Order Hymenomycetes. Tribe Pileati. 



Plate XX. A. 



THELEPHORA PURPUREA, p....o.. 



Gen. CJiar. Hymenium homogeneous and concrete with the pileus, even or papillate, its whole surface bearing 

 spores. Name from QjjKr] a nipple, and (jiipa to bcai', from the papillose appearance of the hymenium in many species. 



Sjiec. CJiar. Thelephora purpurea. Imbricated, soft but coriaceous, rigid when diy, zoned, margin waved 

 and plicate, colour variable, often with a blackish zone near the margin, hymenium smooth, pm-ple or lilac, in age 

 dusky. 



Thelephora pm-purea, Persoon, Fries, Greville, Berkeley. 

 Auricula reflexa, BulUard. 

 persistens, Sowerby, Purton. 



Hah. On wood, old stumps, rails, dead branches lying on the ground ; all the year. 



All Thelephoras commence their growth as minute, more or less downy patclies, quite adnate to the 

 substance, whether bark, planks, &c., on which they are found ; in tlais state they are called reswpinate, that 

 is topsy-tuny , the fertile surface being upwards, wliicli is contrary to the true character of the Pileate tribes. 

 A few species remain to the end entirely resujnnate, never turning over at all so as to form a pileus, but the 

 gi-eater number elevate themselves at one edge, and extend tlieii' growth upwards in that direction, remaining 

 fixed by the other extremity ; then the free side swells and becomes a pileus in its usual sense, thus forming 

 variously lobed, often densely imbricated masses ; the student will be obliged to watch carefully the successive 

 stages of development, in order to discriminate between the imperfect state of those kinds wliich form a 

 pileus, and the mature condition of those wliich never do. A few Tlieleplioras have stems, but the general 

 character of their growth is sessUe, seated or attached by a portion of the pileus. ThelepJwra jmrpurea is a 

 good example of the sessile kinds, it is produced in confluent patches on decaying timber ; a stump being 

 frequently frilled over with a congeries of its elegant lobes, wliich are flexible when moist, drying up and 

 becoming brittle and coriaceous during parching winds, but again swelling out into soft downy masses, after 

 rain ; in these varying conditions the present subject lasts many months, as do others of the family, but 

 although there may be successive growths of the plant about the same site for years, it is not truly perennial, 

 in the sense of the same uidividual pileus enduring for that period. Thelephoras are destitute of pores : a 

 distinguishing characteristic from the whole tribe of Polyporus, some varieties of which in the young state 

 approximate to them closely. It may be as well here to remark that general descriptions apply only to the 

 perfect state of plants ; a young pufi'-ball and a button mushroom are at fh'st sight alike ; inexperience must 

 wait till the shapeless cotton which is the early development common to many Tlieleplwras and Polypornses, 

 has assumed features before a decision can be made to which class it belongs : perhaps we must acknowledge 

 that our present subjects are featureless ; Sfr J. E. Smith evidently thought so, when after trying to fix on 

 distinctive characters he says " when their smooth surface discharges powdery seeds they are to be considered 



