GILL FUNGI 5 



cap. In many cases, this gill veil disappears completely. As the young cap pushes 

 up, it is sometimes covered with a membrane, which is broken by the lengthening 

 stem, and remains at the base of the latter as a cup or volva. The volva may persist, 

 or it may break into scales and finally disappear. 



The gill fungi are the only mushrooms certainly known to contain deadly 

 poisons. The fatally poisonous species are confined to the genus Amanita, so that 

 if one learns the distinctive marks of Amanita, he may feel safe from danger. A 

 few species, Lepiota morgani and Clitocybe illudens, are violently 

 emetic in their action upon certain people, but are not dangerously poisonous. The 

 beginner who avoids eating all mushrooms with white gills, a ring around 

 the stem, and a cup or scales at the bulb-like base of the stem will be in no 

 danger of fatal poisoning. Since the volva, especially when scaly, disappears 

 with maturity, and sometimes the ring also, care must be taken to apply 

 this rule to young plants. 



According to the color of the spores, the gill fungi are divided into five groups. 

 The spore color is best determined by means of a spore print, made by cutting off 

 the stem and placing the cap, gills downward, upon a sheet of white paper. As a 

 rule, the spore color may be safely inferred from the color of the gills, or it may 

 be found by means of the microscope, though the latter is more or less misleading, 

 owing to the fact that the spores are seen by transmitted light. 



Key to the Spore Sections 



rage 



1. Spores white, whitish or very dilutely colored White-spored Fungi 5 



2. Spores distinctly colored, pinkish, yellow, brown, 



purple-brown or black 



a. Spores pink or salmon-colored Rose-spored Fungi 51 



b. Spores yellow to rust-colored Ocher-spored Fungi 59 



c. Spores purplish or purple-brown Purple-spored Fungi 72 



d. Spores black-brown to black Black-spored Fungi 79 



White-spored Gill Fungi Leucosporae 



Spores white, whitish, or very dilutely colored yellowish, pinkish or greenish ; 

 colorless under the microscope. 



KEY TO THE GENERA 



1. Cap fleshy or firm-fleshy, not leathery, corky or woody 

 a. Stem central or nearly so 



( 1 ) Gills not vein-like, but thin, plate-like, 

 acute at edge 

 (a) Gills fleshy rather than waxy 



X. Stem readily separated from the cap 

 (x) Stem with cup or volva at base 



m. Stem with a ring also Amanita 6 



n. Stem without a ring Amanitopsis 11 



