Figure 333.Figure333.—Polyporus obliquus. Two-thirds natural size.
Figure333.—Polyporus obliquus. Two-thirds natural size.
Obliquus means slanting, oblique. This species is widely circumfused, usually hard, quite thick, uneven, pallid, elegant chocolate-brown, then blackish; conversely encircled crested border.
The pores are long, very minute, obtuse, slightly angular. It grows on dead branches of iron-wood and wild cherry. The deep chocolate-brown and the oblique form of its pores will serve to identify the species.
It grows, with us, in the spring. I gathered this specimen in June. In the fall I visited the same trunk, but found they had begun to decay. It is sometimes called Poria obliqua.
Figure 334.Figure334.—Polyporus graveolens.
Figure334.—Polyporus graveolens.
Graveolens means strong scented. Corky or woody and extremely hard, very closely imbricated and connate, forming a subglobose polycephalous mass, Figure 334. Pileoli innumerable, inflexed and appressed, plicate, brown.
Pores concealed, very minute, round, pale-brown, the dissepiments thick and obtuse.Morgan.
This is a very interesting plant because of its peculiar mode of growth. It is found in woods or clearings on dead logs or on standing dead trees. In some parts of the state it is quite common. From the illustration, Figure 334, it will be seen that the plant consists of an innumerable number of pileoli forming a subglobose or elongated mass. They are frequently three to six inches in diameter and several inches long. I have seen them very much elongated on standing trees. When it is young and growing it is shiny in appearance and has a reddish and sometimes a purplish tint. The inner substance is ferruginous but covered with a hard brown crust. The pores are brown, and when examined with the glass are seen to be lined with a very fine pubescence. The imbricated form of the pileoli show very plainly in the illustration.
The Winter Polyporus.
Figure 335.Figure335.—Polyporus brumalis.
Figure335.—Polyporus brumalis.
Brumalis is frombruma, which means winter; so called because itappears late, in cold weather. The specimens in Figure 335 were found in December.
The pileus is from one to three inches broad, nearly plane, slightly depressed in the center; somewhat fleshy and tough; dingy-brown, clothed with minute scales, becoming smooth, pallid.
The pores are oval, slightly angular, slender, acute, denticulate, white, 5–6×2µ.
The stem is short, thin, slightly bulbous at the base, hirsute or squamulose, pale, central.
It usually occurs singly but frequently you will find several in a group. Found on sticks and logs, they are quite hard to detach from their hosts. Too tough to eat. It equals Polyporus polyporus. (Retz) Merrill.
The Rufescent Polyporus.
Rufescens, becoming red. The pileus is flesh-colored, spongy, soft, unequal, hairy or woolly.
The pores are large, sinuose and torn, white or flesh-colored.
The stem is short, irregular, tuberous at the base. Spores elliptical, 6×4–5µ.
Rather common about Chillicothe on the ground about old stumps.
Figure 336.Figure 336.—Polyporus arcularius. Two-thirds natural size, showing dark brown and depressed center; also dark brown stems.
Figure 336.—Polyporus arcularius. Two-thirds natural size, showing dark brown and depressed center; also dark brown stems.
The pileus is dark-brown, minutely scaly, depressed in the center, margin covered with stiff hairs.
The tube surface is of a dingy cream color, openings oblong, almost diamond-shaped, resembling the meshes of a net, the meshes being smaller on the margin, shallow, simply marked out at the top of the stem.
The stem is dark-brown, minutely scaly, mottled, with a ground work of cream-color; hollow. Common in the spring of the year on sticks and decayed wood in fields or in old clearings. It is quite generally distributed. Edible but tough.
The pileus is fleshy, soon becoming woody; expanded, even, smooth, pallid.
Pores are plane, minute, nearly round, pallid, yellowish-white.
The stem is eccentric, even, smooth, pallid; base from the first abruptly black. This is quite common on rotten wood in the forests. It resembles P. picipes both in appearance and habitat.
Effused, determinate, subundulate, firm, smooth, white, circumference naked, submarginate, wholly composed of middle sized, rather long, entire pores, the whole becoming yellowish in age.
I found this species on an elm log along Ralston's Run.
