Book Description

Excerpt from Journal of Economic Biology, 1908, Vol. 3 The upper surface of the pileus is slightly depressed behind, and since it is covered with fine hairs looks and feels like velvet; a concentric zoning (Pl. I, fig. 9) of various neutral-toned green, yellow, grey, brown and buff bands is always more or less noticeable: the smooth, flat hymenial surface is white at first, but changes to a deep cream colour, and on drying often presents a bright sheeny appearance. When the fungus grows on the rounded top of a horizontal log, specimens of sporophores resembling an umbrella-shaped species with an almost sessile pileus are frequently found, since in such a position a lateral outgrowth is able to extend from every side of a short stem-like base: also on the sides of nearly vertical logs a form almost resupinate, with the hymenial tubes for the most part reduced to mere grooves, is not uncommon. The fungus is a pure saprophyte, whose natural habitat is moist dead wood: it seems highly probable that it will grow on almost any kind of wood except that of conifers. I have found it growing on Quercus robur, Fraxinus excelsior, Pyrus aucuparia, Salix alba, Betula alba, Pyrus malus, Ligustrum vulgare and Crataegus oxyacantha, and have been able to infect without difficulty small blocks of Fraxinus excelsior, Ulmus campestris, Prunus avium, Alnus glutinosa, Acer pseudoplatanus, Aesculus hippocastanum and Betula alba, and have successfully cultivated the fungus from spore to spore. 2. - Spores and their Germination. If a fresh fruit body is placed on a glass slide or paper a plentiful supply of spores is obtained in the course of a few hours: they are best seen macroscopically on black paper, where the numerous little white heaps look like an imprint of the hymenial surface of the sporophore. Microscopic examination shows each spore to be a colourless oval unicellular body, 5.6 x 2μ, in the protoplasm of which can be distinguished two, or sometimes three, groups of granules (Pl. II, fig. 1). The spores germinate very readily in ordinary tap water, or even distilled water. Within eighteen hours, at a temperature of 19°C., nearly all become swollen, and quite 50% produce germ tubes, 1, 2, 3, or 4 times their own length, and within three days all will germinate. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.