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but sparingly produced, frequently attain to almost fabu- 

 lous dimensions in favourable circumstances. The scaly 

 polyporus (Polyporus squamoms), one of the commonest 

 fungi, everywhere to be met with on the decayed trunks 

 of trees, especially the ash, and easily recognised by its 

 brown scaly pileus, and white porous under-side, grows 

 to a larger size than any other species. Instances have 

 been recorded of its measuring seven feet five inches in 

 circumference, and weighing thirty-four pounds avoirdu- 

 pois, having attained these vast dimensions in the short 

 space of three weeks. The liver fungus (Fistulina 

 Iwpaticci) has been found on an ash-pollard weighing 

 nearly thirty pounds. Mr. Badham, in his interesting 

 work on the Esculent Fungi of Britain, mentions having 

 seen a fungus in the neighbourhood of Tunbridge Wells 

 which rose nearly a foot from the ground, measured con- 

 siderably more than two and a half feet across, and 

 weighed from eighteen to twenty pounds. Specimens 

 of agaric and puff-ball may frequently be met with, 

 measuring a foot and a half in diameter, and weighing 

 many pounds. 



Although the structure of all fungi is entirely of a 

 loosely cellular nature, yet they exhibit an astonishing 

 variety of consistence. Each genus, and in many in- 

 stances each species, displays a different texture. They 

 range in substance from a watery pulp or a gelatinous 

 scum to a fleshy, corky, leathery, or even ligneous mass. 

 Some are mere thin fibres of airy cobweb, spreading like 

 a flocculent veil over decaying matter ; while others 

 resemble large irregular masses of hard tough wood. 

 Their qualities are also exceedingly various. Like the 



