The Mushroom, Edible and Otherwise Part 48

I found some beautiful specimens in George Mosher's icehouse. I am very sorry I did not photograph them.

_Volvaria. Fr._

The spores of this genus are regular, oval, rosy-spored. The veil is universal, forming a perfect volva, distinct from the cuticle of the pileus. The stem is easily separable from the pileus. The gills are free, rounded behind, at first white, then pink, soft. Most of the species grow on wood. Some on damp ground, rich mold, in gardens, and in hot-houses. One is a parasite on c.l.i.tocybe nebularis and monadelphus.

_Volvaria bombycina. (Pers.) Fr._

THE SILKY VOLVARIA. EDIBLE.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate XXIX. Figure 191.--Volvaria bombycina.

The egg form of the V. bombycina showing the universal veil or volva bursting at the apex. These are unusually large specimens.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 192.--Volvaria bombycina. Two-thirds natural size.

Entire plant white and silky.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 193.--Volvaria bombycina. Two-thirds natural size, showing the gills, which are pink, then dark-brown.]

Bombycina is from _bombyx_, _silk_. This plant is so called because of the beautiful silky l.u.s.tre of the entire plant. The pileus is three to eight inches broad, globose, then bell-shaped, finally convex and somewhat umbonate, white, the entire surface silky, in older specimens more or less scaly, sometimes smooth at the apex. The flesh is white and not thick.

The gills are free, very crowded, broad, ventricose, flesh-colored, not reaching the margin, toothed. The stem is three to six inches long, tapering upward, solid, smooth, the tough volva remaining like a cup at the base. The spores are rosy in ma.s.s, smooth, and elliptical. The volva is large, membranaceous, somewhat viscid.

The plant in Figure 192 was found August 16th, on a maple tree where a limb had been broken, on North High Street, Chillicothe. Many people had pa.s.sed along and enjoyed the shade of the trees but its discovery remained for Miss Marian Franklin, whose eyes are trained to see birds, flowers, and everything beautiful in nature.

I have found the plant frequently about Chillicothe, usually solitary; but on one occasion I found three specimens upon one trunk, apparently growing from the same mycelial ma.s.s. The caps of two of them were each five inches across. It usually grows on maple and beech. If you will observe a hollow beech, or sugar snag of which one side is broken away, leaving the sheltered yet open nestling place, you are very likely to find snugly enscounced in its decaying heart one or more specimens of these beautiful silky plants. The volva is quite thick and frequently the plant, when in the egg state, has the appearance of a phalloid.

Found from June to October.

_Volvaria umbonata. Peck._

THE UMBONATE VOLVARIA.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 194.--Volvaria umbonata. Two-thirds natural size.

Entire plant white and silky.]

Umbonata, having an umbo or conical projection like the boss of a s.h.i.+eld. This plant is quite common on the richly manured lawns of Chillicothe. I have found it from June to October. The pileus is white or whitish, sometimes grayish, often smoky on the umbo; globose when young, bell-shaped, plane when fully expanded, umbonate, smooth; slightly viscid when moist, s.h.i.+ning when dry, inch to an inch and a half broad. The flesh is white and very soft.

The gills are free, white at first, then from flesh-color to a reddish hue from the rosy-colored spores; some of the gills are dimidiate, somewhat crowded, broader in the middle.

The stem is two inches to two and a half long, tapering from the base up, smooth, cylindrical, hollow and firm. The volva is always present, free, variously torn, white and sometimes grayish.

The entire plant is silky when dry. I have found it growing in my buggy shed. It is not abundant, though quite common. I have never eaten it, but I do not doubt its edibility.

_Volvaria pusilla. Pers._

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 195.--Volvaria pusilla.]

The pileus is explanate, white, fibrillose, dry, striate, center slightly depressed when mature.

The gills are white, becoming flesh-color, from the color of the spores, free, distant.

The stem is white, smooth, volva split to the base into four nearly equal segments. The spores are broadly elliptical, 5-6 mc.

This is the smallest species of the Volvaria. It grows on the ground among the weeds and is apt to escape the attention of the collector unless he knows its habitat. It is quite likely that V. parvula is the same plant as this. Also V. temperata, although it has a different habitat, seems to be very near this species. The plants in Figure 195 were collected in Michigan and photographed by Dr. Fischer. The volva is brown-tipped as shown in the figure given.

_Volvaria volvacea. Bull._

THE STOVE VOLVARIA.

It is called "The Stove Volvaria" because it has been found in old unused stoves. Pileus fleshy, soft, bell-shaped, then expanded, obtuse, virgate, with adpressed black fibrils. The gills are free, flesh-colored, and inclined to deliquesce. The stem is solid, subequal, white. The volva loose, whitish. The spores are smooth, elliptical.

This is a much smaller plant than the V. bombycina and grows in the ground. It is often found in hot-houses and cellars.

_Entoloma. Fr._

Entoloma is from two Greek words; _entos_, within; _loma_, a fringe, referring to the inner character of the veil, which is seldom even apparent. The members of this genus have rosy spores which are prominently angular. There is neither volva, nor annulus. The gills are attached to the stem or notched near the junction of the gills and the stem. The pileus is fleshy and the margin incurved, especially when young. The stem is fleshy, fibrous, sometimes waxy, continuous with the pileus. It corresponds with Hypholoma, Tricholoma, and Hebeloma. It can always be separated from the rosy-spored genera by the notched gills.

The flesh-colored spores and gills distinguish the Entoloma from the Hebeloma, which has ochre-spored ones, and Tricholoma, which has white ones.

All the species, so far as I know, have rather a pleasant odor, and for that reason it is highly necessary that the genus and species should be thoroughly known, as they are all dangerous.

_Entoloma rhodopolium. Fr._

THE ROSE-GRAY ENTOLOMA.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 196.--Entoloma rhodopolium. Three-fourths natural size.]

Rhodopolium is composed of two Greek words, rose and gray.

The pileus is two to five inches broad, hygrophanous; when moist dingy-brown or livid, becoming pale when dry, isabelline-livid, silky-s.h.i.+ning; slightly fleshy, bell-shaped when young, then expanded and somewhat umbonate, or gibbous, at length rather plane and sometimes depressed; fibrillose when young, smooth when full grown; margin at first bent inwards and when large, undulated. Flesh white.

The gills adnate, then separating, somewhat sinuate, slightly distant, broad, white, then rose color.

The stem is two to four inches long, hollow; equal when smaller, when larger, attenuated upward; white pruinate at the apex, otherwise smooth; slightly striate, white, often reddish from spores. Spores 8-106-8.

_Fries_.

The plant is found in mixed woods and is rather common. Captain McIlvaine reports it edible, but I have never eaten any of the Entolomas. Some of them have a bad reputation. Found in September and October.

_Entoloma grayanum. Pk._

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 197.--Entoloma grayanum. One-half natural size.]