FUNGI. 03 1 



The ether and alcoholic extracts consisted of red-coloured 

 resins, but no fatty matter. The aqueous extract contained 

 2'42 per cent, of an organic acid not related to tannin in its 

 reaction with ferric chloride and gelatine. Solution of soda 

 removed an acid resin having some of the properties of 

 polyporic acid. 



' POLYPORUS OFFICINALIS, Fries. 



Fig. — Guibourt, Hid. Nat. ii., ^0 ; Pereira, Mat. Med. ii., 



ft. ], p. 54. Larch Agaric {Eng.), Polypore du Mdleze, 

 Agaric blanc (Fr.). 



Hab. — Southern Europe, Asia Minor. On the Larch. 

 The fungus. 



Vernacular .—(ji\xiYi\i<m {Indian Bazars). 



History, Uses, &C. — The use of this fungus in medicine 

 is of very ancient date. Dioscorides (iii., 1) describes ayapiKov 

 as male and female, the female being the best and having 

 internally a comb-like structure, whilst the male is convolute, 

 round and compact { o-u/x^ves ) ; both have the same taste, at 

 first sweet, afterwards bitter. He states that it grows in 

 Sarmafcia, Galatia in Asia, and Oilicia, and that some suppose 

 it to be a root and others a fungus. It is astringent, hot, and 

 purgative, and is also given in fever, jaundice, nephritis, 

 uterine obstructions, phthisis, dyspepsia, haemorrhage, and 

 pains in the joints; it is alexipharmic. PHny (25, 57) says : 

 " Agaric is found growing in the form of a fungus of a white 

 colour, upon the trees in the vicinity of the Bosporus. It is 

 administered in doses of four oboH, beaten up in two cyathi of 

 oxymel. The kind that grows in Galatia is generally looked 

 upon as not so efficacious. The male* agaric is firmer than 

 the other, and more bitter ; it is productive, too, of headache. 

 The female plant is of a looser texture ; it has a sweet 

 taste at first, which speedilychanges ^into a bitter flavour." 



, • This .Ustinction into male and female is no longer recognized, though 

 it continued to be so till within the last century. {Bostock.) 



