Northern Polypores. E-book. Formato PDF William Alphonso Murrill   -  Forgotten Books, 2017  - 

Polypores are tough or woody fungi found chiefly on wood in the form of brackets of various shapes and sizes, the fruiting surface being composed of tubes or furrows. Sometimes the walls of these tubes split with age and the hymenium appears spiny, resembling the hydnums; sometimes the furrows change with age to appear like gills. When the fruit-body is perennial, the tubes are often arranged in layers. The family may be divided into four groups, the resupinates, the annual poroid species, the perennial poroid species, and the agaric-like species. The resupinate species cannot be satisfactorily studied without the advantages of a large herbarium and are therefore omitted here, but some of the larger species of the other groups are comparatively easy.Polypores as a class are very destructive to trees and timber. On the other hand, one species possesses medicinal properties, some of the encrusted species supply tinder, and several of the more juicy ones are excellent for food if collected when young. The only species recognized as poisonous is the medicinal one, Fomes Laricis, and it is so tough and bitter that no one would think of eating it.Polypores are very easily collected and preserved and they largely retain their characters when dried, which makes them excellent objects for class study during the winter months. Many of them, also, remain in situ during the winter in perfect condition for collecting. As a group, they lend themselves remarkably well to studies in gross and minute anatomy, variation, adaptation, and injurious effects on trees and structural timbers.

Edible and Poisonous Mushrooms: A Descriptive Handbook to Accompany the Author's Colored Chart of Edible and Poisonous Mushrooms. E-book. Formato PDF William Alphonso Murrill   -  Forgotten Books, 2017  - 

The popular and widespread interest in mushrooms of all kinds is almost phenomenal. This is due to their beauty of form and color and the supposed mystery surrounding their origin and growth, as well as to the use of certain kinds for food. Their nutritive value is not great, being about equal to that of cabbage, but they afford variety in ?avor and add greatly to the relish for other foods. Mushroom eating is much more common in Europe than in this country. The struggle for existence is greater there, and the edible and poisonous varieties are better known by all classes of people. In China, it is almost impossible for a botanist to get specimens on account of the thorough manner in which all wild food is collected by the natives.

American Boletes. E-book. Formato PDF William Alphonso Murrill   -  Forgotten Books, 2017  - 

Boletes are tube-bearing fungi differing from the polypores chie?y in their ?eshy consistency and terrestrial habit, usually occurring on the ground in woods during late summer and au tumn. The species are difficult to distinguish, even in the fresh state, and when the large amount of water they contain is eliminated the dried specimens bear little resemblance to the originals. The accompanying blank has been found convenient for field notes.