Agaricaceae 



RESUPINATI. Page 146. 

 Pileus resupinate from the first, then reflexed. 



Pieurotus. If any odium attaches to the word toadstool, it should be forgotten 

 and forever banished in presence of this cleanly, neat, handsome genus, 

 choice in its growing places from lichen-covered stumps, or bark-clad 

 boles, or highly perched limbs, or the scented surfaces of decaying 

 wood. Several of its species perfume themselves throughout with pleas- 

 ant spicy odors. Many are most accommodating in their constant 

 coming. 



Mr. H. I. Miller, superintendent Terre Haute and Indianapolis Rail- 

 road, writes: "Most of the mushroom books give greatest space to the 

 A. campester. For some parts of the country this may be desirable, 

 but for Indiana and Ohio, considering the food value, the P. ostreatus 

 is the best fungus we have in these states, from the fact that anybody 

 wanting a mess can nearly always obtain a basketful of this variety, 

 whereas the others depend upon a good many weather conditions. 

 Having located a few logs and stumps in the spring, where the P. ostre- 

 atus grows, these same stumps and logs can be used all season. The 

 crops are successive, and while some of the spots seem to be barren for 

 a few days at a time, the others will be bearing. It does not make 

 much difference what the kind of log or stump, whether it be beech, 

 oak or elm, or what the species of tree. I think I have found them on 

 all our forest trees, and it is not necessary for the tree to be dead. If 

 there is a decaying portion, the spores seem to be carried by the little 

 black beetle that infests the ostreatus, from one place to another, and 

 wherever a small spot of dead wood is found we are likely to find the P. 

 ostreatus. This being the only edible mushroom that we can find in 

 large quantities all through the season in this neck of the woods, it 

 seems to me that a general knowledge of it will serve the economic pur- 

 pose more than any other fungi." 



The presence of the P. ostreatus and its esculent companions is noted 

 from our northern boundary to the gulf. Poplar, maple, birch, hick- 

 ory, ash, apple, laburnum and oak trees are its favored residences. 

 Deer feed upon it, and kine are attracted by its scent even when deep 

 under snow. When properly selected and slowly cooked, the Pleuroti 

 are toothsome. 



From the fact that the spores of this fleshy and valuable genus find 



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