THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 55 



1903 I took a specimen with two distinct caps. This plant is 

 often called "German tinder" and it is said that it is used large- 

 ly by the Germans for making fuses. This is done by removing 

 the tube system and beating the fungus until flexible, and then 

 dipping it into saltpetre. In Bohemia they are said to be util- 

 ized as flower pots by cutting out the tube system, inverting the 

 plant and filling the hollow portion with earth. 



The most beautiful species of this genus is Foiiics lucidiis, 

 so-called from the shining cap which presents a beautiful sur- 

 face, appearing as if varnished. The color of the whole plant 

 is yellowish then chestnut red. In mature plants the tubes are 

 brown. The surface is quite woody and tough when the plant 

 has matured. Dry stumps are usually the habitat of this plant 

 and it is seldom found in any but comparatively dry places. 

 This beautiful fungus succumbs so quickly to the attack of cer- 

 tain insects which are fond of fungi, that it is difficult to find 

 a mature plant in a perfect state of preservation. 



Follies applanatus has a hard, woody shell, much harder 

 than that of Fames lucidiis, in fact it is the hardest of these 

 fungi. The cap is brownish or gray, sometimes white; corru- 

 gated, and strongly zoned with annual rings for this plant is 

 perennial. The surface of the tubes is white and the mouths 

 are scarcely visible to the naked eye. Bruises of the tubes turn 

 brown and for this- reason it is often collected and drawn upon 

 with a sharp instrument. The plants usually are sesile and 

 single and grow on logs or stumps alike in wet or dry places. 

 It is the longest lived of any of the fungi, for the reason that, 

 being so hard it neither decomposes from an over abundance of 

 moisture, or succumbs to the ravages of insects which attack 

 and destroy so many of the softer species. At certain seasons 

 of the year the cap is covered by a reddish, powdery substance 

 due "to the numerous spores or conidia which are developed on 

 the upper surface of the plant in addition to the smaller spores 

 developed in the tubes on the under surface." (Atkinson.). 



