256 FUNGUS-FLORA. 



Fistulina, Bull., Champ, i. p. 314;' Stev., Brit. Fung., 

 p. 183. 



Superficially resembling a fleshy Polyporm, but distin- 

 guished by the tubes of the hymenium remaining free from 

 each other. 



Fistulina hepatica. Fr. (figs. 8-10, p. 184.) 



Pileus roundish, dimidiate, or subspathulate, attached by 

 a broad base or substipitate, blood-red, fleshy and soft, 

 streaked internally ; tubes at first pallid, then red ; spores 

 broadly elliptical, salmon-colour, 5-6 x 3-4 ft. Conidia 

 6-10 x 5 ft, salmon-colour. 



Fistulina hepatica, Fries, Syst. Myc. i. p. 396 ; Stev., Brit. 

 Fung., p. 183, fig. Ixii. 



On the trunks of living trees, oak, hornbeam, beech, &c. 

 Size variable, from 3-20 in. across, 2-3 in. thick, sometimes 

 several pilei spring from the same point, red above and 

 inside streaked like beetroot. Popularly known as the beef- 

 steak fungus. 



Pileus 4-8 in. broad, exceedingly variable in form, being 

 either quite sessile or obliquely stipitate, entire or lobed, 

 solitary, or several growing together in a tufted manner, 

 but rarely at all imbricated. The substance is very thick, 

 soft, fleshy, viscid or juicy, especially in a young state, when 

 a blood-like fluid is emitted if it be wounded; the fibres 

 composing the substance are tenacious ; and in tearing the 

 pileus they are found to pass from the base to the extremity. 

 When the pileus is divided longitudinally by a knife, it is 

 beautifully marbled with red and white, somewhat like fine 

 beef. The colour of the pileus is at first a fine red, passing 

 into a pale yellow towards the base ; in age it becomes 

 deeper, and at length of a fine chocolate colour. The 

 surface is rendered more or less rough by minute, prominent, 

 rigid points, which may be denominated abortive tubes, as 

 they are the termination of fibres which, under other circum- 

 stances, wonld have formed perfect ones. The hymenium 

 is whitish or yellowish, and composed of a multitude of tubes 

 between ^ in. and ^ in. in length, perfectly distinct from 

 each other, but so connected to the substance of the pileus as 

 not to be separated from it, as in the genus Boletus. In the 

 young state the first appearance of the tube is in the form of 



