Order Hymenomycetes. Tribe Pileati. 



Plate LVIII. 



THELEPHORA HIRSUTA, wuidenow. 



Common Buff Thelepliora} 



Spec. Char. Thelephoea hirsuta. Effused, at first resupiuate, at length generally reflexed, often imbricated, 

 more or less zoned, coriaceous, but not rigid, strigose, buff, yellowisli or gi-eyish, fading pallid, and often acquii'ing 

 a green tinge from the presence of minute Algae. Ilymenium smooth, even, buff, sometimes cinereous. Margin 

 entire, more or less lobed. 



Thelephora hirsuta, Tf'Uldetiow, Fries, Berkeley, Persoon, Greville. 

 Adriculaeia reflcxa, BidUard, Soiverby, Withering. 



Hab. On posts, sticks, fallen trees, &c. ; very common. 



The present plate presents the Thelepliora in sucli a position as to show very little of it, except the 

 buff hymeniuin ; the smaller example gives the upper sides of two vaiiously coloured pileuses. 



It is of variable and fantastic growth, and may be found as half-a-dozen apparently different species in 

 the scope of a very restricted examination ; in youth and age it could scarcely be supposed the same plant. 

 At ffrst, small, yellow, obtuse dots and lines are seen which extending their growth become thinner, waved, 

 plaited, and scalloped, and cover an old stick with ruffles from one end to the other ; sometimes they shrink 

 up, looking brown and dull, then after rain their margins swell again into bright yellow tumid lips, and 

 every passer-by is attracted by the beauty of the Fungus meandering in ridges all over the old gate-post 

 or decaying rail. This is during the period of youth ; in mature age a uniform buff is the usual colom- of 

 the entire plant, and then changes of season and weather operate Kttle upon the configuration of the 

 substance, but bleach its hues till eventually it assumes even a "frosty pow," or puts on a wig of green 

 parasitic Algae. The resupinate form with which it begins causes the hymenium, smooth, velvety, and 

 porelessj to be apparent only at fii-st, then one edge of the pileus rises wlule that opposite continues firmly 

 attached, and growth extends from that, as a base, perpendicularly to the substance on which it is placed ; 

 this attached edge cannot of course expand; therefore, the free portion, growing out, zone beyond zone, 

 forms scallops, which are irregularly crowded, but aU turn over one way, so that in one direction we see all 

 the caps, in the other all their lining. It wears a hairy cap as the name denotes, tomentose, even shaggy, 

 not often bedecked with coloured zones, but it is always a clean, elegant, attractive indi\'idual, and gives a 

 foreign grace to many an innately graceless block. 



A few years ago the picturesque summits of some pollard oaks were fixed in the garden to have 

 creeping plants inserted in their cavities. The succession of Funguses upon those particular stumps was 

 easily watched, and extremely interesting — firstly the present Thelej)lwra and its cousin T. ruUr/inosa, had 

 entire possession, and used their advantage so industriously that the bark could not be seen for the pretty 



' Hymenium homogeneous and concrete with the pileus even, or papUlate ; named from Brikr], a nipple, and 

 cftipa, to bear, from the papillose appearance of the hymenium in many species. 



