SOME FUNGI COLLECTED IN VIRGINIA 



William A. Muerill 



During a brief vacation near the end of October, 1916, the 

 writer spent several days on Apple Orchard Mountain in the Blue 

 Ridge, eighteen miles north of Bedford, Virginia, and obtained a 

 number of fungi for the Garden herbarium. Large collections of 

 fungi had previously been obtained by me from the regions about 

 Blacksburg and Mountain Lake, in the southwestern part of Vir- 

 ginia and from Falls Church, near Washington, but my knowl- 

 edge of Blue Ridge fungi had been chiefly gained at Biltmore and 

 the Pink Beds in western North Carolina. 



October proved to be much too late for most of the fleshy spe- 

 cies. The weather was no colder than in New York, but the 

 season was earlier and most of these species had disappeared. 

 Hypholoma perplexum, a late autumnal species, was the only one 

 found in sufficient quantity to be used as food. Laetiporus spe- 

 ciosus had been common on oak and chestnut logs, but the sporo- 

 phores were fast decaying. Rostkovites granulatus and Russula 

 rubrotincta? were abundant in a pine grove south of Bedford at 

 1200 feet elevation, but were not seen in the mountains. This 

 species of Russula was especially well-flavored, and entirely free 

 from insects on account of the cool weather. Trametes robinio- 

 phila, a tough polypore, was common on black locust around Bed- 

 ford, but did not occur in the mountains. It is a southern species. 



Apple Orchard Mountain is 4200 feet high, about 200 feet 

 higher than the famous twin Peaks of Otter, which are con- 

 spicuous a few miles to the west. There is a camp near the sum- 

 mit, where one may be very comfortable, and good mountain 

 trails radiate from it in all directions. A large swamp near the 

 camp is filled with Rhododendron catawbiense and Kalmia lati- 

 folia intermixed with old hemlocks, and many interesting fungi" 

 doubtless occur there in July and August. The chief forest trees 

 are chestnut and species of oak, red oak predominating. The 



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