Kinds of Mushrooms 



The word mushroom is used here to include all those flcjwerless plants which are 

 not leaf-green in color, and are large enough to he seen h}' the eye. No distinction 

 is made hetween mushrooms and toadstools, since indeed no distinction exists. A 

 mushroom consists of whitish threads running through the soil or wood on wliich 

 the plant grows, the spawn or mvcelimn, and of a spore-bearing body, the fruit-bocb', 

 which is the part usually seen and known as the mushroom. The kind of fruit-bud)' 

 and the way in which the spores are produced upon it are the chief points by which 

 mushrooms are di\'ided into orders and famdies. Thev fall hito two great groups, 

 the sack-fungi, «"here the spores are borne on the inside of cvlmdric sacks, or asci, 

 and the basiclium fungi, where the spores are borne on the tip of tinv clubs, called 

 !iasidia. The sack-fungi are di\-ided into black fungi, characterized bv Hask-sliaped 

 ca^'ities and usually a coal-like appearance, and cuii-fungi, wliich, as the name indi- 

 cates, are more or less cup-sliaped and usualh' llesliw The hasidium fungi also lall 

 into two mam groups. In the one, the spores are l)orne on the inside of a ball, whicli 

 opens at maturit\' in \'arious ways, as in the pufflialls. In the other, the sj.mres are 

 borne on a surface which is e-\)iosed from the first or \'ery early, as in the gill-fungi, 

 ]iore-fungi, etc. 



The beginner will find it impossible to discover how a mushroom produces its 

 spores, without the aid of a microscope. P'ortunatelw the form of the spore-bearing 

 surface and that of the fruit-body or mushroom itself are fairly distinctive. In a few 

 cases, where the same form appears in unrelated families, it may be necessary to de- 

 termine whether the spores are borne in sacks or on basidia. 'idle following key, it is 

 hoped, will enable the beginner to place a plant in the proper family, without tlie use 

 of a microscope. This can be done most readily if he will familiarize himself with 

 the forms found in the different families, using the illustrations in the text for this 

 pur^Dose. 



In using the key, all that is necessary at each step is to make the proper choice 

 between the divisions bearing the same character. Tlie first choice is made between 

 I and II, If II is taken, the next choice is between 1 and 2, and then under one of 

 these, between a and b, etc. 



Individuals which resemble each other closely are said to belong to the same 

 species, as for example, all shaggy manes belong to the species c o m a t u s, meaning 

 shaggy. This species agrees with the species a t r a m e n t a r i u s and the species 

 m i c a c e u s in having l)lack spores and gills that dissolve into an inky lic]uid. Hence, 

 they are placed in the same genus, C o p r i n u s. d'he latter is grouped with all the 

 other gilled mushrooms into the family of gill fungi, or A g a r i c a c e a e, a name 

 formed from A g a r i c u s, the genus to which the common cultivated mushroom 

 belongs. In distinguishing a species of mushroom, it is necessary to use both the 