The pileus is thick, sessile, convex or subungulate, subsolitary, two to four inches broad, one to one and a half thick, fleshy, rather soft; the adnate cuticle rather thin, smooth or sometimes slightly roughened by a slight strigose tomentum, especially toward the margin; whitish, tinged more or less with fuscus; flesh pure white, odor acidulous.
The pores are nearly plane, minute, subrotund, about two lines long; white, inclining to yellowish, the dissepiments thin, acute.
The spores are minute, cylindrical, curved, white, .00016 to .0002 inch long.Peck.
This species is quite common here and is very widely distributed in the United States.
This is quite a large and beautiful plant. It apparently grows without a stem, its color being an unequal gray. The pileus is somewhat coriaceous, firm, pulvinate, villous.
The pores are round, elongated, obtuse, entire, white.
This is not common with us, but I have met it a few times and always on elm logs or stumps.
The Birch Polyporus. Edible.
Figure 337.Figure 337.—Polyporus betulinus.
Figure 337.—Polyporus betulinus.
Betulinus is frombetulina, birch.
The pileus is from four to ten inches across, fleshy, soon corky, ungulate, obtuse, smooth, pale reddish-brown when mature, often mottled, roundish, orsomewhat reniform, zoneless, the oblique vertex in the form of an umbo; pellicle thin, separating; flesh white, very thick.
The pores are short, round, minute, unequal, separable from the pileus when fresh, but really concrete with it; white or tinged with brown, developing slowly; when mature there are peculiar hair-like scales attached to the pore-surface, making the plant look like a Hydnum when viewed from the side. It is found wherever the birch tree grows. When young and fresh it is edible, but with a strong flavor unpleasant to many. In this state the deer eat it. The specimen in Figure 337 was found in Wisconsin, and photographed by Dr. Kellerman. This species is the Piptoporus suberosus (L.) of Merrill.
Cinnabar Polyporus.
Figure 338.Figure 338.—Polyporus cinnabarinus. One-third natural size.
Figure 338.—Polyporus cinnabarinus. One-third natural size.
Cinnabarinus like cinnabar (vermilion). The pileus is dry, more or less spongy, pliant, rather thick, fibrous on top; flesh light or yellowish-red, shelving.
The pores are carmine, quite small, round, entire.
This species is quite common in the woods about Chillicothe. It is easily identified by the beautiful carmine color of the pileus and the pore surface, the latter being a shade darker than the former, as will be seen in Figure 338.
The specimens photographed were found in December. They grow on dead logs and branches, commonly on the oak and wild cherry, sometimes on maple. It is called by some authors Trametes cinnabarina.
Common Effused Polyporus.
Vulgaris, common. Quite broadly effused, very thin, adheres closely to its host; even, white, dry. Circumference soon smooth and the whole surface composed of firm, crowded, small, round, nearly equal pores.
Effused on dead wood, fallen branches, and frequently on moist boards.
The pileus is white, or whitish, fleshy, somewhat fibrous, fragile, triangular in form, pubescent, azonate, margin somewhat inflexed, acute.
The pores are thin, acute, dentate, finally lacerate and labyrinthiform.
This species is found in the woods, on beech logs. It is small and thin, not much more than an inch in width but sometimes elongated. Steep and gibbous behind, becoming at length smooth and equal. It is not abundant in our woods, but I have found it often. August and September.
The pileus is white, with a bluish tinge occasionally upon its surface, soft, tenacious, unequal, silky.
The pores are small, unequal, long, flexuous, dentate, lacerate.
It is found in woods on partially decayed sticks. I have only occasionally found a specimen in our woods.
Figure 339.Figure 339.—Polyporus pubescens. White without and within, pubescent and shiny.
Figure 339.—Polyporus pubescens. White without and within, pubescent and shiny.
Pubescens means downy; so called from the satiny finish of its pileus, which is fleshy, quite tough and corky, soft, convex, subzonate, pubescent and shiny; white without and within; the margin acute, becoming at length yellowish and hard, with a shiny lustre.
The pores are short, minute, nearly round and plane.
The pileus is from one to two inches in width, laterally confluent and usually very much imbricated. Quite plentiful in woods on beech logs. July to November.
Figure 340.Figure 340.—Polyporus volvatus. Natural size.
Figure 340.—Polyporus volvatus. Natural size.
Volvatus, bearing a volva. This is a most interesting species. The pileus seems to be prolonged, making a volva-like protection of the spore surface. When this volva is ruptured small heaps of spores will often be seen on the volva, having been protected from the wind.
