Common Edible Mushrooms

COMMON EDIBLE MUSHROOMS
Those who wish to delve deeper into the field of fungi will
find the books about mushrooms and mushroom cultivation listed
on pages 119-20 of great value.
How and Where They Grow
To those only casually acquainted with it, the entire fungus
world is strange and unnatural. Seemingly nourished only by
rain, mushrooms spring up in abundance in the night and are
gone by noon. Indeed, some of the more delicate kinds are found
only in the brief period between dawn and sunrise; before the
dew has dried they have withered and disappeared, unsuspected
and unseen by many a slug-a-bed. They seem to be at the mercy
of their environment, and one wonders how they persist and multiply.
The explanation is simple. The mushroom we see is only a
small part of the fungus as a whole. The growing, or vegetative,
part, by means of which the fungus gets its food and endures
from year to year, is hidden in the ground. This spawn, or
mycelium, is made up of a multitude of growing cells. The mildew
you have seen on bread, the mold on jelly or preserves, the
cottony growth that permeates the litter of the forest floor are all
mycelium. It continues to grow from year to year, lying dormant
in winter and in dry periods but becoming active almost at once
when conditions are again favorable. It is from this actively growing
mycelium, whose span of life is measured in years, decades,
or even centuries, that the mushroom arises for its brief appearance.
Evidence of the longevity of this mycelium is found in rotting
trees, where the mycelium that causes the decay may live for
centuries, advancing slowly year by year until finally the tree is
so weakened that it topples over. Further evidence is found in
fairy rings, those remarkable circles of mushrooms that once were
thought to mark the path of dancing fairies. These rings are
formed in this way: A few spores of one of the fairy-ring mush-
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