beautiful plant growing upon partially decayed logs. I have always found it upon hickory logs. The cap is cup-shaped, very much like a beaker. The stem is long and slender, rather woolly; the rim of the cap is fringed with long, strigose hairs. The inner surface of the cup represents the spore-bearing portion.

The inside and the rim of the cup are very beautiful, being variegated with deep scarlet and white. Also called Sarcoscypha floccosa.

The plant is found from June to September.

_Peziza occidentalis._

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 436.--Peziza occidentalis. Natural size.]

This is another very showy plant, quite equal in attractiveness to P.

floccosa and P. coccinea.

The cup is infundibuliform, the outside as well as the stem whitish, and downy, the bowl or disk is reddish-orange. This is known by some authors as Sarcoscypha occidentalis. It grows on rotten sticks upon the ground.

May and June.

_Peziza nebulosa. Cooke._

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 437.--Peziza nebulosa.]

Nebulosa means cloudy or dark, from _nebula_, a cloud; from its color.

Ascoph.o.r.e stipitate, rather fleshy, closed at first, then cup-shaped, becoming somewhat plane, the margin slightly incurved, externally pilose or downy, pale gray or sometimes quite dark.

Asci are cylindrical; spores spindle-shaped, straight or bow-shaped, rough, 35-8; paraphyses thread-shaped.

These plants are found on decayed stumps or logs in the wood. The woods where I have found them have been rather dense and damp. The plants in Figure 437 were found in Haynes' Hollow and photographed by Dr.

Kellerman.

_Urnula craterium. (Schw.) Fr._

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 438.--Urnula craterium. Two-thirds natural size.]

Urnula means burned; craterium means a small crater; hence the translation is a burned-out crater, which will appear to the student as a very appropriate name. It is a very common and conspicuous Ascomycetous, or cup fungus, growing in cl.u.s.ters on rotten sticks that lie in moist places. When the plants first appear they are small, black stems with scarcely any evidence of a cup. In a short time the end of the stem shows evidence of enlargement, showing lines of separation on the top. It soon opens and we have the cup as you see it in Figure 438.

The hymenium, or spore bearing surface, is the interior wall of the cup.

The cup is lined inside with a palisade of long cylindrical sacs, each containing eight spores with a small amount of liquid. These sacs are at right angles to the inner surface, and are provided with lids similar to that of a coffee-pot; at maturity the lid is forced open and the spores are shot out of these sacs, and, by jarring the fungus when it is ready to make the discharge, they can be seen as a little cloud an inch or two above the cup. Place a small slip of gla.s.s over the cup and you will see spores in groups of eight in very small drops of liquid on the gla.s.s.

This species appears in April and May, and is certainly a very interesting plant. It is called by some Peziza craterium, Schw.

_Helotium. Fr._

Disc always open, at first punctiform, then dilated, convex or concave, naked. Excipulum waxy, free, marginate, externally naked.

_Helotium citrinum. Fr._

LEMON-COLORED HELOTIUM.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 439.--Helotium citrinum. Disc-fungus, yellow growing on rotten logs. Slightly magnified.]

This is a beautiful little Disc-fungus, yellow, growing upon rotten logs in damp woods. They often grow in dense cl.u.s.ters; a beautiful lemon-yellow, the head being plane or concave, with a short, thick, paler stem, forming an inverted cone. Asci elongated, narrowly cylindrical, attenuated at the base into a long, slender, crooked pedicel, 8-spored.

Sporidia oblong, elliptical, with two or three minute nuclei.

This is quite a common plant in our woods during wet weather or in damp places, growing upon old logs and stumps, in woods, in the fall. Figure 439 will give an idea of their appearance when in dense cl.u.s.ters. The plants photographed by Dr. Kellerman.

_Helotium lutescens. Fr._

YELLOWISH HELOTIUM.

Lutescens means yellowish. The plants are small, sessile, or attached by a very short stem; closed at first, then expanding until nearly plane; disk yellow, smooth; asci clavate, 8 spored; spores hyaline, smooth.

Gregarious or scattered. Found on half-decayed branches.

_Helotium aeruginosum. Fr._

THE GREEN HELOTIUM.

aeruginosum means verdigris-green. Gregarious or scattered, staining the wood on which they grow to a deep verdigris-green; ascoph.o.r.e at first turbinate and closed, then expanding, the margin usually wavy and more or less irregular; flexible, glabrous, even, somewhat contracted, and minutely wrinkled when dry; every part a deep verdigris-green, the disc often becoming paler with a tinge of tan color; 1-4 mm. across; stem 1-3 mm. long, expanding into the ascoph.o.r.e; hypothecium and excipulum formed of interlaced, hyaline hyphae, 3-4. thick, these becoming stouter and colored green in the cortex; asci narrowly cylindric-clavate, apex slightly narrowed, 8-spored; spores irregularly 2-seriate, hyaline or with a slight tinge of green, very narrowly cylindric-fusiform, straight or curved, 10-142.5-3.5. 2-gutullate, or with several minute green oil globules; paraphyses slender, with a tinge of green at the tip. _Ma.s.see._

Ma.s.see calls this Chlorosplenium aeruginosum, De Not. It is quite common on oak branches, staining to a deep green the wood upon which it grows.

It is widely distributed, specimens having been sent me from as far east as Ma.s.sachusetts. The mycelium-stains in the wood are met more frequently than the fruit.

_Bulgaria. Fr._

Bulgaria--probably first found in that princ.i.p.ality.

Receptacle orbicular, then truncate, glutinous within, at first closed; hymenium even, persistent, smooth.

_Bulgaria inquinans. Fr._

THE BLACKISH BULGARIA.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 440.--Bulgaria inquinans. Two-thirds natural size.]

Inquinans means befouling or polluting; so called because of the blackish, gelatinous coating of the cap.

Receptacle orbicular, closed at first, then opening, forming a cup, as shown on the right in Figure 440; disk or cup becoming plane; black, sometimes becoming lacunose; tough, elastic, gelatinous, dark-brown, or chocolate, almost black, wrinkled, and rough externally; stem very short, almost obsolete; cup light umber; sporidia large, elliptical, brown.

This plant is quite plentiful in some localities near Chillicothe. It is found in woods, on oak trunks or limbs partially decayed.