OF BRITISH FUNGI. 71 



equal, if not superior, to the latter for culinary purposes ; 

 but their inconstant or limited occurrence would only 

 serve to raise expectations not likely to be realized. 



Five other genera complete the order Agaricini, all 

 more or less tough and dry, becoming at length hard and 

 corky. In Lentinus the sharp edges of the tough gills 

 are toothed, and in Panus they are equally sharp and 

 tough, but not toothed. In Xerotus the tough gills are 

 forked, but with blunt or obtuse edges ; and the two 

 divisions into which the gills separate are spreading or 

 rolled back in Schizophyllum. In Lenzites the whole 

 substance is corky, and the gills are often so connected 

 by lateral branches as to form irregular cavities resem- 

 bling pores. 



PORE-BEAEING FUNGI. 



THE observing eye of the lover of nature in all its 

 Protean forms will have discovered fungi, which in 

 external contour resembled those we have already 

 described, being furnished with a cap or pileus sup- 

 ported upon a stem ; but when more closely examined 

 have been found to present the important distinction of 

 having the under surface of the pileus not divided into 

 plates or gills, but apparently perforated with small 

 holes, as if pricked with a pin by some fairy in childish 

 sport. Others, again, entirely devoid of a stem, and in 

 some instances of extraordinary size and as tough as 

 leather, or hard and unyielding as cork or wood, with the 

 under or sometimes upper surface similarly perforated. 



