10 



Handbook of Nature-Study 



very thinly with white of egg or mucilage, so as to hold fast the discharged 

 spores when making these prints for portfolio or herbarium. 



Observations i. Where was the mushroom found? If on the 

 ground, was the soil wet or dry? Was it in open fields or in woods? Or 

 was it found on rotten wood, fallen leaves, old trees or stumps, or roots? 

 Were there many or few specimens? 



2. Is the cap cone-shaped, bell-shaped, convex, plane, concave, or 

 funnel-form? Has it a raised point at the center? How wide is it? 



3. What is the color of the upper surface of the cap when young? 

 When old ? Has it any spots of different colors on it ? Has it any striate 

 markings, dots or fine grains on its surface? Is its texture smooth or 

 scaly ? Is its surface dull, or polished, or slimy ? Break the cap and note 

 the color of the juice. Is it milky? 



4. Look beneath the 

 cap . Is the under surface 

 divided into plates like 

 the leaves of a book, or is 

 it porous ? 



5. The plates which 

 may be compared to the 

 leaves of a book are called 

 gills, although they are 

 not for the purpose of 

 breathing, as are the gills 

 of a fish. Are there more 

 gills near the edge of the 

 cap than near the stem? 

 How does this occur? 

 What are the colors of the 

 gills? Are the gills the 

 same color when young as 

 when old ? Are the lower 

 edges of the gills sharp, 

 blunt or saw-toothed ? 



6. Break off a cap and 

 note the relation of the 

 gills to the stem. If they 



A spore print from the common edible mushroom. 

 Photo by George F. Atkinson. 



do not join the stem at all they are termed "free." If they end by being 

 joined to the stem, they are called "adnate" or J'adnexed." If they 

 extend down the stem they are called "decurrent." 



7. Take a freshly opened mushroom, cut off the stem, even with the 

 cap, and set the cap, gills down, on white paper; cover with a tumbler, or 

 other dish to exclude draught ; leave it for twenty-four hours and then 

 remove the cover, lift the cap carefully and examine the paper. What 

 color is the imprint? What is its shape? Touch it gently with a pencil 

 and see what makes the imprint. Can you tell by the pattern where this 

 fine dust came from ? Examine the dust with a lens. This dust is made 

 up of mushroom spores, which are not true seeds, but which do for mush- 

 rooms what seeds do for plants. How do you think the spores are 

 scattered? Do you know that one" little grain of this spore dust would 

 start a new growth of mushrooms? 



