Toadstools, mushrooms, fungi, edible and poisonous; one thousand American fungi: How to select and cook the edible; how to distinguish and avoid the poisonous, with full botanic descriptions. Toadstool poisons and their treatment, instructions to students, recipes for cooking, etc., etc.McIlvaine, Charles
Science
Toadstools, mushrooms, fungi, edible and poisonous; one thousand American fungi: How to select and cook the edible; how to distinguish and avoid the poisonous, with full botanic descriptions. Toadstool poisons and their treatment, instructions to students, recipes for cooking, etc., etc.
McIlvaine, Charles
Cooking (Mushrooms); Edible mushrooms -- North America; Fungi -- North America; Mushrooms; Mushrooms, Poisonous -- North America
In October, 1898, a beautiful variety (see Plate LXI, fig. 2, p.—),
occurred which I had not previously seen. It was sent by me to Professor
Peck. The plants grew in large clusters from rotting, refuse straw in
the ruin of a stable; the white, cottony mycelium running upon and
through the straw. The solid stems of some were straight, others curved,
ranging from 2–6 in. long, the taller ones tapering from base to
spindling apex, the shorter ones decidedly bulbous and ending abruptly.
They were twisted and delicately marked. These markings break up into
dark thread-like fibrils, leaving the stem striate and satin-glossy.
=Pileus= from 2–4 in. across, dark Vandyke-brown when young, lighter in
age, streaked, glossy. =Gills= at first white, tardily changing to light
salmon color, broad, ventricose, free.
Taste and smell pleasant of almonds. Good, delicious.
Professor Peck wrote of it: “It has the general appearance of Pluteus
cervinus, but these specimens seem to depart from the usual form of
growing in clusters from the ground, and in having an almond flavor.
Without knowing more about it I would scarcely feel justified in
separating it from such a variable species. As Fries sometimes remarks
concerning variable species: Perhaps several species are concealed under
the one name, but a pretty full and accurate knowledge of them is
desirable if one is to split them up.”
This is excellent judgment. While I believe the above to be a distinct
species, the disposition to make new species of varieties is regrettable
in many botanists.
Var. _Bul´lii_ Berk., MS. =Pileus= 4–6 in. across, flesh thick, convex
then expanded, smooth, even, pallid, the disk darker. =Gills= free,
rounded behind, rather distant from the stem, crowded, ½ in. broad, pale
salmon-color. =Stem= 3–4 in. long, 1 in. and more thick, slightly
swollen at the base, fibrillose, pale brown, darkest at the base, solid.
_Massee._
=Pileus= 6 in. across, expanded from bell-shape, ashy-white (oyster
color), glossy, like floss silk, silky fibrillose, irregularly
corrugated. =Skin= separable. =Flesh= spongy, pure white, like shreds of
cotton, separable into plates, very brittle, ½ in. thick at stem,
immediately thinning to ⅛ in., very thin toward margin. =Gills= thin,
elastic, rounded behind, close to stem, free, ½ in. wide, close,
alternate short and long, white, then tinged and spotted pink with
spores which when cast in mass are a pinkish-brown with slight lavender
shade. =Stem= 5 in. long, ½-¾ in. thick, subequal, spreading at top,
white, silky-fibrillose, changing to very light yellowish brown from
center to base, exterior hard, skin thin, tough, interior filled with
continuous, cottony fibers, snow-white, brittle, watery, slightly
swollen at base. Taste pleasant.
Mt. Gretna, Pa., July, 1898, on chestnut stump and in woods on ground
among leaves. Leaves adhere to base of stem which is powdery-white.
_McIlvaine._
Cooked, it is as good as P. cervinus.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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