FUNGI AND LICHENS. 



ing on old fir cones, 1 which have been for some time 

 lying on the ground. The cap is not much over 

 half an inch broad, placed obliquely on the top of a 

 slender stem about two inches in length, and nearly 

 black. Although it has no ascertained use, this fungus 

 may be sought for as another illustration of that 

 peculiar structure of the under-side of the cap in 

 which the gill-plates of the mushroom tribe are replaced 

 by spines. 



It would scarcely be possible within the limits of 

 this work to enumerate half the species of fungi to be 

 found growing in woods in the autumn. All we can 

 hope to do is to point out some of the commonest 

 types of the most important groups, and thus give a 

 general idea of the great variety of form and structure 

 which these little-known vegetables assume. One of 

 the largest of the pileate fungi, that is, such as have 

 an erect stem surmounted by an expanded cap, after 

 the manner of an open umbrella, is called by 

 botanists Boletus edulis. It has no popular name with 

 us because its good qualities have never been ap- 

 preciated. The stem is from three to five inches in 

 height, and from an inch to an inch and a half in 

 thickness, of a dirty-whitish colour, reticulated near 

 the top with minute darker-coloured veins. The cap 

 is sometimes seven or eight inches broad, convex, 

 and of a pleasant nut-brown colour, rather slimy to 

 the touch when moist. Underneath, instead of gills 

 or spines, the surface is even, of a greenish-yellow 

 colour, punctured with myriads of little round holes, 

 as if it had been pricked all over with a pin. To 

 1 Hydnum auriscalpium. 



