12 MUSHROOMS, EDIBLE AND OTHERWISE 



or leaf mold, on decayed wood, or on dung. Parasites are usually small, being 

 limited by their host. Saprophytes are not thus limited for food supply and it is 

 possible to build up large plants such as the common mushroom group, puff-balls, 

 etc. 



The spores are the seeds or reproductive bodies of the mushroom. They 

 are very fine, and invisible to the naked eye except when collected together in great 

 masses. Underneath mushrooms, frequently, the grass or wood will be white 

 or plainly discolored from the spores. The hymenium is the surface or part 

 of the plant which bears the spores. The hymenophore is the part which supports 

 the hymenium. 



In the common mushroom, and in fact many others, the spores develop on 

 a certain club-like cell, called basidium (plural, basidia), on each of which four 

 spores usually develop. In morels these cells are elongated into cylindrical 

 membranous sacs called asci, in each of which eight spores are usually developed. 

 The spores will be found of various colors, shapes, and sizes, a fact which will 

 be of great assitance to the student in locating strange species and genera. In 

 germination the spores send out slender threads which Botanists call mycelium, 

 but which common readers know as spawn. 



The method and place of spore development furnish a basis for the classifica- 

 tion of fungi. The best way to acquire a thorough knowledge of both our edible 

 and poisonous mushrooms is to study them in the light of the primary characters 

 employed in their classification and their natural relation to each other. 



There is a wide difference of opinion as to the classification of mushrooms. 

 Perhaps the most simple and satisfactory is that of Underwood and Cook. They 

 arrange them under six groups : 



i. Basidiomycetes those in which the spores or reproductive bodies are naked 

 or external as shown in illustration 2 on page 15. 



2. Ascomycetes those in which the spores are inclosed in sacs or asci. These 



sacs are very clearly represented in illustration Figure 4 on page 18. This 

 will include the Morels, Pezizse, Pyrenomycetes, Tuberaceae, Sphairiacei, 

 etc. 



3. Physcomycetes including the Mucorini, Saprolegniaceae, and Peronosporeae. 



Potato rot and downy mildew on grape vines belong to this family. 



4. Myxomycetes Slime moulds. 



5. Saccharomycetes Yeast fungi. 



6. Schizomycetes are minute, unicellular Protophytes which reproduce mainly 



by transverse fission. 



