12 MUSHROOM GROWING AND SPAWN MAKING. 



sell entirely by contract or by special orders to hotels and restaurants. 

 With such an enormous comj^arative consumi^tion of the canned 

 product, there is every reason to believe that fresh mushrooms can 

 be sold in much greater quantity as soon as this product becomes a 

 certain factor in the market. With canning factories to take the 

 surplus product, growers could afford to accept a smaller margin of 

 profit, and this would place mushrooms within reach of many who 

 may not be able to purchase them at present average prices. Agaricus 

 campestris and its varieties and allied species are perhaps the only 

 fresh mushrooms commonly salable in the markets of American 

 cities. Throughout practically the whole of Europe several other 

 species are legitimate market products. The more delicate or fleshy 

 forms of the latter are sold as fresh mushrooms; others are dried, 

 and some of these, being tougher, are used only for soups, sauces, and 

 gravies. Besides the various species of truffle and morel, any special 

 mention of which will be omitted here, the French market to-day 

 legalizes the sale of five or six other species of mushrooms. 



GERMINATION STUDIES. 



Review of earlier work. — In a small way the germination of the 

 spores of Basidiomycetes has received attention from the earliest 

 times. A complete historical review of the literature dealing with 

 spore germination will be found in Bulletin No. IG of the Bureau of 

 Plant Industry. It will be seen that most of the early work fur- 

 nishes only incidental references to spore germination. By far the 

 most important contributions made by early workers to this particu- 

 lar subject were several papers by Hoffmann." It is not to be expected 

 that the method employed by him would yield accurate results. 

 Nevertheless, the work of Hoffmann is comprehensive for that time. 

 Brefeld,'' in his extensive reports upon the Basidiomycetes, gives the 

 results of germination studies with a large number of the fleshy fungi. 

 More than 200 species were used in his various experiments, and suc- 

 cessful germination is recorded for about 160 species. 



In 1898 the writer became interested in some attempts to germinate 

 the spores of certain Basidiomycetes. Subsequently the problem 

 received incidental attention in connection with some general studies 

 on the physiology of spore germination.'^ The work progressed only 



o Hoffmann, H. Ueber Pilzkeimungen. Botan. Zeitg., 19 : 209-214, 217-219. 

 1859. Beitriige zur Entwickelungsgescliichte mid Anatomie der Agaricineen. 

 Botan. Zeitg., 18 : .S89-.395, 397-404. ISGO. Untersuclumgen iiber die Keimung 

 der Pilzsporen. .Talirb. f. wiss. Bqtanik, 2 : 207-337. 1860. 



6 Brefeld, O. Botanische Untersucbungen iiber Scbimnioliiilze. Basidiomy- 

 ceten, I, Bd. I. II. 3. 1877. Untersucli. a. d. Gesammtgebiete der Mykologie. 

 Basidioniyceten. II, II. 7; III, II. 8. 1888-89. 



f" Duggar, B. M. Physiological Studies witb Reference to the Germination of 

 Certain Fungous Spores. Bot. Gaz., 31 : 38-60. 



