Part 37

A. The Fly-Agaric (Agaricus muscarius), though in general structure it closely resembles the common mushroom (Ag. campestris), is to be avoided as a poisonous species. Its large orange or crimson cap, more or less thickly dotted with whitish flakes, is a very striking feature in woods in late summer and autumn. An examination of the underside of the cap (pileus) will reveal a great number of thin yellowish plates set on edge and radiating from the stem to the circumference. Over these plates or gills is stretched a membrane, called the hymenium, on which the spores are borne. From this characteristic of the bulk of our mushrooms and toadstools the tribe containing them is dubbed the Hymenomycetes.

B. Edible Boletus (Boletus edulis). In this group (Polyporei) the hymenium, instead of investing gills, lines minute pores or tubes, with which the under surface of the pileus is packed, and in which the spores are produced. Many of the Boleti are edible, but their good qualities are known only to the few in this country. Edulis may be distinguished from other species by a delicate network of raised white lines covering the stem.

C. Jewelled Puff-ball (Lycoperdon gemmatum). This species represents a tribe in which the spore-bearing surface is contained within the fungus. In a young state Puff-balls of many kinds are filled with a white creamy substance, and so long as this remains white and does not change colour on being cut the fungus is good to eat, after being cut in slices and fried. When the spores are ripe the Puff-ball splits open at the top, and discloses a hollow filled with brown dust--the spores. Certain species of Lycoperdon attain very large proportions: L. giganteum is abundant in some localities in grassy places, usually measuring nine or ten inches in diameter, but occasionally it exceeds twenty inches, and weighs as many pounds. Slices may be cut from one side of it for several days in succession, but so long as the rooting portion is not interfered with it will continue to grow. L. gemmatum is common on downs or pastures. Readers should be cautioned against eating these small species in a raw state, as such a course has been known to have serious effects.

D. Chanterelle (Cantharellus cibarius). This belongs to the same section as the Fly-Agaric, in which the spore-bearing membrane is spread over gills; but in Cantharellus the gills are reduced to thick ribs that run from the edge of the pileus partly down the stem. The whole fungus is coloured with orange-yellow, internally as well as the outside. It is often abundant in woods in summer and early autumn. It is much esteemed for its esculent qualities; but it requires much cooking, and should first be thrown into hot water for a few minutes, then dried on a cloth, and fried or stewed gently.

=Small-leaved Lime= (Tilia parvifolia).

Several species of Lime may be met in woods and plantations, but respecting the right of each to be called indigenous there is a good deal of difference of opinion among authorities. Some say the present species is a native and the Large-leaved Lime (T. platyphyllos) not; others reverse this verdict and say that platyphyllos is certainly native, but that parvifolia is doubtfully so. There is little difference, other than the size of the leaves, between the two. Both are trees of sixty feet and upwards. The leaves are alternate, heart-shaped and toothed, lop-sided at the base, and about two and a half inches across in parvifolia, compared with four inches in platyphyllos. In July and August the Small-leaved Lime puts forth her yellowy-green blossoms arranged in cymes, the long stalk of which is furnished with a long pale-coloured bract. The flowers consist of five sepals, five petals, a great number of stamens, a five celled globular ovary with simple style and a five-toothed stigma. Only one of the cells matures its two ovules, so that the fruit is two-seeded. The flowers are sweet-scented, and very rich in honey.

The generic name, Tilia, is that by which the Romans knew the tree.

=Tree of the Gods= (Ailantus glandulosa).

This elegant shade-tree was introduced from North China in 1751, and brought its name with it--Ailanto, or Tree of the Gods. It has, however, been better appreciated in France and Italy than in this country. It grows to a height of fifty or sixty feet. The leaves are compound, pinnate, a fact that might easily be overlooked, for the whole leaf is so large--sometimes as much as six feet in length--that its stalk and mid-rib might well be mistaken for a branch clothed with opposite leaves. The leaflets are toothed, and the teeth bear glands on the lower side, whence the specific name. Its flowers, which open in August, are borne in clusters at the end of the branches. They are small, greenish-white in colour, and give off an evil odour. There are two forms of flowers, the one consisting of a five-parted calyx, five petals, and ten stamens; the other with calyx and petals the same, but fewer stamens and three, four, or five ovaries. The flowers are not represented in our illustration, the drawing having been made when the tree was in fruit. These will be seen to look like small imitations of ash-keys. It is a rapid grower in almost any soil, though it succeeds best in a light humid earth, and appreciates a little shelter. Its leaves are the favourite food of one of the large silk-producing moths (Attacus cynthia), but most other insects disapprove of it.

Tilia parvifolia.

--TILIACEÆ.--]

=Maples= (Acer).

