MUSHROOMS AND OTHER COMMON FUNGI. 13 



tirely absent. The gills are decurrent or sometimes adnate, edge acute. 

 Most of the species grow on wood, buried roots, or decayed stumps. 

 This genus corresponds to Claudopus of the pink-spored and Crepi- 

 dotus of the brown-spored forms. 



Pleurotus ostreatus. Oyster mushroom. (Edible.) 



Cap cither sessile or stipitate, shell shaped or dimidiate, ascending, fleshy, soft, 

 smooth, moist, in color white, cream, grayish to brownish ash; stem present or absent 

 (if present, short, firm, elastic, ascending, base hairy); gills white, decurrent, some- 

 what distant, anastomosing behind to form an irregular network. 

 Cap 3 to 5 inches broad; mostly cespitose imbricated. (PI. VII, fig. 1.) 

 A very fine edible species, growing on limbs or trunks of living or dead trees, of 

 cosmopolitan distribution, appearing from early summer until late fall. 



Pleurotus sapidus. (Edible.) 



This species very closely resembles Pleurotus ostreatus and is distinguished from it 

 by the lilac-tinged spores, a character difficult or impossible for the amateur to detect. 

 From the mycophagist's point of view, these two species are equally attractive. 



Pleurotus serotinus. (Edible.) 



Cap fleshy, compact, convex or nearly plane, dimidiate reniform, suborbicular, edge 

 involute, finally wavy, smooth, yellowish green, sooty olive, or reddish brown, in wet 

 weather with a viscid pellicle; gills close, distinct, whitish or yellowish, minutely 

 tomentose or squamulose with blackish points. 



Cap 1 to 3 inches broad . 



In general appearance this fungus resembles Claudopus nidulans, but is separated 

 from it by the color of the spores, Pleurotus belonging to the section of white-spored 

 agarics and Claudopus to the rosy-spored species. The plants grow on dead branches 

 or trunks and are gregarious or imbricate. 



Pleurotus serotinus is edible but not particularly good, its chief recommendation 

 being the lateness of its occurrence in the fall, when other more tempting species have 

 disappeared. 



Pleurotus ulmarius. (Edible.) 



Cap fairly regular, although inclined to excentricity, convex, margin incurved, 

 later plane, horizontal, even, smooth, white or whitish, at disk shades of tan or brown; 

 flesh, white, tough; gills broad, rather distant or rounded behind; stem more or 

 less excentric, curved, ascending, firm, solid, elastic, thickened, and tomentose at 

 the base. 



Cap 3 to 5 inches broad; stem 2 to 3 inches long. 



This species occurs abundantly on dead elm branches or trunks or growing from 

 wounds of living trees. Though exhibiting a special fondness for this host, it is not 

 confined to elm trees. It is readily distinguished from Pleurotus ostreatus by the long 

 stem and by the emarginate or rounded gills. It is considered an excellent edible 

 species and occurs abundantly in the fall. 



CANTHARELLUS. 



In the genus Cantharellus the cap is fleshy or submembranaceous, 

 continuous with the stem, and has the margin entire, wavy, or lobed. 

 The gills are decurrent, thick, narrow, blunt, foldlike, irregularly 

 forked, and connected by netlike veins. The two species here dis- 

 cussed are of common occurrence. 



