The Mushroom, Edible and Otherwise Part 58

Pediades is from a Greek word meaning a plain or a field, referring to its being found on lawns and pastures.

The pileus is somewhat fleshy, convex, then plane, obtuse or depressed, dry, finally opaque, frequently inclined to be minutely rivulose.

The gills are attached to the stem but not adnate to it, broad, subdistant, only a few entire brownish, then a dingy cinnamon.

The stem is pithy or stuffed, rather wavy and silky, yellowish, base slightly bulbous. The spores are of a brownish-rust color, 10-124-5.

If the small bulb at the base of the stem is examined, it will be found to be formed chiefly of mycelium rolled together around the base. It is found on lawns and richly manured pastures from May to November. Use only the caps. This plant is usually known as semiorbicularis.

_Naucoria paludosella. Atkinson n. sp._

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate x.x.xIII. Figure 229.--Naucoria paludosella.

Showing mode of growth, clay-brown scales on the caps.]

Paludosella is a diminutive of _palus_, gen. paludis, a swamp or marsh.

Plants six to eight cm. high; pileus two and a half to three cm. broad; stem three to four mm. thick.

Pileus viscid when moist, convex to expanded, in age somewhat depressed; clay color, darker over center, often with appressed clay brown scales with a darker color.

Gills raw umber to Mars brown (R), emarginate, adnate sometimes with a decurrent tooth, easily becoming free.

Cystidia on sides of gills none, edge of gills with large, hyaline, thin-walled cells, subventricose, sometimes nearly cylindrical, abruptly narrowed at each end with a slight sinus around the middle.

Spores subovate to subelliptical, subinequilateral, smooth, 7-94-5, fuscous ferruginous, dull ochraceous under microscope.

Stem same color as pileus but paler, cartilaginous; floccose from loose threads or, in some cases, abundant threads over the surface; becoming hollow, base bulbous, the extreme base covered with whitish mycelium.

Veil rather thick, floccose, disappearing, leaving remnant on stem and margin of pileus when fresh. _Atkinson._

Dr. Kellerman and I found this plant growing on living sphagnum, other mosses and on rotten wood on Cranberry Island, in Buckeye Lake, Ohio.

Figure 229 will ill.u.s.trate its mode of growth, and the older plant with upturned cap will show the conspicuous clay-brown scales of the pileus.

The plants are found in September and October.

_Flammula. Fr._

Flammula means a small flame; so called because many of the species have bright colors. The spores are ferruginous, sometimes light yellow. The cap is fleshy and at first usually inrolled, bright colored; veil filamentous, often wanting. The gills are decurrent or attached with a tooth. The stem is fleshy, fibrous, and of the same character as the cap.

The species of the Flammula are mostly found on wood. A few are found on the ground.

_Flammula flavida. Schaeff._

THE YELLOW FLAMMULA.

Flavida means yellow.

The pileus is fleshy, convex, expanded, plane, equal smooth, moist, margin at first inrolled.

The gills are firmly attached to the stem, yellow, turning slightly ferruginous.

The stem is stuffed, somewhat hollow, fibrillose, yellow, ferruginous at the base.

These plants are of a showy yellow, and are frequently found in our woods on decayed logs. They are found in July and August.

_Flammula carbonaria. Fr._

THE VISCID FLAMMULA.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 230.--Flammula carbonaria.]

Carbonaria is so called because it is found on charcoal or burned earth.

The pileus is quite fleshy, tawny-yellow, at first convex, then becoming plane, even, thin, viscid, margin of the cap at first inrolled, flesh yellow.

The gills are firmly attached to the stem, clay-colored or brown, moderately close.

The stem is stuffed or nearly hollow, slender, rigid, squamulose, pallid, quite short.

The spores are ferruginous-brown, elliptical, 73.5.

I have found this species quite frequently where an old stump had been burned out. It is gregarious. I have only found it from September to November but the specimens in Figure 230 were sent to me in May, from Boston. They were found in great abundance in Purgatory Swamp, where the gra.s.s and vegetation had been burned away.

_Flammula fusus. Batsch._

Fusus means a spindle; so called from the spindle-shaped stem.

The pileus is compact, convex, then expanded, even, rather viscid, reddish-tan, flesh yellowish.

The gills are somewhat decurrent, pallid yellow, becoming ferruginous.

The stem is stuffed, firm, colored like the pileus, fibrillose, striate, attenuated and somewhat fusiform, rooting. The spores are broadly elliptical, 104.

Found on well-decayed logs or on ground made up largely of decayed wood.

Found from July to October.

_Flammula fillius. Fr._

The pileus is two to three inches broad, even, smooth, with rather viscid cuticle, pale orange-red with the disc reddish.

The gills are attached to the stem, arcuate, rather crowded, white, then pallid or tawny-yellow.