FUNGI 203 



Warts : irregular flecks, or piitehes, on the surface of the cap, formed 

 if the volva ruptures about the equator and the upper portion is 

 carried up and remains adherent to the growing pileus (not 

 the case with Amanita phaUoidcs). 



Velum, or Veil: a membrane which, in some forms, attaches the 

 margin of the pileus to the stem. When, in growing, the cap 

 tears away from the velum around its margin, the velum re- 

 mains attached to the stem as the annulus, or ring. 



The presence of the three characters, white spores, ring, and cup 

 (which may be reduced to a scaly, bulbous base to the stem), 

 mark the specimen as an amanita. In collecting, why should 

 we be sure to have the base of the stem complete? AVhy should 

 we never mix buttons with edible mushrooms ? 



Classification. Sort the mushrooms collected, using the 

 outline given below. If 3'ou place tlie dried specimens in a 

 jar packed with wet paper the day before beginning the work, 

 many of them will absorb moisture and become approximately 

 like fresh specimens: 



1. All forms with gills underneath the pileus may or nuiy not have 

 stems — A garicacece. 



2. Hedgehog mushrooms : forms whose spore-forming surface is i>ro- 

 duced into spines which hang downward. They may be umbrella-shaped 

 or irregularly tuberculate or branched — Ili/dnacece. 



3. ]\iushroonis with a honeycomb structure of tubes in i)lace of gills ; 

 soft and with the tubes readily separable from the cap — Doleti. 



4. Fungi with fine pores underneath the pileus. ^lany species become 

 corky or woody, the bracket fungi of the woods — Polijpori. 



5. Coral mushrooms : may be simple, erect clubs or large, branehing 

 masses, the branches being erect. The spores are produced over most of 

 the exposed surface — Clavariacece. 



6. The morels and cup fungi. Some of these have stem and cap, but 

 produce the spores in pits or irregular depressions on the outer surface 

 of the conical or cylindrical cap. Other forms are cup-shaped or saucer- 

 shaped — Discomj/cetes. 



7. Puffballs and earthstars : mushrooms in which the spores are pro- 

 duced within a closed cavity, wdiich may open by an apical pore or by 

 the irregular breaking of the wall ([leridium) — Lijcoperdacea'. 



