Agaricaceae 



pieurotus. ing to Kalchbrenner, the spores have a faint tinge of lilac, and the pileus 

 is white, tawny, brownish, or umber on the same trunk. The white 

 form only has been met with in this country. Massee. 



Spores with a lilac tinge, oblong or a little curved and pointed, 

 8.3x3.7^ Morgan; oblong, 9-1 1 .5x4-5/4 Peck; IO-1 1x4-5^ Massee. 



Not observed in England until 1887. 



Quite common throughout the United States, growing upon decaying 

 wood, whether above or under ground. It has few distinct features. 

 The only positive one distinguishing it from P. ostreatus is its lilac- 

 tinted spores. The tint is faint but noticeable upon white background. 

 Excepting for purposes of the student, its separation, as a species, from 

 P. ostreatus is not necessary. When old it has more body than the 

 latter, but is equally superior as a food fungus. 



Professor Peck remarks of it: "A stew made of it is a very good 

 substitute for an oyster stew." 



It can be cultivated by watering the places upon which it is known to 

 appear. 



P. pome'ti Fr. pometum, an orchard. PileilS white, fleshy, soft, 

 sub-flaccid, irregular, involute, convex, even, smooth, disk depressed. 

 Gills decurrent, crowded, separate behind. Stem 2-3 in. high, 3-4 

 lines thick, excentric, solid, tough, ascending, rooting. 



On trunks of pear and apple trees. 



Especially distinguished by the rooting stem. 



North Carolina, edible, Curtis; California, H. and M. 



**** Gills decurrent. Stem lateral, etc. 



P. OStrea'tus Jacq. ostrea, an oyster. (Plate XXXV, p. 134, 

 XXXVtf, p. 142.) Pileus 3-5 in. broad, when young almost becom- 

 ing black, soon becoming pale, brownish-ash color, passing into yellow 

 when old, fleshy, soft, shell-shaped, somewhat dimidiate, ascending, 

 smooth, moist, even, but sometimes with the cuticle torn into squam- 

 ules. Stem shortened or obliterated, firm, elastic, ascending obliquely, 

 thickening upward, white, strigoso-villous at the base. Gills decurrent, 

 anastomosing behind, somewhat distant, broad, white, sometimes turn- 

 ing light yellow, and without glandules. 



For the most part cespitose, imbricated, very variable, sometimes 



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