172 



EDIBLE MUSHROOMS 



THE CHANTARELLE 



Cantharelliis cibarins 



Bearing somewhat the shape of the Lactarius, but 

 having its own distinguishing features, is the Chan- 

 tarelle (Plate 19). 



The "Agarics," as already described on page 79, are 

 distinguished by the feature of the gills, or thin lam- 

 inated curtains — the hynienium — upon 

 Fluted which the spores are produced, and 

 gills from which they are shed beneath the 



mushroom. These gills vary in thick- 

 ness and number in the various species, and in one 

 genus are so short, thick, swollen, and branched as 

 to give rather the effect of turgid veins than gills, as 



shown in the accom- 

 panying sectional 

 drawing. We occa- 

 sionally come upon 

 one of these mush- 

 rooms in our walks, 

 usually in the woods. 

 When it first appears 

 the cap is rounded, 

 and the rim folded 

 inward towards the 

 stem ; but in mature 

 specimens it assumes 

 the flat or, later, the 

 cup-shaped form shown in Plate 19. 



A fungus thus formed is a Chantarelle, or Can- 

 tharellus, and is readily identified. Any specimen 



SECTION or CHANTARELLE 



