The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-06-15

the nitrogenous food out of old and ex- posed manure, Here and there on the masses of mycelium tubes, which ap- pear like bundles of tangled white threads, which the cultivators call spawn, there will appear 0 small knob. This is the incipient fruit body which will afterward become the umbrella, Little by little the cap or umbrella is formed, but tightly compressed, until in a small space everything is perfected,
 As long as the weather remains dry, the umbrellas literally ''lie low" but as soon as the ground has become soaked with heavy rain, they absorb the moisture as a sponge would and swell in Q few hours to their full size, It is difficult thing to watch the transforma- tion. One observer watched nearly all night to time the growth of fungus that was nearly ripe, and just before dawn he was rewarded by seeing it grow three inches in twenty-five min- utes. When the umbrella swells. the covering which has bound the cap down to the stalk breaks and frees the cap, so that it can stretch out to it's full size. The covering originally over the mush-
 
 leaves a tattered fragment clinging to the stem after breaking, the remains are known as the ring. When the gllls are finally spread out straight the fun gus is ripe and ready to shed its spores, which grow all along their edges. Not all of the higher fungi have grills, how ever, and one of the first points to be l noticed in classifying them is the char acter of the under surface. In some species the grills become irregular ribs, and in others they form short spines on which the spores are borne, while oth- | CTS have smooth under-surface dotted | over with minute pores, out of which the spores drop when the fungus is ripe. | Certain species of fungi cannot scat | ter their spores by the simple process of dropping them on the ground. The puff ball is an example of this: it is | wholly surrounded by skin, and the spores are borne inside on threads, and when the puff ball is ripe, the skin cracks and the spores escape like a cloud of dust. In still another kind of fungus the spores grow inside, inclosed | in a lot of small sacs, each of which | holds certain number These fungi l have to wait for decay to set the spores free, The truff1e of England and l France belongs to this class. The truf- fe is round, and is buried several inches under ground, so that men have to dig for 1t, and often depend on dogs to scent it out, The morel or American 1 truffle, as 1t is sometimes called, has it's spores imbedded in the same way, al- though 1t does not resemble its foreign cousin, for it grows above ground. All | though not so great delicacy as the | truffle, it is eaten quite freely.
 The puff ball is we'll marked and cas- fly recognized species, and grows abun- dantly in some parts of the country. It comes up in April and May, and is fond of grassy places near streams. There is no danger in trying 1t if one Is fortu- nate enough to be where it grows, for it has no dangerous relatives that pa rade in sheep's clothing trying to pass | themselves off as the genuine article. There is 8 very palatable substitute for pancakes or egg plants in some species of the puff-ball group of fungi. All the species of puff balls or Lycoperdons are edible, that is, they are not poisonous i DuL SOliiG are HOl very TUT IT. stance, those with warty, yellow skins and those that are all inky black inside, can scarcely be considered tempting. Puff balls must be gathered when the insides are white and heshy for when they have yellow stains inside they are not fresh, and if they are cottony and | dusty 1t shows that the spores are | formed on their threads and they are too old to be good. The lecturer de- scribed a class of fungi that are unsa- vory, though poisonous. The Clav- arias, or club fungi, said he are as un- savory as corks, but there are some del- icate coral-like species that make a good sauce stewed.
 The whole family of fungi that have pores are called Polyporii, but from the edibi and poisonous standpoint, there Is one group that. is of special interest | known as Boletus. These all have a stem and more or less regular cap The Boleti are always thick and feshy never woody, and quite solid in appear ance. If the cap be cut off and magni- fled, the under surface will present a honeycombed appearance, which is due | to the opening of the pores or tubes in which the spores are contained. There are altogether about forty edible spe- cies in this family, and several that are poisonous, or at least, very fiery and peppery to the taste. pr. Jelliffe re- marked that it was pretty safe, as a rule to try a mild-colored Boletus, such as B. edulis, which Is brown on top, and yellowish underneath, or B. luteus which is yellow. Those with white ol yellow or greenish tubes are generally safe to eat, but wise rule for the in- experienced was to avoid all lurid ol high-colored Boleti. One called Satan us or Satan's Boletus Is amber colored on top and deep crimson below, and is | quite poisonous; as also is B. alveola- tus, whose rosy red top acts as dan. l ger signal.
 The beefsteak or liver fungus was, he said, worthy of its good name, for il really resembles meat in it's favor Il is also called poor mans fungus" r hepatica grows on stumps of trees principally oaks and chestnuts and its first appearance is like a little rosy pimple. After a few days growth il becomes tongue-shaped, thereby caus
 ing the Italian peasants, who are font of it, to call it oak tongue" or "chest nut tongue" This fungus grows abun- dantly in Bronx Park, and 1t has also been found on Staten Island, Long Is land ROs1yn Glen Cove and in prOc.