Pilaf

“ Many a basketful has been brought to me to be identified with the hope of their edibility. The cap is convex, umbonate, spreading, depressed, smooth, often irregular from its crowded condition of growth; in older and larger plants the margin of the pileus is wavy. The flesh is thick at the center but thinner toward the margin. In old plants the color is brownish.
The gills are decurrent, some much further than others; yellow; not crowded; broad.
The stem is solid, long, firm, smooth tapering towards the base, as will be seen by Figure 67, sometimes the stems are very large. ”

“ The pileus is smooth, hemispherical, bell-shaped, convex, and when fully expanded nearly flat, the center somewhat elevated and the margin slightly curved downward; red or orange, fading to yellow on the margin; usually the larger and well-developed specimens have the deeper and richer color, the color being always more marked in the center of the pileus; margin distinctly striate; gills rounded at the stem end and not attached to the stem, yellow, free and straight. ”

“ Palest and most ghostlike of all flowers that one finds as he climbs from the meadow to the woods beyond is that of the Monotropa uniflora, or Indian pipe. Round about it its cousins, the pyrola and the pipsissewa, grow green leaves and show waxy white or flesh-pink blossoms. The only color in the Indian pipe is that of the yellow stamens, which shrink in a close circle within the wax-white bloom that stands on a scaly, wax-white stem. A very ghost of a flower is this, nor may we account for its ghostliness. ”

“ It is also held in veneration by the Hindus, because the god Vishnu is fabled to have been born under its branches. In the Somavati festival, the Mahratta women circumambulate a pipal tree, and place offerings on it, when the new moon falls on a Monday. The pipal tree is preferable for avenues to the banyan. The leaves are heart-shaped, long, pointed, wavy at the edge, not unlike those of some poplars, and as the footstalks are long and slender, the leaves vibrate in the air like those of the aspen tree. Silkworms prefer the leaves next to those of the mulberry. ”

“ The veil is reticulate, frequently surrounding the whole of the stem from the pileus to the volva, often torn. The pileus is pitted, deliquescent, six to eight inches high, apex acute. Spores elliptic-oblong.
I am sure I never saw finer lace-work than I have seen on this plant. A few years ago one of these plants insisted upon growing near my house, where a fence post had formerly been, with the effect of almost driving the family from home. One can hardly imagine so beautiful a plant giving off such an odor. It is not a common plant in our state. ”

“ It is often a very handsome and attractive plant, because of the bright colors of the cap in contrast with the white stem and gills, as well as the white scales on the surface of the cap. These scales seem to behave somewhat differently from those of other species of Amanita. Instead of shrivelling, curling, and falling off they are inclined to adhere firmly to the smooth skin of the pileus, turning brownish, and in the maturely expanded plant appear like scattered drops of mud which have dried upon the pileus, as you will observe in Figure 13. ”

“ When you would make your tree, put into a phial the quantity of an ounce of the above preparation, and add to it about the size of a pea of amalgam of gold or silver, as soft as butter: the vessel must then be left at rest, and soon afterwards small filaments will appear to issue out of the ball of amalgam, which quickly increase, and shoot out branches in the form of shrubs.
A metallic arborisation, somewhat similar, may be produced in the following manner:—Dissolve a little sugar of lead in water, and fill a phial with the solution. ”

“ The pileus thin and fleshy, entirely dry, at first clothed with silky down, becoming smooth in mature plants. The gills are changeable in color. The stem is equal or tapering downward, stuffed, sometimes hollow, smooth.
V. Telamonia, meaning a bandage or lint. The pileus is moist, watery, smooth or sprinkled with whitish superficial fibres, the remnants of the web-like veil. The flesh is thin, somewhat thicker at the center. The stem is ringed and frequently scaly from the universal veil, slightly veiled at the apex, hence almost with a double veil. The plants are usually quite large. ”

“ Presently some exceed the others in rapidity of growth, and their heads get above the ground, the stem elongates rapidly, the ring falls loosely round the stem, the margin of the pileus enlarges, and the oval head assumes a bell-shape; then a faint tint of brown spreads universally or in blotches over the upper part of the pileus, and the whiteness of its gills changes to a dull pink. ”

“ Universal veil at first enclosing the entire plant, which as it grows bursts 3through, generally carrying the upper part on the pileus, where it appears as patches or scales, the remainder enclosing the stem at the base as a volva, either in a cup-like form, closely adherent or friable and evanescent. The partial veil in youth extends from the stem to the margin of the pileus, enclosing the gills ”

“ Perithecia, bottle-like receptacles containing asci. Peronate, used when the stem has a distinct stocking-like coat. Persistent, inclined to hold firm, tenacious. Pervious, forming an open tube-like passage. Pileate, having a cap. Pileoli, secondary pilei; arising from a division of the primary pileus. Pileus, the cap, receptacle, or one part of a mushroom; other parts are the stem and gills. Pilose, covered with hairs. Pits, depressions in cells or tubes resembling pores, applied also to hollow depressions in the surface of the cap of the morel. ”

“ The shoots of the vine, as also of certain other trees, the interior of which is naturally of a spongy quality, have certain knots or joints upon the stem that intercept the pith. The intervals between these joints in the branches are short, and more particularly so towards the extremities. The pith, in itself the vivifying spirit of the tree, is always taking an onward direction, so long as the knot, by being open in the centre, allows it a free passage. ”

