Lloyd Mycological Writings V4.pdf - MykoWeb

A MUCH NAMED AGARIC.
BY H. C. BEARDSLEE.
A number of our fungi have certainly been blessed with an
abundance of names, appearing with great frequency as "new species."
One very attractive species, which is found occasionally at
Asheville, seems, however, to be conspicuous in this regard. Usually
^^^^^^ the various authors agree fairly well as to genus,
^H^HHPl separating the "new species" because of some
^^^^_ minor or mistaken points of difference. The
^IV^ I plant to which I refer seems unique in being
referred to four different genera, and also to
four of the great groups based on spore color.
It figures as Lepiota, Inocybe, Psalliota, and
Lepista, which would give it nearly all the spore
colors possible. I suspect it also of figuring as
^m \ an American "new species" in still a fifth genus,
< \ though I have seen no specimens to verify this.
___ ||| This plant is Bulliard's Lepiota haemato-
P"~ sperma, figured by Cooke as Inocybe echinata,
described by Stevenson as Psalliota echinata,
Fifl 519 and considered by Bresadola as rather a Lepista.
The plant is very striking, and in perfection is one of our handsomest
species. With us it is not large an inch to two and a half
inches tall with a pileus a half inch to an inch and a half broad. The
pileus is dark gray, and is covered with a mealy coat of the same
color. This covering leaves an annulus as the plant develops, which
very quickly disappears, leaving no trace behind. In age the whole
plant is smooth and bare. The gills are strongly suggestive of our
common field mushroom, though of a darker red. The spores are
dingy or red, according to circumstances, and are 6 by 4 mic.
One can readily understand the reference of this species to Psall-
iota, for a perfect specimen would at once be pronounced a gray
Psalliota and confidently "looked for in that genus until the spore
print had been obtained. Why Inocybe is hard to guess. It has not
the correct spore color; nor has it any of the usual characteristics of
that genus. It certainly is not a characteristic Lepiota. The photograph
shows its ordinary appearance. It is rare in America.
POLYPORUS TUBERASTER IN JAPAN.
"I have read with great interest your note on Polyporus tuheraster, which
occurs also m this country. Several years ago Dr. Shirai, Professor of Pathology in
the Agricultural College, Tokyo University, found that this occurred in Yomagata
id was quite the same as a Chinese fungus which is used in medicine in that
country even now. The Chinese use only the sclerotium of the fungus in medicine.
IJr. Shirai cultivates the sclerotium in a pot and is getting two or three fructifications
every year." S. Kawamura, Botanic Institution, Tokyo, Japan.
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