Saucy Jays and Polypores 151 



fungi here. The larger kind often attains a diameter 

 from six inches to three or four feet, in a semicircle, 

 according to age. It is a hard, leathery or cork-like 

 growth full of pores, the top of the shelf seeming like 

 a slanting roof, grained and striated as it were, with 

 colored slates of graj^ and brown. This fungus seeks no 

 special species of decayed tree, as I find it clinging to 

 several, — the yellow and white birch, and hemlock logs 

 and stumps. 



The underside of Polypores is of a soft ashes-of-roses 

 hue when fresh, later becoming a dull gray-brown. If 

 one looks sharply at the under surface, even with the 

 naked eye, he will observe little pores no larger than 

 pin-points. Under the magnifying-glass, these appear 

 like giant honeycomb cells. Cutting through a section 

 of the shelf, we find that these pores penetrate the 

 heart of the shelf. In these little pore-like cells, the 

 spores or seeds are borne, more hidden even than those 

 of the Fern Family. 



The name Polypores originated from these minute 

 pores. Puff-balls or toadstools spring up during a 

 night in pastures or corners in rich wood. But the 

 Polypores are slow in growth. 



A beautiful species of the Polypores is worshipped 

 by the natives in Guinea. I also have found and wor- 

 shipped several specimens of great beauty. I discov- 

 ered a very large shelf on a decaying hemlock stump 

 in Rattlesnake Swamp, which I severed carefully with 

 a woodsaw, removing enough of the stump to show its 

 attachment to the tree. 



