Order Hymenomycetes. Tribe Pileati. 



Plate LII. 



POLYPORUS QUERCINUS, Schrader. 



Oak-tree Polyporus. 



Spec. Cliar. Polypoeus queecinus. Pileus at first soft, fleshy, very thick, tongue-shaped, subspatvdate, or 

 triangular ; pallid buff, or white, turning red in patches when handled, grantilate ; pores veiy minute, short, the 

 same colour as the pileus. In mature growth the pileus expands beyond the dimensions of the thick horizontal 

 stem, but remains more or less spatulate, plano-convex, dull yellow, the floccose upper sm'face reddish brown. 

 The substance is elastic, corky, vinous when cut, the tubes darker. Intensely bitter. 

 Polypoeus quercinus, Schrader, Fries. 

 suberosus, Krombholz. 



Hob. On decaying oaks. Very rare. 



"Tliis polyporus was fii'st described by Schrader, in 1794, but lias since been lost sight of till very 

 lately," thus wrote Mr. Berkeley on receiving it from Hayes Common two years ago. Sclu-ader noticed its 

 resemblance in growth &c., to Fistulina ke2Mtica, and tliis was fully borne out by an accident wliich 

 destroyed some specimens of much finer growth than those depicted. 



A basket-full of Fidulina liepatlca, the "Langue de Boeuf," had been collected and devoted to 

 sauce, for which these funguses were constantly employed ; the cook salted them down in the absence of her 

 mistress, concluding the white tongues were only dehcate varieties of the red, owing to a shady place of 

 growth or some such cause. These " wliite tongues ■" were of considerable size, perhaps a foot long and 

 not quite so wide. Next morning the salt had turned them brilliantly yellow, and it was evident that a 

 mistake had been made, — an unfortunate one, for no examples so large and well developed have ever been 

 met with since ; and it need scarcely be stated that they did not make good sauce ; their bitter flavour is 

 intense, hke galls ; yet the same tree, at the same time, produced also the bland Fistxdina liepatica, which 

 is sKghtly acid but never bitter, and always retains the flesh-like juiciness of its texture, when its Polyporus 

 neighbour has hardened into excellent cork, whence its other name "suberosus." Funguses, therefore, 

 " each after its kind," can select and modify for themselves the nutriment they draw from the tree, as the 

 deadly hemlock and emoUient mallow grow side by side on the same soil in which the chemist woidd vainly 

 try to detect differing quahties. The genius to solve these difficulties has not yet arisen, it must be a 

 greater than Eay or Linnaeus to do it ; in the mean while whatever ground has been gained in late times, is 

 disencumbered of the rubbish left by *' ingenious gentlemen," who surmised where they could not fathom, 

 and imagined where they could not see ; no theory now-a-days can stand unless upon a firm foundation ; 

 people observe, they dare not venture to speculate ; and when a sufficient number of " facts " sliall have been 

 accumulated, possibly the mystery of the propagation and germination of Funguses may be deduced from 

 them by a skilful generahzer, and the mode in which plants select their food discovered. 



