Boston Mycological Club. 
Bulletin No. 5, 1897. 
Meeting. On Saturday Oct. 16th at 2.30 a meeting will be held in 
Horticultural Hall. Talks are expected on the fungi of the season and on 
the cultivation of mushrooms. 
Members are reminded that the Saturday exhibitions will continue until 
the end of the season, that is, until the middle of November ; that prizes 
are offered every week for the best plate of mushrooms, and for the 
best collection of at least five kinds; that talks maybe expected every 
Saturday at three or a little earlier, and sometimes, if occasion serves, 
between twelve and one. In these talks the attempt is made to give help 
to new members whose experience is slight. 
The season is so dry that unusual diligence is recommended to those who 
have a chance to collect, in order that sufficient material maybe on hand. 
Many things may still be had in moist places in the woods, in swamps 
and on their borders. Search is necessary, for often the leaves must be 
brushed away. Quantities of mushrooms, otherwise invisible, are often 
revealed in this way, — a remark which applies particularly to species of 
Tricholoma and 11 vgrophorus. 
A mushroom which is being brought to notice is Lepiota rachodes. It 
is not common, but has here and there been found in rich soil, sometimes 
in greenhouses. It is large and has thick firm flesh, points which have 
recommended it for cultivation. It is now being raised and put on the 
market, and, it is hoped, will take its place in public estimation with the 
Field and Horse mushrooms. No doubt other mushrooms would submit 
to cultivation. Experiments with certain varieties have already demon¬ 
strated that they may be grown successfully. It has proved impossible, 
however, to get market-men to sell, or people to buy them, so strong is 
the prejudice against new kinds about which there is no tradition. This 
latest experiment will be watched with interest. Specimens of the new 
mushroom, and possibly a few words from the grower, are expected at the 
next meeting. 
Another Lepiota, L. naucinoides , should now put in an appearance. A 
description of it is in Bull. No. 4, and notes about its resemblance to a 
poisonous amanita are to be found in Bull. No.'3. 
« 
Those whose interest in fungi is not confined to edibility, may like to 
have their attention called to another economic quality, — their destruct- 
tiveness to growing trees. * Everyone presumably knows that fungi draw 
their food supply either from dead and decaying organic matter, or from 
the tissues of living organisms. Trees, in particular, suffer from fungi 
in a great variety of ways. On the bark, and on the leaves, the micro¬ 
scopic fructifications of many parasitic fungi may every where be detected. 
For a single tree the list of such parasites is often a long one, including a 
dozen or a score of species. These are so inconspicuous, however, and so 
difficult of observation that they escape the notice of any but the specialist. 
The larger parasites, on the contrary, may easily be seen and examined 
by the ordinary observer, and most of them belong to the familiar group 
of the Polyporeae. An example is Polyporus siilpkureus , which is to be 
found on many sorts of trees. Wherever a wound from any source has 
broken the bark and exposed the tender growing tissues that lie just 
within it, or where the cut or broken stump of a branch shows an unpro¬ 
tected surface, spores of the fungus may fall and germinate. The deli¬ 
cate white threads ('mycelium) of the plant, extending and branching, 
make their way into the cells of the softer parts of the trunk, absorb the 
* A clear and detailed popular account of this and kindred matters may be 
found in “ Timber and Some of its Diseases,” by Professor H. Marshall Ward* 