The plant is small, somewhat round, and before the volva is ruptured it is very like a puffball; fleshy, smooth, attached by a small point, whitish, slightly tinged with yellow, red or reddish-brown; the cuticle of the pileus enveloping the entire pore-surface, thick and firm. The pores are rather long, small, the mouths yellowish, with a tinge of brown. The spores are elliptical and flesh-colored, .0003 to .00035 inch long and about .0002 broad.
This plant has a wide distribution, being found in the New England and Eastern States, and the States of the Pacific slope. I presume it will be found wherever the spruce tree is a native.
The specimens in Figure 340 were found near Boston and were sent me about the first of May by Mrs. Blackford. The first package I took, before examining them, to be a new puffball, which they seemed to resemble in their undeveloped state.
Figure 341.Figure 341.—Polystictus biformis. Natural size. Frequently covered with green lichen.
Figure 341.—Polystictus biformis. Natural size. Frequently covered with green lichen.
Biformis means two shapes or appearances; referring to the condition of the pores in the young and the old plant.
The pileus is two to three inches wide, projecting from one to three inches, often imbricated so as to cover a large surface; laterally confluent, coriaceous, flexible, tough, subzonate, with innate radiating fibres, the cortex fibrillose, concolorous.
The pores at first very large, simple, compound, or confluent, round, elongated, flexuous; the dissepiments dentate, then lacerate, the hymenium finally resolved into teeth.
When I first found this plant the hymenium had resolved into teeth, and I supposed that I had found an Irpex. It is found in woods on logs and stumps. Very common with us. Frequently covered with a green lichen. July to November.
The Bristly Polystictus.
Figure 342.Figure 342.—Polystictus hirsutus. Natural size.
Figure 342.—Polystictus hirsutus. Natural size.
Hirsutus means hairy or bristly. The pileus is corky, coriaceous, convex, then plane, hairy with rigid bristles, zoned with concentric furrows; of one color, whitish, sometimes these zones are quite marked as in Figure 342.
The pore surface is at first white, or whitish, becoming dark or brownish in age. The pores are round, the walls rather thick. It is found on logs and stumps in the woods. It is a very common plant and widely distributed.
The Common Zoned Polystictus.
Figure 343.Figure343.—Polystictus versicolor. One-half natural size.
Figure343.—Polystictus versicolor. One-half natural size.
Versicolor means varying colors. The pileus is coriaceous, thin, rigid, plane, depressed behind; quite velvety, nearly even and shining, variegated with colored zones, sometimes entirely white or grayish-white, not unfrequently the whole surface is villous or woolly, and the zones mere depressions.
The pores are minute, round, acute, lacerated, white or cream-color.
It is very common, as well as very variable in form and color. It is frequently found on logs and is then densely imbricated. On our hillsides it frequently grows on a small bush as in Figure 343. It is one of the most beautiful plants in the woods.
Gilvus means pale-yellow or deep-reddish flesh-color.
The pileus is corky, woody, hard, effuso-reflexed, imbricate, concrescent, subtomentose, then scabrous, uneven, reddish-yellow, then subferruginous, the margin acute.
The pores are minute, round, entire, brownish-ferruginous.Morgan.
It is very abundant throughout the state, being found on all kinds of logs and stumps.
Figure 344.Figure 344.—Polystictus cinnamoneus.
Figure 344.—Polystictus cinnamoneus.
The pileus is an inch and a half, or less, broad, coriaceous, slightly depressed in the center; rather rough on the surface, but with a beautiful satiny lustre, and more or less zoned; caps often growing together, but with separate stems; shining, a light cinnamon-brown.
The spores are rather large, angular, torn with age; cinnamon-brown, growing darker in older plants.
The stem is one to two inches long, equal, or slightly tapering upward, cinnamon-brown, hollow or stuffed, tough, frequently sending forth branches from the side and base of the stem.
This is quite a beautiful plant, growing usually in patches of moss. The caps have quite a glossy cinnamon-brown surface, which will attract the attention of any one. They are very small and easily overlooked. Found in August and September.
This plant is called P. subsericeus by Dr. Peck.
Figure 346.Photo by C. G. Lloyd.Plate XLVII. Figure 346.—Polystictus perennis.
