The Mushroom, Edible and Otherwise Part 27

_Omphalia alboflava. Moy._

THE GOLDEN-GILLED OMPHALIA.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 100.--Omphalia alboflava. Cap yellowish-brown, sometimes a greenish tinge. Gills golden yellow.]

Alboflava is from two Greek words meaning whitish-yellow, from the yellow gills.

The pileus is one to two inches broad, thin, somewhat membranaceous, umbilicate, flaccid, covered with fine woolly material, yellow-brown, lighter when dry, margin reflexed.

The gills are distant, deep golden-yellow, occasionally forked.

The stem is hollow, equal, smooth, s.h.i.+ning, egg-yellow.

The spores are elliptical, 84.

This plant, is found quite frequently on decayed branches and logs about Chillicothe. I have never had the opportunity to test its edibility but I have no doubt of its being good.

The plants in Figure 100 were found in Haynes' Hollow and were photographed by Dr. Kellerman. Found from July to October.

_Marasmius. Fr._

_Marasmius is a Greek participle meaning withered or shriveled_; it is so called because the plant will wither and dry up, but revive with the coming of rain.

The spores are white and subelliptical. The pileus is tough and fleshy or membranaceous.

The stem is cartilaginous and continuous with the pileus, but of a different texture. The gills are thick, rather tough and distant, sometimes unequal, variously attached or free, rarely decurrent, with a sharp entire edge. It is quite a large genus and many of its species will be of great interest to the student.

_Marasmius oreades. Fr._

THE FAIRY-RING MUSHROOM. EDIBLE.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 101.--Marasmius oreades. Two-thirds natural size.]

_Oreades, mountain nymphs._ Pileus is fleshy, tough and pliable when moist, brittle when dry, convex, becoming flat, somewhat umbonate, brownish-buff at first, becoming cream-color; when old it is usually quite wrinkled.

The gills are broad and wide apart, creamy or yellowish, rounded at the stem end, unequal in length.

The stem is solid, equal, tough, fibrous, naked and smooth at base, everywhere with a downy surface. The spores are white, 85.

To my mind there is no more appetizing mushroom than the "Fairy Ring"

mushroom. Figure 101 will give an accurate notion of the plant and Figure 102 will show how they grow in the gra.s.s. It is found in all parts of Ohio. Every old pasture field or lawn will be full of these rings. The plant is small but its plentifulness will make up for its size.

There are many conjectures why this and many other mushrooms grow in a circle. The explanation is quite obvious. The ring is started by a clump or an individual mushroom. The ground where the mushroom grew is rendered unfit for mushrooms again, the spores fall upon the ground and the mycelium spreads out from this point, consequently each year the ring is growing larger. Sometimes they appear only in a crescent form.

One can tell, by looking over a lawn or pasture, where the rings are, because, from the decay of the mushroom, the gra.s.s is greener and more vigorous there.

Long ago, in England and Ireland, before the peasantry had begun to question the reality of the existence of the fairy folk and their beneficent interference in the affairs of life, these emerald-hued rings were firmly believed to be due to the fairy footsteps which nightly pressed their chosen haunts, and to mark the "little people's" favorite dancing ground. "They had always fine music among themselves, and danced in a moons.h.i.+ny night around or in a ring, as one may see to this day upon every common in England where mushrooms grow," quaintly says one old writer. And the Rev. Gerard Smith still further voices the belief of the people as to the nature of these gra.s.sy rings:

"The nimble elves That do by moons.h.i.+ne green sour ringlets make, Whereof the ewe bites not; whose pastime 'tis To make these midnight mushrooms."

It is a very common plant, and it will pay any one to know it, as we cannot find anything in the markets that will equal it as a table delicacy.

Found in pastures and lawns during rainy weather from May till frost.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 102.--Marasmius oreades. Showing a fairy ring.]

_Marasmius urens. Fr._

THE STINGING MARASMIUS.

Urens means burning; so called from its acrid taste.

The pileus is pale-buff, tough, fleshy, convex or flat, becoming depressed and finally wrinkled, smooth, even, one to two inches broad.

The gills are unequal, cream-colored, becoming brownish, much closer than in the Fairy Ring, hardly reaching the stem proper, joined behind.

The stem is solid above and hollow below, fibrous, pale, its surface more or less covered with flocculent down, and densely covered with white down at the base.

It will be well for collectors to pa.s.s by this and M. peronatus, or to exercise the greatest caution in their use. They have been eaten without harm, but they also have so long been branded as poisonous that too great care cannot be taken. Its taste is acrid, and it grows in lawns and pastures from June to September.

_Marasmius androsaceus. Linn._

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 103.--Marasmius androsaceus. Natural size.]

Androsaceus is from a Greek word which means an unidentified sea plant or zoophyte.

The pileus is three to six lines broad, membranaceous, convex, with a slight depression, pale-reddish, darker in the center, striate, smooth.

The gills are attached to the stem, frequently quite simple and few in number, about fifteen, with shorter ones between, sometimes forked, whitish.

The stem is one to two inches long, h.o.r.n.y, filiform, hollow, quite smooth, black, often twisted when dry. The spores are 73-4.

This is a very attractive little plant found on the leaves in the woods after a rain. They are quite abundant. Found from July to October.

_Marasmius foetidus. Sow._

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 104.--Marasmius foetidus.]

Foetidus means stinking or foetid.

The pileus is submembranaceous, tough, convex, then expanded, umbilicate striato-plicate, turning pale when dry, subpruinose.

The gills are annulato-adnexed, distant, rufescent with a yellow tinge.