Flowerless-Plant Study 



719 



When they grow unhindered and while they are young, they are very per- 

 fectly saucer-shaped and range from the size of a pea to an inch or two 

 across. But the larger they are the more likely are they to be distorted, 

 either by environment or by the bulging of rapid growth. The under side 

 of the saucer is beautifully fleshlike in color and feeling and is attached at 



Scarlet saucer. 



the middle to the stick. The inside of the saucer is the most exquisite 

 scarlet shading to crimson. This crimson lining bears the spores in little 

 sacs all over its surface. 



Observaiions — i. Where did you find the fungus? 



2. What is the shape of the saucer? How large is it? Is it regular 

 and beautiful or irregular and distorted? 



3. What is the color inside? 



4. What is the color outside? 



5. Turn the one you bring in bottom side up — that is, scarlet side 

 down — on a piece of white paper, and see whether you can get a spore 

 harvest. 



LESSON CLXXXIV 

 The Morels 



In May or June in open, damp places, as 

 orchards or the moist fence corners of meadows, 

 the morels may be found. This mushroom family 

 contains no member that is poisonous, and the 

 members are very unlike any other family in 

 appearance. They are very pretty with their 

 creamy white, thick, swollen stems and a cap 

 more or less conical, made up of the deep-celled 

 meshes of an unequal network. The outside 

 edges of the network are yellowish or brownish 

 when the morel is young and edible, but later 

 turn dark as the spores develop. In some species 

 the stems are comparatively smooth and in others 

 their surface is more or less wrinkled . The spores 

 are borne in the depressions of the network. 

 These mushrooms should not be eaten after the 

 cells change from creamy white to brownish. 



Observations — i. Where did you find the 

 morels? 



2. Describe the stem. Is it solid or hollow? 

 Is it smooth or rough ? 



3 . What is the shape of the cap ? How does ^" "''^^IsTuf'^ \^'^'"'''""'' 



it look ? What color is the outer edge of the net- photo by Georg^F Atkinson, 