Photo by C. G. Lloyd.
Plate XLVII. Figure 346.—Polystictus perennis.
The pileus is thin, pliant when fresh but somewhat brittle when dry. It is minutely velvety on the upper surface, reddish-brown or cinnamon in color; expanded or umbilicate to nearly funnel-shaped. The surface is beautifully marked by radiations and fine concentric zones.
The stem is also velvety. The spore-tubes are minute, the walls thin and acute, and the mouths angular, and at last more or less torn. The margin of the cap is finely fimbriate, but in old specimens those hairs are apt to become rubbed off.Atkinson.
I found specimens by the roadside near Lone Tree Hill, near Chillicothe. It is the only place in which I have found this plant. I have found Polystictus subsericeus, or, as Prof. Atkinson calls it, P. cinnamomeus, in a number of localities.
Figure 345.Figure345.—Polystictus pergamenus.
Figure345.—Polystictus pergamenus.
Pergamenus means parchment.
The pileus is coriaceous, thin, effused, reflexed, villous, zoned, cinereous-white, with colored zone; pliant when fresh.
The pores are unequal, torn, violaceous, then pallid. It is very common here on beech, maple, and wild cherry. The pores become torn so that they resemble the teeth of the Hydnum. This is one of the most common fungi in our woods.
The photograph is by Prof. J. D. Smith, of Akron, O.
This has been called by many authors in America Fomes applanatus or Polyporus applanatus. It is very common in this country but very rare in Europe, while Fomes applanatus, which is common in Europe, is very scarce in the United States. In general appearance they are much alike, the applanatus having a softer tissue and echinulate spores, but our common species, leucophæus, has smooth spores.
The pileus is expanded, tuberculose, obsoletely zoned, pulverulent, or smooth; cinnamon, becoming whitish; cuticle crustaceous, rigid, at length fragile, very soft within; loosely floccose, margin tumid; white, then cinnamon. The pores are very small, slightly ferruginous, orifice whitish, brownish when bruised. The spore surface when fresh is soft and white.
This attractive plant is very common in our woods and furnishes an excellent stencil surface for drawing. Found all the year round.
The Bracket Fomes.
This species is very common in our woods. The brackets resemble a horse's hoof in shape. They are smoky, gray, and of various shades of brown. The upper surface of the bracket is quite strongly zoned and furrowed, so as to show each year's growth. The margin is thick and blunt, and the tube surface is concave; the openings of the tubes quite large, so that they can be readily seen by the naked eye. The tube surface is reddish-brown when mature. The inside was formerly used in making tinder-sticks, which were made by rolling the fungus wood until it was perfectly flexible and then dipping it into saltpetre.
Cracked Fomes.
Figure 347.Figure 347.—Fomes rimosus.
Figure 347.—Fomes rimosus.
Rimosus means cracked. The fine checks in the pileus are clearly seen in the halftone.
The pileus is pulvinate-ungulate, much dilated, deeply sulcate; cinnamon, then brown or blackish; very much cracked or rimose. It is very hard, fibrous, tawny-ferruginous; the margin broad, pruinate-velvety, rather acute.
The pores are minute, indistinctly stratified, tawny-ferruginous, the mouths rhubarb-color.Morgan.
This plant is very common on the locust trees about Chillicothe. I have never found it on other wood.
Figure 348.Figure 348.—Fomes pinicola.
Figure 348.—Fomes pinicola.
Pinicola means dwelling on pine. It is found on dead pine, spruce, balsam, and other conifers. It resembles Fomes leucophæus but is somewhat stouter and does not have as hard and firm a crust. The young growth is at the margin, and is whitish or tinged with yellow, while the old zones are reddish. The tube surface is whitish-yellow or yellowish. This is frequently called Polyporus pinicolus. (Swartz.) Fr.
Figure 349.Figure 349.—Fomes igniarius.
Figure 349.—Fomes igniarius.
This is rather a common species in our state; black or brownish-black in color, somewhat triangular in shape, and frequently hoof-shaped. The zones indicating the yearly growth are plainly marked, and the tubes are quite long and of a dark brown color. Their growth is rather slow, and it requires years to produce some of the moderate sized specimens. Prof. Atkinson of Cornell University found a specimen which he believed to be over 80 years old.
