SOME EDIBLE AND POISONOUS FUNGI. 465 



trees. The oj^ster fungus is so called, not because it tastes like an 

 oyster, but because its habit of growth is to have a number of indi- 

 viduals overlap one another, bearing a somewhat remote resemblance 

 to a heap of oyster shells. These overlapping masses often reach a 

 large size, sometimes several square feet, and are whitish or dirty 

 yellow, with long gills which converge toward one side of each indi- 

 vidual pileus. The oyster fungus is generally at its best quite late 

 in the season, being found even in November in the Northern States, 

 and although there are other species which resemble it, they are not 

 dangerous. Its quality is not very good, but some persons like it. 



TUBE-BEARING FUNGI. 



Of the species so far considered, the mushrooan and its immediate 

 allies have brownish-purple spores, the horsetail and its allies black 

 spores, but all the others mentioned have white, or nearly white, 

 spores. The pink-spored species of toadstools are not so numer- 

 ous as the others and include but few edible forms, and some which 

 are believed to be poisonous. The brown-spored species are decidedly 

 more numerous, but as they include no prominent edible species they 

 can not well be included in the present paper. We may, therefore, 

 pass at once to the next group — fungi having tubes instead of gills. 



The Polyporei, or tube-bearing fungi, include a large number of 

 species. Only a part of these would come under the popular name 

 of toadstools, since a great portion do not have a central stalk and 

 pileus, but are, like the oyster fungus, either attached laterally or 

 have no stalk at all, and lie flat on the substratum. As illustrations 

 may be mentioned the large punk fungi, which are used by ladies for 

 making ornamental brackets. Furthermore, the greater part of the 

 species are tough and hard and could not be eaten. With very few 

 exceptions the edible species of Polyporei all belong to the genus 

 Boletus, of which the species are soft and fleshy, shaped like toad- 

 stools, and, with hardly an exception, grow on the ground in woods 

 and j)astures. They are often abundant in midsummer, but less so 

 in autumn. To this genus belong the fungi known in France as 

 cepes, under which name they are imported into this country, but 

 not in any great quantities. The United States has a number of 

 edible species, some peculiar to this country and some the same as 

 the best French species; but unfortunately there are here also a num- 

 ber of poisonous species, and, since the species of the genus are in 

 man}^ cases far from easy to distinguish from descriptions alone, the 

 writer can only refer in general to some of the main features of the 

 species, without going into details which are rather complicated for a 

 first lesson in distinguishing fungi. 



PI. XXYIII, which represents a common species. Boletus suhluteus, 

 edible, but not one of the best, shows the toadstool-like habit of the 

 genus, but Avitli closely packed tubes on the underside instead of 

 18252 2 



