August. 1 <)()().] Myculugical Bulletin Nos. 63 and 64. 255 



USES OF MUSHROOMS. 



Geo. F. Atkinson. Cornell University. 



While we are thus apt to regard many of the mushrooms as ene- 

 mies to the forest, they are, at ihe same time, of incalculable use to 

 the forest. Ihe mushrooms aie nature's most active agents in the 

 disposal of the forest's waste ii.aterial. Forests that have developed 

 vMihout the guidance of man have been absolutely dependent upon 

 them for their continued exisience. Where the species of mush- 

 rooms are comparatively few which attack living trees, there are 

 hundreds of kinds ready to strike into fallen timber. There is a de- 

 gree of moisture present on the forest tioor exactly suited to the rapid 

 growth of the mycelium of numbers of species in the bark, sap wood, 

 and heart wood of the fallen trees or shrubs. In a few years the 

 branches begin to crumble because of the disorganizing efTect of the 

 mycelium of the wood. It gradually passes into the soil of the forest 

 Moor, and is made available food for the living trees. How often one 

 notices that seedling trees and slirubs start more abundantly on rotting 

 logs. 



The fallen leaves, too, are seized upon by the mycelium of a great 

 variety of mushrooms. It is through the action of the mycelium of 

 mushrooms of every kind that the fallen forest leaves, as well as the 

 trunks and branches, are converted into food for the living trees. 

 The fungi, are, therefore, one of the most important agents in pro- 

 viding available food for the virgin forest. 



The spawn of some fungi in the forest goes so far, in a number of 

 cases, as to completely envelope those portions of the roots of cer- 

 tain trees as to prevent the possibility of the roots taking up food 

 material and moisture on their own account. In such cases, the oaks, 

 beeches, horn-beams, and the like, have the younger parts of their 

 roots completely enveloped with a dense, coat of mycelium. The 

 mycelium in these cases absorbs the moisture from the soil or forest 

 1 oor and conveys it over to the roots of the tree, and in this way 

 si pplies them with both food and water from the decaving humus, 

 the oak being thus dependent on the mycelium. In the fields, how- 

 ever, where there is not the abundance of humus and decaying leaves 

 present in the forest, the coating of mycelium on the roots of these 

 trees is al)sent. and in this latter case the young roots are provided 

 with root hairs which take up the moisture and food substances from 

 the soil in the ordinary way. 



The mushrooms also prevent the forest from becoming choked 

 or strangled by its own fallen members. Were it not for the action 

 of the mushroom mycelium in causing the decay of fallen timber in 

 the forest, in tin e it world be piled .^o high as to allow only a miser- 

 able existence to a few choked individr.als. The action of the mush- 

 rooms in thus disposing of the fallen timber in the forests, and in 

 converting dead trees and fallen leaves into available food for the 

 living ones, is probably the most imjortant role in the existence of 

 these plants. Mushrooms, then, are to be given very high rank among 

 the natural agencies which have contributed to the good of the world. 

 W^hen we contemplate the vast areas of forest in the world we can 

 gain some idea of the stupendous work performed by the mushrooms 

 ii "house cleaning." and in "preparing fo(uI " work in which they are 

 still engaged. 



— Mushrooms. Edible. Poisonous, Etc. 