This is called by many authors Polyporus igniarius (L.), Fr. Murrill calls it Pyropolyporus igniarius. This plant is widely distributed over the United States, and is met frequently in every wood in Ohio.
Figure 350.Figure 350.—Fomes fraxinophilus.
Figure 350.—Fomes fraxinophilus.
Fraxinophilus means ash-loving; rather common in this country, but does not grow in Europe.
The pileus is between corky and woody, smooth, somewhat flattened, at first zoneless; white when young, then reddish-brown, white around the margin; at first even, then concentrically sulcate, pale within.
The tubes are short, pores minute, rusty-red but covered from the first with a white pubescence and continuous with the margin; the spores nearly round, 6–7µ.
The specimens in Figure 350 were found in Haynes' Hollow on a living ash, growing at intervals of five or six feet, one above another, to a height of thirty feet.
In case of the genus Trametes the hymenophorum descends into the trama of the pores without any change, and is permanently concrete with the pileus. The pores are entire. There are, however, a few of the Polypori which are quite thin that have the trama of the same structure with the hymenophorum. These have been separated by Fries and have been calledPolystictus. They are distinguished by the fact that the pores develop from the center out and are perpendicular to the fibrillose stratum above the hymenophorum while in the genusTrametesthe hymenophorum is not distant from the rest of the pileus.
Figure 351.Figure 351.—Trametes rubescens.
Figure 351.—Trametes rubescens.
Figure 352.Figure 352.—Trametes rubescens.
Figure 352.—Trametes rubescens.
This is one of the neatest plants of this structure in our woods. It grows on the small branches and many times covers them quite well. It is resupinate, the cap being beautifully zoned as you see in Figure 351. Frequently they grow from the side of a small tree that has fallen to the ground and in this case they are shelving.
The pore surface is usually reddish or flesh-color, the pores being long and irregular and inclined to be labyrinthiform in older specimens as will be seen in Figure 352.
The whole plant is reddish orpale flesh-color. No one will fail to recognize it from these cuts.
Scutellata means shield-bearing. It is frequently quite small, an inch or less; coriaceous, dimidiate, orbiculate or ungulate, fixed by the apex; the pilei quite hard: white, then brownish and blackish, becoming rugged and uneven, with white margin; hymenium disk-shaped, concave, white-pulverulent becoming dark; pores minute, long, with thick obtuse dissepiments. This is found on fence posts.
The pilei are pulvinate, narrow, zoned, often laterally confluent; ochraceous-white, tomentose, then smooth, laccate. This plant resembles T. scutellata in many points, both in habit and in form.
Soft at first, pulvinate, white, villous, zoneless; pores rotund, rather large, obtuse, white, then darker; anise-scented. Found on willows.
Merulius means a blackbird; from the color of the fungus.
Hymenophore covered with the soft waxy hymenium, which is incompletely porus, or arranged in reticulate, sinuous, dentate folds. This genus grows on wood, at first resupinate, expanded; the hymenophore springing from a mucous mycelium.
Figure 353.Figure 353.—Merulius rubellus. Natural size.
Figure 353.—Merulius rubellus. Natural size.
Rubellus is the diminutive ofruber, reddish. The pileus grows in tufts, sessile, confluent and imbricated, repand, thin, convex, soft, dimidiate, quite tenacious; tomentose, evenly red, margin mostly undulately inflexed, growing pale in age. Hymenium whitish or reddish, folds much branched, forming anastomosing pores. The spores are elliptical, hyaline, minute, 4–5×2.5–3µ. The pileus is two to three inches long and an inch and a half broad.
It is found very frequently on decayed beech and sugar trees and I have found it growing on a live oak. The specimens in Figure 353 were collected near Columbus and photographed by Dr. Kellerman. It is probably the same as M. incarnati, Schw.
Figure 354.Photo by C. G. Lloyd.Figure 354.—Merulius tremellosus
Photo by C. G. Lloyd.
Figure 354.—Merulius tremellosus
Tremellosus, trembling. Resupinate; margin becoming free and more or less reflexed, usually radiately-toothed, fleshy, tremelloid, tomentose, white; hymenium variously wrinkled and porus, whitish and subtranslucent-looking, becoming tinged with brown in the center. The spores are cylindrical, curved, about 4×1µ. From one to three inches across, remaining pale when growing in dark places. The margin is sometimes tinged with a rose-color, radiating when it is well developed.Massee.
