132 A CATALOGUE OF ESCULENT BRITISH FUNGI. 



(180.) POLYPORUS SaUAMOSUS ; The Dryad's Saddle. 



Habitat. On stumps, tree-trunks, branches, roots. Singly, or 

 imbricated. 



Season. April to September. Very common. 



Pileus. Four inches to three feet across, cream}^ or pale buff, 

 tawny or brown-squamose ; flabelliform, expanded, dimidiate, 

 imbricate, depressed behind, irregular. Margin often incurved. 

 Sessile ; or short, continuous, thick, excentric, lateral stem. Base 

 black, enlarged, woody. Pores pallid, at first small, round, then 

 large, angular, torn. 



Section. Flesh thick, white, juicy, tough. Odour strong, sickly. 



Taste acrid, then mild. Spores white. 



Ohs. It is eaten abroad, but only in extreme youth. It is a very inferior 

 esculent.— H'. D. H. 



(181.) POLYPORUS SULFUREUS; The Sulphur-clump. (PI. 



VI. tig. 4.) ^ y~ _ ~~^— _ 



Habitat. On tree-trunks, chiefly of willow. In imbricate clumps. 



Season. May to October. Common. 



Habit. A mass of confluent, imbricate pilei, two or three feet 



across, compacted. In age sometimes encrusted with crystals of 



pota.ssic binoxalate. A single Pileus is s ix to s ixteen inches ^cross, 



sulphur-yellow, tinged with red, smooth, undulate, irregulai^ 



lateral. Sessile. ]\Iargin uneven, irregularly indented. Pores 



sulphur- 3-ellow, plane, minute. Flesh thick, yellow, doughy. 



Odour pleasant. Taste sour. Spores "wdiite, abundant. 



Obs. While young it is esculent, and certainly better than the preceding. It 

 rpquires to be sliced, well scalded and rinsed, before sweating and cooking. — 

 ir. D. JI. 



(182.) POLYPORUS TUBERASTER ; The Italian Stone-tuft. 



Habitat. On an argillaceous tufa found in Italy, called Pietra 

 fungaia. In tufts. 



Season. At all times in a temperature of G5° to 75° Fahr. 



Pileus. Four to eight inches across, white, soon tawny, villoso- 

 squamose ; plane, then infundibuliform, undulate, thin. 



Stem. Short, tint of pileus, rigid, slender, continuous, uneven, 

 unequal, smooth, tapered downward. 



Pores. Straw- tint, large, equal, angular, torn, decurrcnt. Odour 



aromatic. Taste sharp. 



Ohs. May be cultivated anywhere on the Italian " Fungus-stone," under 

 proper conditions. See chapter xi. — W. D. II. 



