Kinds of Mushrooms 



'I'hc word iiiuslirooiii is used here to include all those Howerless plants which are 

 not leaf-ijireen in color, and are larM;e enouf^h to be seen hy the eye. No distinction 

 is made between mushrooms and toadstools, since indeed no distinction exists. A 

 nnishroom consists of whitish threads rumhn^ throUL:;h the soil or wood on which 

 the i»lant ^rows, the spawn or mvcelium. and of a spored)earinLi; bodv. the fruit-body. 

 which is the part usually seen and known as the mushroom. The kind of fruitdxxly 

 and the way in which the spores are produced upon it are the chief points by which 

 mushrooms are di\-ided into orders and families, d'hev fall into two great groups, 

 the sack-fungi, where the spores are borne on the inside of cylindric sacks, or asci. 

 and the basidium fungi, where the spores are borne on the tip of tiny clubs, called 

 basidia. 'l"he sack-fungi are divided into black fungi, characterized by flask-shaped 

 cavities and usually a coal-like appearance, and cup-fungi, which, as the name indi- 

 cates, are more or less cup-shaped and usually fleshy. The basidium fungi also fall 

 into two mam groups. In the one, the spores are borne on the inside of a ball, which 

 opens at maturity in various ways, as in the puffballs. In the other, the spores are 

 borne on a surface which is e.xjiosed from the first or verv earlw as in the gill- fungi, 

 ])ore- fungi, etc. 



The beginner will tind it impossible to discover how a mushroom produces its 

 spores, without the aid of a microscope. Fortunately, the form of the spore-bearing 

 surface and that of the fruit-body or mushroom itself are fairly distinctive. In a few 

 cases, where the same form appears in unrelated families, it may be necessary to de- 

 termine whether the spores are borne in sacks or on basidia. The following key, it is 

 hoped, will enable the beginner to place a plant in the proper familv. without the use 

 of a microscope. This can be done most readilv if he will familiarize himself with 

 the form-; found in the different families, using the illustrations in the text for this 

 purpose. 



In using the key, all that is necessary at each step is to make the jiroper choice 

 between the divisions bearing the same character. The first choice is made between 

 1 and 11. If 11 is taken, the next choice is between 1 and 2, and then under one of 

 these, between a and b, etc. 



Individuals which resemble each other closelv are said to belong to the same 

 species, as for example, all shaggy manes belong to the species c o m a t u s, meaning 

 shaggy. This species agrees with the si)ecies a t r a m e n t a r i u s and the species 

 m i c a c e u s in having black spores and gills that dissolve into an inkv liquid. Hence, 

 they are placed in the same genus. C o p r i n u s. The latter is grouped with all the 

 other gilled mushrooms into the family of gill fungi, or Agaricaceae, a name 

 formed from A g a r i c u s. the genus to which the common cultivated mushroom 

 belongs. In distinguishing a species of mushroom, it is necessary to use both the 