This plant grows in woods on wood and is quite common in our woods—both the rose-colored and the translucent-brown. Captain McIlvaine calls Merulius tremellosus and M. rubellus emergency species. He says they are rather tasteless, tough, slightly woody in flavor. They are found in October and November.
Resupinate, effused, soft, papery, circumference at length free, reflexed, white, villous below. Hymenium netted, porus, pallid, tan-color.
Found on decaying-branches. Quite common.
Resupinate, fleshy, spongy, moist, tender, at first very light, cottony and white; when the veins appear they are of a fine yellow, orange or reddish-brown, forming irregular folds, so arranged to have the appearance of pores (but never anything like tubes), distilling when perfect drops of water which give rise to the specific name "weeping."
Dr. Charles W. Hoyt of Chillicothe, brought to my office two or three plants of this species that had grown on the under side of the floor in his wash-house. When he took up the floor the workmen discovered a number of pendant processes, some oval, some cone-shaped. Some were eight inches long, very white and beautiful but clearly illustrating the weeping process. The doctor called them white rats suspended by their tails.
Dædalea is used with reference to the labyrinthiform pores; so named after Dædalos, the builder of the labyrinth of Crete.
The hymenophore descends into the trama without any change, pores firm, when fully grown sinuous and labyrinthiform, lacerated, and toothed. The habits of Dædalea are very much the same as Trametes, but they are inodorous. Care should be taken not to confound them with the species of Polyporus that have elongated curved pores.
Figure 355.Figure355.—Dædalea ambigua. One-third natural size, showing upper surface.
Figure355.—Dædalea ambigua. One-third natural size, showing upper surface.
Figure 356.Figure356.—Dædalea ambigua. One-third natural size, showing the pore surface.
Figure356.—Dædalea ambigua. One-third natural size, showing the pore surface.
The pileus is white, corky, horizontal, explanate, reniform, subsessile, azonate, finely pubescent, becoming smooth.
Pores from round to linear and labyrinthiform, the dissepiments always obtuse and never lamellate.
It is a very common growth in Ohio, found on old logs of the sugar maple. You will see the beginning of the growth in the spring as a round white nodulewhich develops slowly. If the same plant is observed in the summer it will be found to be gibbous or convex in form. It finishes its growth in the fall when it has become explanate and horizontal, depressed above and with a thin margin. When fresh and growing it is of a rich cream-color and has a soft and velvety touch and a pleasant fragrance. In Figure 355, showing the surface of the cap, the growth of the plant shows in the form of the zones. Figure 356 shows the form of the dissepiments. In younger specimens these are frequently round, much like a Polyporus. There is one locality in Poke Hollow where the maple logs are white with this species, appearing, in the distance, to be oyster mushrooms.
The Oak Dædalea.
Figure 357.Figure357.—Dædalea quercina.
Figure357.—Dædalea quercina.
The pileus is a pallid wood color, corky, rugulose, uneven, without zones, becoming smooth; of the same color within as without; the margin in full-grown specimens thin, but in imperfectly developed specimens swollen and blunt.
The pores are at first round, then broken into contorted or gill-like labyrinthiform sinuses, with obtuse edges of the same color as the pileus, sometimes with a slight shade of pink.
They grow to be very large, from six to eight inches broad, being found on oak stumps and logs, though not as common in Ohio as D. ambigua. The specimen in Figure 357 were found in Massachusetts by Mrs. Blackford and photographed here.
Villose-strigose, cinereous with concolorous zones; hymenium with flexuous, winding, intricate, acute dissepiments, at length torn and toothed. The pores are whitish cinereous, sometimes fuscous; variable in thickness, color, and character of hymenium; sometimes with white margin; often imbricated and fuliginous when moist. Widely distributed over the states and found on nearly all deciduous trees.
The Willow Dædalea.
Figure 358.Figure358.—Dædalea confragosa.
Figure358.—Dædalea confragosa.
Confragosa means broken, rough. The pileus is rather convex, corky, rough, slightly zonate, reddish-brown, unicolorous, somewhat of a rust-red within.
The pores are frequently round, like those of the Polyporus, but sometimesthey are elongated into gills like the Lenzites; reddish-brown.
