Order Hymenomycetes. Tribe Pileati. 



Plate XXXIII. 



POLYPORUS SQUAMOSUS, M..«. 



Scali/ Poh/porus. 



Oert'^Cluxr: Hymenium concrete with the substance of the pileus, consisting of sub-rotund pores with thin 

 simple dissepiments. Name from nokvi, many, and n-dpos, a pore, in allusion to the many pores of the Hymenium. 



Spec. Char. Polyporus squamosus. Solitarj' or imbricated ; from a scaly blackish knob arise one or more 

 stems ; when full gi-own, pileus broad, pale ochre with scattered brown adpressed scales ; stem blunt, sub-lateral, 

 pores pale, large, angular, very irregular towards the stem. Smell powerful ; spores white. 

 Polyporus squamosus, Dies, Berkeley, Greville. 

 Boletus squamosus, Hudson, TFitJiering, Sowerby. 

 polymorphus, BulUard. 



Hob. On decaying timber, principally Ash. Summer and early autumn ; sometimes forming immense masses. 

 Annual. 



In a quarto plate it is impossible to give an adequate representation of the gigantic growtlis classed 

 under tlie general head Polyporus ; and this is one of that number ; there are few persons, however, who 

 will not immediately recognize an old acquaintance in our specimen. Although very common, and to the 

 botanist, therefore, an object of small interest, it is brought forward to show to the uninitiated the various 

 styles of developement these Tunguses present. Except in as far as the size of the masses they form is 

 concerned, there is little in common to the external appearance of P. squamosus, P. dryadeus, and P. his- 

 pidus. The substance of P. squmnosus differs much from the two others, being less persistent, never woody, 

 but often flaccid, or tough, leathery, and stringy ; and the pores instead of being minute, as in those varieties, 

 are large, angular, and jagged, like those of some of the soft fleshed Boletuses. Although tough and leathery, 

 P. squanwsris easily becomes the prey of insects ; the growth of a beautiful mass, springing from a perfectly 

 defunct pollard-ash, being watched carefidly in 1846, on the 21st of July was in perfection, on the 31st 

 riddled in every direction by larvae and decajing fast ; of course the destruction would not have been so 

 rapidly effected at a later period of the season, when insects are not so active, but at all periods this Fungus 

 is a favourite resort for them. 



Strange things have been eaten by the truly hungry, stewed saddle-flaps, perhaps, in a besieged city, and to 

 these we suspect P. sqitat?iosus has a strong resemblance ; the statement of Mons. Eoques is so decided as to 

 its being used as food in France, that an inveterate devourer of Funguses, full of faith, insisted on trying the 

 experiment, but mastication was out of the question, and the flavour by no means tempting. On cutting 

 across the stems of a growing mass, a considerable quantity of very viscid sweetish liquid flowed out, the 



