HYDNUM. 157 



On decayed wood, fir, beech, &c. A very beautiful plant, 

 somewhat resembling a coral, or as some say, a cauliflower, 

 6 in. to half a yard across. 



When old it forms tufts, a foot or more in length, with 

 flexuous, angular branches, beset with incurved ramuli, 

 bearing spines on the under side. (Cooke.) 



Hydnum erinaceum. Bull. 



Pileus 2-8 in. across, white, then yellowish, elastic, 

 irregularly tuberculose, pendulous, fibrillose ; spines crowded, 

 straight, pendulous, pale, l-2 in. long ; spores subglobose, 

 smooth, 5-6 //, diam. 



Hydnum erinaceum, Bulliard, t. 34 ; Stev., Fung., p. 449. 



On trunks, oak, beech, &c. Internally lacunose, sometimes 

 with an indistinct lateral stem. 



Pileus a span or more broad, the base projecting, soft, torn 

 into subfasciculate fibrillae (abortive spines) ; margin obtuse, 

 gradually giving out true spines, often imbricated with 

 smaller pilei; spines l|-2^ in. long, pendulous, thick set, 

 very regular, soft, equally attenuated, connected two or 

 three together at their bases, fastigiate ; substance thick, 

 tough, fleshy, very soft, elastic, white, not changing colour. 

 (Fries.) 



States occur, depending probably on situation, with densely 

 anastomosing branches, stemless, or with a horizontal stem. 

 (Berk.) 



Hydnum caput-medusae. Bull. 



Pileus fleshy, 3-4 in. diameter, white, becoming dingy 

 grey, tuberculiform, tapering to a stem-like base, covered all 

 over with spines, those on the upper surface distorted, those 

 on the under side ^-f in. long, straight. 



Hydnum caput-medusae. Bull., t. 412 ; Stev., Fung., p. 240. 



On trunks. Distinguished by the presence of spines on 

 every surface of the pileus. 



Large and fleshy, at first snowy-white, then dingy 

 cinereous ; stem dilated into the pileus ; all the spines at 

 first straight, slender, long, the upper ones at length bent and 

 contorted. (Cooke.) 