Our English Maple is the Common or Small-leaved or Field Maple (Acer campestre) that grows wild in hedge-rows and thickets in England and Wales, but is only naturalized in Scotland. It is a small spreading tree, scarcely exceeding twenty feet in height, with leaves five-lobed, the lobes again lobed or toothed. The flowers are small, green, in corymbs, with narrow sepals and narrower petals, succeeded by two-winged two-seeded fruits called samaras; the wings being horizontal. Flowers May and June.

The Great Maple or Sycamore (A. pseudo-platanus) is a tree commonly grown in the streets, squares, and parks of London and other great cities on account of its smoke-enduring qualities. It has been so long established here that it is generally but erroneously regarded as a native. It is a tree of very rapid growth, and attains a height of about eighty feet; living upwards of two hundred years. Leaves large, five-lobed, unequally toothed. Flowers, greenish-yellow, May and June. Samaras large, wings diverging. Native of Mid-Europe and Western Asia.

Ailantus glandulosa.

--XANTHOXYLACEÆ.--]

The False Sycamore or Norway Maple (A. platanoides) is the species shown in our figure. It is a native of Europe, introduced to England in 1683. It is a considerable-sized tree, attaining a height of about sixty feet. Its leaves are heart-shaped in outline, five-lobed, sharply pointed, with a few large sharp teeth. The flowers appear in April and May; bright yellow. The samaras are brown, the wings widely diverging.

Acer is the old Roman name for the Maple.

=The False Acacia= (Robina pseudacacia).

The False Acacia, Common Acacia, Robinia, or Locust-tree, as it is variously styled, is a native of mountain forests in North America, attaining its greatest perfection in Kentucky and Tennessee, where it attains the height of ninety feet and a diameter of four feet. It has been grown in this country for two hundred and fifty years, it being one of the earliest trees introduced from the New World, its graceful habit and light pinnate leaves commending it as an ornamental tree for the plantation. In the United States it is in great repute as an ornament, a shade or a timber-tree; it grows with great rapidity, and its timber is of great durability, so that our cousins use it largely for ship-building, railway sleepers, and fences. When William Cobbett visited the States he was greatly struck with the useful nature of this tree, and on his return to England spared no pains to make its virtues known to his countrymen, even starting a nursery for the purpose of supplying the young trees, and creating quite a rage for Locust-planting for several years.

The leaves are long, compound, the leaflets being arranged in a pinnate manner, with an odd leaflet. The stipules are in the form of prickles at the base of the leaf-stalk. It is a leguminous plant, and its flowers greatly resemble those of the pea. They are white, sweet-scented, and gathered into a long, pendulous raceme, like that of the laburnum: May and June. The tree is sensitive, and on a branch being touched the leaves will all incline towards the branch, whilst each leaflet advances half-way towards its opposite fellow. The same movements occur at sunset, the leaflets then remaining folded face to face until dawn. The fruit (shown in figure) is that form of pod called a lomentum, in which the valves are constricted between the seeds.

Acer platanoides.

--SAPINDACEÆ.--]

The genus is named in honour of Jean Robin, a French botanist, whose son cultivated the first specimens of R. pseudacacia in Europe.

=The Ash= (Fraxinus excelsior).

One of the most pleasing in growth of our forest trees is the Ash, its grey trunk rising to eighty or a hundred feet, and its sweeping branches, the lower ones bending upwards at the tips, clothed with the gracefully curving long pinnate leaves. The character of these compound leaves and their leaflets is well shown in our illustration, together with two clusters of the winged fruits.

The Ash is a native of Britain, although most of the specimens we meet in woods and plantations have been reared in a nursery and planted out. There are many cultivated varieties of F. excelsior; and a large number of species have been introduced during the present and last centuries, chiefly from S. Europe and N. America. Ash and Privet are the only native representatives of the order Oleaceæ, to which the Olive belongs. It cannot be said that Fraxinus excelsior is a typical representative of the order, since most species included in it bear flowers composed of all the floral organs, whereas excelsior has neither calyx nor corolla. Its flowers appear in April or May, and are of three kinds:--staminate, consisting of two dark purple stamens only; pistillate, consisting of an oblong ovary with short style and cleft stigma; hermaphrodite, consisting of ovary and two anthers with very short filaments. These flowers are individually small and inconspicuous, but associated as they are in dense panicles from the new wood formed in the previous season, and appearing before the black leaf-buds have burst; they are collectively very conspicuous. The leaves are very late in making their appearance, as they are among the first to fall after the early frosts of autumn. The “keys,” as the fruits are called, each contain two seeds, and the wing has a twist which causes the key to spin rapidly when the breeze separates it from the bunch and carries it far from the parent tree.

Robinia pseudacacia.