118 A CATALOGUE OF ESCULENT BRITISH FUNGI. 



Habit. One to three inclies liigh, white, simple, in bnnches 

 looking like miniature bundles of tallow candles, fragile, nearly 

 even, smooth, usually vertical, sometimes twisted, bluntly pointed. 

 Odour slight. Taste pleasant. Spores white. 



Ohs. Often plentiful in garden-grounds, and a very excellent comestible. — 

 W. D. H. 



Genus SPARASSIS. 



(146.) SPARASSIS CRISPA; The Sparassis. (PI. XI. fig. I.) 



Habitat. On moors, and at the foot of trees in young planta- 

 tions. Singly. 



Season. July to October. Rare. 



Habit. A mass of crisp, petaloid, or ligulate branches, of creamy 

 fawn tint, forming a tuft six or eight inches high, and perhaps 

 twenty inches across. Trunk short, thick, rooting, spreading 

 above. Branches many, fragile, ligulate or petaloid, interlaced, 

 rugose, the tips laciniate, curled. Odour of mouldy meal. Taste 

 strong. Spores creamy. 



Obs. So scarce, I have only met with it once. It is well known to be a good 

 esculent, and possesses a good but peculiar flavour. It may be cut up and 

 cooked like Clavarias. It quickly putrifies. — IF. D. H. 



OBDEB HYBNEI. 



Genus HYDNVM. 



Obs. Of the twenty-nine British species of this genus, eight may be called 

 esculent. The rest are of inedible substance, but none of them are known to be 

 poisonous. — W. D. II. 



(147.) HYDNUM AURISCALPIUM ; The Fir-cone Sprout. 



Habitat. On half-buried rotting fir-cones. Singly. 



Season. October to December. Common locally. 



Fileus. Half to one inch across, bright red-brown, then dusky, 

 perhaps zoned ; rounded, reniform, lobulate, dimidiate, tomentose. 



Stein. One to three inches high, tint of pilous, elongate, slen- 

 der, straight, lateral, villoso-tomentose, rooting. 



Section. Flesh thin, brown, tough. Stem stuffed. Spines pale 

 brown, equal, adnexed. Odour aromatic. Taste resinous. 



Obs. Of very inferior quality as an esculent, yet commonly eaten in France 

 and Italy.— IF. D. II. 