“ Pileus thin, convex or nearly plane, umbilicate or centrally depressed, hygrophanous, striatulate on the margin when moist, whitish or yellowish-white and shining when dry, the margin often wavy or flexuous. Gills close, adnate or slightly decurrent, whitish, then flesh-colored. Stem equal, flexuous, shining, solid, colored like the pileus. ”

“ Two-thirds natural size. Cap white and showing the pine needles upon which they grow.
Pithyophila means pine-loving. This plant is very abundant under pine trees on Cemetery Hill. They grow on the bed of pine needles. The pileus is very variable in size, white, one to two inches broad; fleshy, thin, becoming plane, umbonate, smooth, growing pale, at length irregularly shaped, repand, wavy, sometimes slightly striate. [Pg 100]
The stem is hollow, terete, then compressed, smooth, equal, even, downy at the base.
The gills are adnate, somewhat decurrent, crowded, plane, always white. ”

“ It is often a large bulky plant and rather uninviting.
The pileus is four to six inches broad, dingy reddish, often becoming pale flesh color, fleshy, oval to convex, then expanded; sprinkled with small pale warts, unequal, mealy, scattered, white, easily separating; margin even, faintly striate, especially in wet weather; flesh soft, white, becoming red when broken.
The gills are white or whitish, free from the stem but reaching it and forming at times decurrent lines upon it, thin, crowded. ”

“ Pileus smooth, hygrophanous.
Members of this purple-spored genus grow upon decayed wood, either standing or as roots in the ground, or from ground heavily laden with woody material. They grow singly, in groups, or in densely-tufted or overlapping masses. The several species vary in shades of yellow, red, orange, brick-color and brown; their caps are from 1–6 in. across; their stems are short or long, as the number in the cluster permits; when growing singly the stems are short and sturdy. There is a floccose veil, or remnants of one, about the stem. ”

“ Pileus 1⁄2 in. high, not broad, various in color, becoming yellow, green, dingy-brown, somewhat membranaceous, acutely conical, almost cuspidate, never expanded, but the margin when young at first bent inward, covered with a pellicle which is viscous and separable in wet weather, slightly striate chiefly round the margin. Stem as much as 3 in. long, scarcely 1 line thick, tubular and containing a pith, equal, more frequently flexuous, smooth, capable of being twisted round the finger, smooth, becoming pale; furnished with a veil when young. ”

“ Fortunately the tastes of all men are not alike. In the eyes of the Indian this fruit is a dish fit to be set before the gods. The pipal trees, which are covered with tender young leaves, now offer to the birds a feast in the form of numbers of figs, no larger than cranberries. ”

“ Pileus without a viscid pellicle, absolutely dry, rigid, the cuticle commonly breaking up into flocci or granules. Flesh thick, compact, firm, vanishing away short of the margin which is straight (never involute) , soon spreading, and always without striæ. Stem solid, at first hard, then softer and spongy. Gills, a few dimidiate, others divided, rigid, dilated in front and running out with a very broad, rounded apex, whence the margin of the pileus becomes obtuse and is not inflexed. Exceedingly handsome, but rather rare. ”

“ The flowers in the group Pipereæ (Piper, Fig. 357, and Peperomia) are borne in spikes with fleshy axes (club-like) , seldom in racemes, the outer ones are crowded and are ☿ or unisexual, always small, naked and without bracteoles; generally stamens 3 + 3, and gynœceum 3, but the number of the stamens may be reduced by suppression to 2, and the carpels to 1. The flowers are situated in the axils of the small, generally shield-like floral-leaves. The ovary is always unilocular and has one upright, orthotropous ovule. Fruit a berry or drupe. ”

“ Make it a rule to pop every unknown object into your wide-mouthed phial. In the water it will probably at once reveal its nature: if it be a Polype, it will expand its tentacles; if not, you can identify it at leisure on reaching home, by the aid of pictures and descriptions. See, as I drop one of these into the water, it at once assumes the well-known shape of the Polype. And now we will see what these blood-red dabs may be; in spite of their unusual colour, I cannot help suspecting them to be Polypes also. Give me the camel-hair brush. Gently the dab is removed, and transferred to the phial. ”

“ Pileus unicolorous, a cinnabar-vermilion, but becoming pale (tan) when old, disk commonly darker, compact, hard but fragile, convex, then flattened, here and there depressed, absolutely dry, without a pellicle, but becoming polished-even, often sinuously cracked when old, margin spreading, obtuse, even, always persistent. Flesh white, reddish under the cuticle. Stem 2–3 in. long, about 1 in. thick, solid, even, varying white and red. Gills obtusely adnate, somewhat crowded, whitish, then yellowish, with dimidiate and forked ones intermixed. ”

“ The pileus often rests upon its back and is attached by a point when young, but it becomes turned backward with age. The species are few and infrequent. All inhabit decaying wood.
267C. ni ́dulans Pers.—nidus, a nest. Pileus 1–3 in. broad, stemless, attached by the pileus or rarely narrowed behind into a short stem-like base, caps often overlapping one another, suborbicular or kidney-shaped, downy, somewhat pointed-hairy or scaly-hairy toward the margin, yellow or buff color, the margin at first turned inward. Lamellæ rather broad, moderately close or subdistant, orange-yellow. ”