The Mushroom, Edible and Otherwise Part 77

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 312.--Strobilomyces strobilaceus. Two-thirds natural size.]

Strobilaceus, cone-like. This is especially emphasized from the fact that both the genus and the species are named from the fancied resemblance of the cap to a pine cone. It is ever readily recognized because of this character of the cap.

The pileus is convex, rough with dark umber scales drawn into regular cone-like points tipped with dark-brown; margin veiled, flesh grayish-white, turning red when bruised, and finally black.

Pore-surface grayish-white in young specimens, and usually covered with the veil; tubes attached to the stem, angular, turning red when bruised.

The stem is equal or tapering upward, furrowed at the top, covered with a woolly down. Spores dark-brown, 12-139. Found at Londonderry.

Common in woods. August to September.

_Boletinus. Kalchb._

Boletinus is a diminutive of Boletus.

Hymenium composed of broad radiating lamellae, connected by very numerous and narrow anastomosing branches or part.i.tions, forming large angular pores. Tubes somewhat tenacious, not easily separable from the hymenoph.o.r.e and from each other, adnate or subdecurrent, yellowish.

_Peck._

_Boletinus pictus. Pk._

THE PAINTED BOLETINUS. EDIBLE.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 313.--Boletinus pictus.]

Pictus, painted. This plant seems to delight in damp pine woods, but I have found it only occasionally about Chillicothe, under beech trees. It is readily recognized by the red fibrillose tomentum which covers the entire plant when young. As the plant expands the reddish tomentum is broken into scales of the same color, revealing the yellowish color of the pileus beneath. The flesh is compact, yellow, often changing to a dull pinkish or reddish tint where wounded.

The tube-surface is at first pale yellow, but becomes darker with age, often changing to pinkish, with a brown tinge where bruised.

The stem is solid, equal, and covered with a cottony layer of mycelium-threads like the pileus, though often paler. The spores are ochraceous, 15-186-8. The plants are two to four inches broad, and one and a half to three inches high. Found from July to October.

_Boletinus cavipes. Kalchb._

HOLLOW-STEMMED BOLETINUS. EDIBLE.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 314.--Boletinus cavipes.]

Cavipes is from two Latin words meaning a hollow stem.

The pileus is broadly convex, rather tough, flexible, soft, sub.u.mbonate, fibrillose-scaly, tawny-brown, sometimes tinged with reddish or purplish, flesh yellowish. The tubes are slightly decurrent, at first pale-yellow, then darker and tinged with green, becoming dingy-ochraceous with age. The stem is equal or slightly tapering upward, somewhat fibrillose or floccose, slightly ringed, hollow, tawny-brown or yellowish-brown, yellowish at the top and marked by the decurrent dissepiments of the tubes, white within. Veil whitish, partly adhering to the margin of the pileus, soon disappearing. The spores are 8-104. _Peck_, in Boleti of the U. S.

This plant grows in New York and the New England states, under pine and tamarack trees. The caps are convex, covered with a tawny-brown fibrillose tomentum. The stems of those I have seen are hollow from the first. The plants in Figure 314 were sent me from Ma.s.sachusetts by Mrs.

Blackford.

_Boletinus porosus._ (_Berk._) _Pk._

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 315.--Boletinus porosus. Two-thirds natural size.

Caps nut-brown, yellowish-brown or olivaceous.]

These form a small but interesting species, not usually exceeding three and a half inches in diameter nor more than two inches in height.

The cap is somewhat fleshy, nut-brown, or yellowish-brown, shading to olivaceous in color in most of the specimens which I have found; when fresh and moist, somewhat sticky and s.h.i.+ning. The margins are thin, rather even, and inclined to be involute; the shape of the cap is more or less irregular, in many cases almost kidney-shaped.

The stem is laterally attached, tough, and gradually expands into the pileus which it resembles in color; it is markedly reticulated at the top by the decurrent walls of the spore-tubes. The spore-surface is yellow, the tubes arranged in radiating rows, some being more prominent than others, the part.i.tions often a.s.suming the form of gills which branch and are connected by cross part.i.tions of less prominence. The stratum of tubes, while soft, is very tenacious, not separating from the flesh of the pileus.

The odor and taste of all the specimens found were pleasant. Found in damp woods in July and August. When a sufficient number can be found they make an excellent dish.

It is found in abundance about Chillicothe.

_Fistulina. Bull._

Fistulina means a small pipe; so called because the tubes stand close together and separate easily one from another.

The hymenoph.o.r.e is fleshy and hymenium inferior. When first seen springing from a stump or root it looks like a large strawberry. It soon develops into the appearance of a big red tongue. When young the upper side is quite velvety and peach-colored, later it becomes a livid red and loses its velvety appearance. The under surface is flesh-colored and is rough like the surface of a tongue, owing to the fact that the tubes are free from one another. When it is moist it is very viscid, making your hands quite blood-stained in appearance.

_Fistulina hepatica. Fr._

THE LIVER FUNGUS. EDIBLE.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Photo by C. G. Lloyd._

Plate XLIII. Figure 316.--Fistulina hepatica.

Beefsteak mushroom.]

This is a beautiful plant, quite common where there are chestnut stumps and trees. I have found it on chestnut oak, quite large specimens, too.

It is one of my favorite mushrooms; one cannot afford to pa.s.s it by. Its beautiful color will attract attention at once, and having once eaten it well prepared, one will never pa.s.s a chestnut stump without examining it.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 317.--Fistulina hepatica. One-half natural size.]

The pileus is fan-shaped or semicircular, red-juicy, flesh when cut somewhat mottled like beet-root and giving forth a very appetizing odor; the cap is moist and somewhat viscid, the color varying from a red (somewhat beefy) to a reddish-brown in older plants; while the spore surface varies from strawberry-pink through a light-and dark-tan to an almost chestnut-brown.

In young plants the color is much richer and more vivid than in those of greater maturity. The spore surface resembles nothing so much as a very fine sponge, the spore-tubes being short, crowded, yet distinct.

The marked peculiarity of its mode of growth is in the attachment of the stem; somewhat thick, fleshy, and juicy, coming from the side of the pileus like the handle of a fan, it looks as if some one had taken hold of the cap and given it a partial twist to the right or to the left, as may be seen in Figure 317. Another peculiarity I have noticed in this species consists of the nerve-like lines, or veinlets, radiating from the stem and streaking the upper surface of the cap. The taste, when raw, is slightly but pleasantly acid. Its favorite habitat seems to be injured places on chestnut trees, and about chestnut stumps. It is known as Liver Fungus, Beefsteak Fungus, Oak-Tongue, Chestnut-Tongue, etc. It is found from July to October.

I have found it plentiful about Chillicothe on chestnut stumps, and quite generally over the state. I found some very fine specimens on the chestnut oaks, about Bowling Green, Ohio.

When properly prepared it is equal to any kind of meat. It is one of our best mushrooms.

_Fistulina pallida. B. and Rav._

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 318.--Fistulina pallida. Natural size.]