EDIBLE FUNGI 



495 



EDIBLE FUNGI. 

 By Dr. M. C. Cooke, M.A., V.M.H. 



I think that I may be excused if I introduce this popular subject of 

 " Edible Fungi " in a popular rather than a scientific manner, by ignoring 

 systematic sequence and the classification of text-books, and adhering 

 more to the gastronomic than the botanical aspect of the subject. 



Possibly it may appear to some people that the term " Edible Fungi " 

 includes but three, or perhaps four, individuals, viz. the Mushroom, the 

 Morel, the Truffle, and perhaps the Puff-ball ; but I think we may soon 

 discover that these are rather to be regarded as the types of so many 

 groups, and not as distinct individualities. The largest of these groups 

 is the first, which represents the Mushroom tribe, as exemplified by the 

 common cultivated Mushroom, a species too well known to require recom- 

 mendation. 



If you will permit me, I will remind you of the principal features 

 which distinguish this group, which the text-books call by the general 

 name of Agarics or Agaricini. There is primarily a spawn or mycelium of 

 delicate threads which traverse the soil. From this arises an erect stem, 

 either with or without a ring or collar, and surmounted by a convex cap 

 or pileus. The latter has an under surface of closely-packed radiating 

 plates or gills, which produce and carry the reproductive bodies or spores, 

 which are analogous to the flowers and fruits, or rather to the seeds, of 

 more highly-developed plants. So minute are these bodies that we are 

 compelled to resort to the microscope for a revelation of their form and 

 character. The gill-plates are composed of a continuous membrane which 

 is folded in radiating " pleats," and on the surface are found a series of 

 elongated cells, standing side by side, but of two different kinds, one of 

 which is surmounted by four spicules or little spines, at the apex of which 

 each carries a single spore ; the other kind is generally rather larger, but 

 without spicules or spores, and consequently sterile, and are called 

 cystidia. These latter bodies were by some authors thought to be male 

 organs, whose function was to fertilise the spores. It is better to under- 

 stand at once that there is no evidence whatever of sexuality, or of any 

 form of fertilisation, in these members of the Mushroom tribe. How it 

 all takes place is still a mystery, and one which seriously affects the 

 cultivation of this class of plants. I may remark, in passing, that it is 

 not difficult in many cases to cause these little spores to germinate 

 artificially in some congenial medium ; but, however far this germination 

 may be carried, and it is never very far, in the production of a delicate 

 mycelium, yet all efforts to obtain the most rudimentary Mushroom upon 

 this mycelium have failed, except in the solitary instance of the cultivated 

 Mushroom. 



In this connection I may refer to the experiments made by Mr. YYorth- 

 ington Smith on a species of Coprinus, which were recorded in the 

 ' Gardeners' Chronicle ' for 1875, and seem to prove an exception to the 



