Mushrooms and Other Fungi

Teacher’s Story

HERE is something uncanny about plants which have no green parts; they seem like people without blood. It is, therefore, no wonder that many superstitions cluster about toadstools. In times of old, not only did the toads sit on them, but fairies danced upon them and used them for umbrellas. The poisonous qualities of some species made them also a natural ingredient of the witch’s cauldron. But science, in these days, brings revelations concerning these mysterious plants which are far more wonderful than the web which superstition wove about them in days of yore.

When we find plants with no green parts which grow and thrive, though unable to manufacture their own organic food through the alchemy of chlorophyl, sunlight and air, we may safely infer that in one way or another they gain the products of this alchemy at second hand. Such plants are either parasites or saprophytes; if parasites, they steal the food from the cells of living plants; if saprophytes, they live on such of this food material as remains in dead wood, withered leaves, or soils enriched by their remains.

Thus, we find mushrooms and other fungus fruiting bodies, pallid, brown-olive, yellow or red in color, but with no signs of the living green of other plants; and this fact reveals their history. Some of them are parasites, as certain species of bracket fungi which are the deadly enemies of living trees; but most of the fungus species that we ordinarily see are saprophytes, and live on dead vegetation. Fungi, as a whole, are a great boon to the world. Without them our forests would be choked out with dead wood. Decay is simply the process by which fungi and other organisms break down dead material, so that the major part of it returns to the air in gaseous form, and the remainder, now mostly humus, mingles with the soil.

As a table delicacy, mushrooms are highly prized. A very large number of species are edible. But every year the newspapers report deaths resulting from eating the poisonous kinds—the price of an ignorance which comes from a lack of the powers of observation developed in nature-study. It would be very unwise for any teacher to give rules to guide her pupils in separating edible from poisonous mushrooms, since the most careful directions may be disregarded or misunderstood. She should emphasize the danger incurred by mistaking a poisonous for an edible species. One small button of the deadly kind, if eaten, may cause death. A few warning rules may be given, which if firmly impressed on the pupils, may result in saving human life.

First and most important, avoid all mushrooms that are covered with scales, or that have the base of the stem included in a sac, for two of the poisonous species, often mistaken for the common edible mushroom, have these distinguishing characters. Care should be taken that every specimen be collected in a way to show the base of the stem, since in some poisonous species this sac is hidden beneath the soil.

Second, avoid the young, or button, stages, since they are similar in appearance in species that are edible and in those that are poisonous.

Third, avoid those that have milky juices; unless the juices are reddish in color, the mushrooms should not be eaten.

Fourth, avoid those with shiny, thin, or brightly colored caps, and those with whitish or clay-colored spores.

Fifth, no mushroom or puffball should be eaten after its meat has begun to turn brown or has become infested with fly larvæ.

How Mushrooms Look and How They Live

HERE are many kinds of mushrooms varying greatly in form, color and size, but wherever they appear it means that sometime previous the mushroom spores have been planted there. There they threw out threads which have penetrated the food substance and gained a successful growth, which finally resulted in sending up into the world the fruiting organs. In general shape these consist of a stem with a cap upon it, making it usually somewhat umbrella-shaped. Attached to the cap, and usually under it, are plate-like growths called gills, or a fleshy surface which is full of pores. In the case of the gills, each side of each plate develops spores. These, as fine as dust, are capable of producing other mushrooms.

In the common edible species of mushroom (Agaricus campestris), the stem is white and almost cylindrical, tapering slightly toward the base; it is solid although the core is not so firm as the outside. When it first pushes above the ground, it is in what is called the “button stage” and consists of a little, rounded cap covered with a membrane which is attached to the stem. Later the cap spreads wide, for it is naturally umbrella-shaped, and it tears loose this membrane, leaving a piece of it attached to the stem; this remnant is called the ring or collar. The collar is very noticeable in many species, but in the common mushroom it soon shrivels and disappears. The cap is at first rounded and then convex; its surface is at first smooth, looking soft and silky; but as the plant becomes old, it is often broken up into triangular scales which are often dark brown; although the color of the cap is usually white or pale brown. The gills beneath the cap are at first white, but later, as the spores mature, they become brownish black because of the ripened spores.

References—Mushrooms, a most excellent and practical book with many beautiful pictures, written and illustrated by Professor George F. Atkinson; Henry Holt & Co., N. Y., $3.00; The Mushroom Book, Marshall, fully illustrated, $4.00, Doubleday, Page & Co.; One Thousand American Fungi, McIlvaine, illustrated, Bowen-Merrill Co., $5.00; Our Edible Toadstools and Mushrooms, W. H. Gibson, very fully illustrated, Harper and Bros., $3.50.