I have seen quite old specimens that were very difficult to distinguish from some of the forms of Lenzites. The young plants resemble very closely Trametes rubescens. It grows on Cratægus, willow and sometimes on other trees, and is widely distributed. The specimen in Figure 358 was found in Massachusetts by Mrs. Blackford, and photographed in my study.
Favolus is a diminutive offavus, honey-comb.
The hymenium is alveolate, radiating, formed of the densely irregularly uniting gills; elongated, diamond-shaped. Spores white. Semicircular in outline, somewhat stipitate.
Figure 359.Figure359.—Favolus Canadensis.
Figure359.—Favolus Canadensis.
The pileus is fleshy, tough, thin, kidney-form, fibrillose, scaly, tawny, becoming pale and smooth.
The pores or alveoli are angular elongated, white at first, then straw-color.
The stem is eccentric, lateral, very short or lacking altogether.
This plant is very common around Chillicothe on fallen branches in the woods, especially on hickory. Found from September to frost. Not poisonous but too tough to eat. I do not believe there is any difference between F. canadensis and Favolus Europeus. I notice that our plant assumes different colors in different stages of its growth, and the form of the pores also changes.
Cyclomyces is from two Greek words, meaning a circle and fungus. This genus is very distinct from other tube-bearing genera. The pileus is fleshy, leathery or membranaceous, and usually cushion-formed. Upon the lower surface are the plate-like bodies resembling the gills of Agarics but which are composed of minute pores. These pore bodies are arranged in concentric circles around the stem.
Figure 360.Figure360.—Cyclomyces Greenii
Figure360.—Cyclomyces Greenii
Figure 361.Figure361.—Cyclomyces Greenii. Old specimens.
Figure361.—Cyclomyces Greenii. Old specimens.
The pileus is two to three inches broad, globose at first, convex, sometimes undulate, somewhat zoned, tomentose, dry, cushion-formed, cinnamon-brown, rather showy.
The gills are in concentric circles around the stem, growing larger and larger as they reach the margin of the cap. In the young plant the gills are divided into long divisions but in the older plant these division lines disappear as will be seen in Figure 361. The edges of the gills are white at first, as will be seen in Figure 361, but finally becoming cinnamon-brown.
The stem is central, tapering upward, quite large and swollen at times very much like Hydnum spongiosipes; the color is the same as the pileus.
This is a very interesting plant and quite rare in Ohio, however, I found several plants in the fall of 1905, on Ralston's Run. In the same locality I found Boletus badius, and when I first saw C. Greenii I came near mistaking it for the same plant and so neglecting it, the caps being at first glance so much alike.
Glœoporus is from two Greek words, meaning gluten and pore. The plants of this genus resemble the polyporus and are frequently placed under that genus.
Conchoides means like a shell.
The pileus is leathery or woody, at first fleshy, soft, effused, with upper margin reflexed; thin, silky, whitish, with edge of the margin often reddish. It has a trembling, gelatinous, spore-bearing surface, often somewhat elastic.
The pores are short, very small, round, cinnamon-brown.
There are several synonyms. Polyporus dichrous, Fr., and P. nigropurpurascens, Schw. Montgomery places it in the above genus because of its gelatinous hymenium.
There is, perhaps, no family in mycology that has a greater variety in form, size, and consistency than this. Some species are very large, some are small, some fleshy, and some are corky or woody. The fruiting surface is the special characteristic marking the family. This surface is covered with spines or teeth which nearly always point to the earth.
Many of the Hydnaceæ are shelving, growing on trees or logs; some grow on the ground on central, but usually eccentric, stems. The genera of Hydnaceæ are distinguished by the size, shape, and attachment of the teeth. The following genera are included:
Hydnum is from a Greek word meaning an eatable fungus. The genus is characterized by awl-shaped spines which are distant at the base. These spines are at first papilliform, then elongated and round. They form the fruiting surface and take the place of the gills in the family Agaricaceæ and of the pores in the family of Polyporaceæ. The spines are simple or in some cases the tips are more or less branched.
This is the greatest genus in the family and it includes many important edible species. It may be divided into two groups: one, those species having a cap and a central or lateral stem; the other, the species growing with or without a distinct cap, in large imbricated masses. Some imitate coral in structure and some seem to be a mass of spines. Many of these plants grow to be very large and massive, frequently weighing over ten pounds.
The Spreading Hydnum. Edible.