Order Hymenomtcetes. Tribe Pileati. 



Plate XLIV. 



PHLEBIA MERISMOIDES, Fries, 



var. AURANTIA, Berkeley, MSS. 



Gen. Char. Hymenium homogeneous, amphigenous, waxy, soft, smooth, from the first corrugated, wriukles 

 near together, interrupted, covered everywhere on the surface with very distinct perfect asci. Kesupinate, effused, 

 when moist subgelatinous, ceraceous ; when dry cartilaginous. 



Spec. Clmr. Phlebia merismoides. Effused, smooth, flesh-coloured, turning livid, the circumference rayed, 

 orange-colour ; folds nearly straight when developed on a level surface, but adapting themselves to the shape of the 

 mosses or other irregular substances iucrusled by their growth. The under surface is villous and white when the 

 margins curl upward in drying. 



Var. aiirantia ; rich orange-scarlet, the central portions becoming lake-red and purplish in maturity. 

 Phlebia merismoides, Fries. 

 merismoides, var. aurantia, Berkeley MSS. 



Hab. On the trunk of a bigaroon cherry-tree, bursting through the bark, and spreading diffusely over and 

 incrusting moss, a species of Hypiium. Hayes Eectory ; autumn. 



Those wlio plant standard cherry-trees furnish doubtless most delectable banquets to the blackbirds, 

 jackdaws, and others of the feathered tribes ; but if dessert for the master be an idea in the mind, disap- 

 pointment is sure to ensue, unless, indeed, so many trees are provided that the birds cannot devour all their 

 produce. The bigaroon wliich fostered this lovely Phlebia had constantly been plundered of its fruit by 

 daws while yet green, so that when a tall wild-rose briar, growing from the base of the trunk, attained the 

 same height as the tree itself, about twenty-five feet, numerous lax elegant stems finding support among 

 the strong cherry-boughs, it was suffered to remain, the shining green leaves and profuse snowy blossoms, 

 besides the unusual proportions it had attained, rendering it a very lively screen to that portion of the 

 grounds : but the nursling, in its amazing vigour, robbed the guardian which sustained it in such glory 

 for a briar : it is as luxuriant as ever, — the bigaroon defunct for want of nourishment, and, piece by piece, 

 every gale strews the garden with its withered branches. The little life remaining afforded a pabulum fit 

 for the production of the beautiful Phlebia aurmitia. The first autumn that it appeared, the entire trunk, 

 measuring a foot and a half iu diameter, was permeated beneath the outer bark with the white my- 

 celium of this fungus ; scarlet spots erupted through every weak point'; and where the forking of the 

 limbs gave a habitation to bright green moss, the dazzling orange Phlebia seized upon its shoots, spreading 



