Mountain Home maverick. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1906-1911, 1906-11-15

what the root is to superior orders
(phanerogamae) of plants. This
mycelium rarcifies indefinitely,
and combines to form small whitish
balls or globules; these latter grad
ually grow and increase in volume
till they form the perfect rnush-
room. While pursuing its course
underground, and before the small
white globules forming the future
mushroom appear on the surface,
the mycelium is nourished at the
expense of all other plants, which
it destroys, at the same time ster-
ilizing the soil, and exhausting all
the potassium and phosphoric acid;
however, it carries with it in its
circular course various nutritive
principles, the results being that
dark circle is formed on the
grass, which shows up in marked
contrast to the withered and yell
low or poorly nourished verdure in
the immediate vicinity. These
marks have for many years past
been the object of romance in all
countries where children love to
feast their minds upon witchcraft
and goblin lore. These circles of
grass, greener and more luxurious
/ in growth than that surrounding
them, are supposed by children and
simple minded country people to be
'fairies' rings" left by the marks
of fairy feet, after long and frisky
frolics and dances in the silvery
moonlight.
Poetry must again give place to
prose. We have no fairy feet to
deal with, but merely the work OF
the spores of the little fungus called
the "oread" or fairy ring cham
pignon'' (Marasmius oreades) of
the best of edible fungi. 1t is OF
creamy yellow color throug bout; its
blades, gills, as they are technically
termed, are broad and each distinct !;
its stem is slender and solid, and it
is possessed of strong aromatic
scent. 1t may here be pointed out
that the stem of this mushroom is
quite naked, while that of nox-
ious relative, and frequent neigh
Dor, termed the ''stinger, - is
downy at the base. In due course
the little white balls appear in the
circle, and gradually develop into
the toothsome mushroom.
Mushrooms are cultivated every
where. They grow in many strange
places others in the Cata-
combs at Paris. The most likely
place wherein to find mushrooms
growing is a meadow or plot oil
grass, but they are also often met
with in woods, on heaths, and In
unfrequented wayside hooks. d
late a curious field for theii
growth has been selected in France.
The ST. Denis department of the
: Seine) railway tunnel is no lougel
used for the purpose for which /
+, was originally intended. 1t has
been acquired for other purposes
and the ground therein has beer
cut up into ridges, divided from
each other by means OF burrows
! upon which whole battalions o
mushrooms are now flourishing IL
, the shade of the gloomy TUNE
walls. This enterprise, which i
amply repaying all the time ant
capital expended upon it, has it
a counterpart in Scotland, where
company is now growing this elias
, of vegetable in a tunnel 5000 Zee
long. 1t was originally built b.
:. the North British Railway compay
and is 90 feet below the streets O
u Edinburgh.
Besides being palatable morsel
the mushroom may also be tcrme
the athelete of the vegetable king
{ dom. About year ago som
;, asphalt paving was laid down /
u a continental town, imprisonin
u some spores of variety of tn
e mushroom known as the Champig
p non psailiota campcstris. In tn
II course of their termination thes
e spores lifted the asphalt, and final
y ly split it in half, in their strugg
u to reach light and life, Doubles
> the asphalt may have been softene
u to certain extent by the warmt
q engendered by the growth OF tn
u spores; still, in any case, Profess
Bouillemin, of Nancy, France, est
AZ mates that the pressure exertt
&c against the asphalt by the champs
I non must have amounted to abo'
a. IS pounds. "A. II. ]. Keane
sc Scientific American.
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