CLASSIFICATION 353 



Specimens sometimes occur slightly larger than descriljed above, 

 but agreeing in every other respect. 



On damp ground in woods. 



**** Cap smooth from the first, ring absent. 



C. heinerobius. — Cap |-i in. across, ovate-campanulate, then 

 expanded, coarsely sulcate up to obtuse disc, smooth from the 

 first, bay-brown flesh very thin, splitting ; gills narrow, attached to 

 an obscure collar, pale, then black ; stem 2-0-3 ii^- ^ong, thinner 

 upwards, smooth, even, hollow, whitish. 



C. plicatilis, a closely allied species, but generally somewhat 

 smaller, is distinguished by the disc becoming depressed, and the 

 gills distant from the stem, and attached to a distinct collar. In 

 rich pastures, roadsides, woods, etc. 



C. stellaris. — Cap ovoid, then campanulate, striate, snow-white, 

 becoming greyish, disc covered with minute pellucid vesicles, about 

 I line across ; gills adnate ; stem about I in. long, pellucid, velvety, 

 with slender, colourless hairs. 



On the under side of cow dung, etc. 



C. tuberosiis. — Cap elhptical, then campanulate, finely striate, 

 white, then greyish, veil formed of hyaline vesicles, 1-2 lines high ; 

 gills blackish violet ; stem |-i| in. long, very slender, often 

 slightly wavy, white, downy, springing from a small black 

 sclerotium. 



Somewhat resembling C. niveus, but smaller, and differing in 

 springing from a sclerotium. So far as I am aware, the only British 

 specimens were found at Kew. The small black sclerotia, not much 

 larger than a turnip seed, were found in dung. These were placed 

 in damp sand, and in due course gave origin to the fungus, one 

 sporophore springing from each sclerotium. 



On dung or decaying vegetable matter. 



Family Polyporace^ 

 In this family the hymenium lines the cavities of tubes closeh' 

 packed side by side, the pores or open ends of the tubes, through 

 which the spores escape, forming the exposed surface of the hy- 

 menium. In the higher forms, as Boletus, Fomes, etc., the tubes are 

 often quite long, half an inch, or in some instances an inch or more 

 in length. From this condition of things, as we pass from the most 

 highly organized genera to the simplest, the tubes become gradu- 

 ally shorter and less perfect in structure, until, in the genus Merii- 

 lius, the tubes are reduced to exceedingly shallow pits, which appear 

 to be due simply to anastomosing wrinkles on the hymenial surface. 

 At this point the family merges into the family Hydnacefe, through 

 the genus Phlebia. The general build and structure of the various? 

 species included in the Polyporaceae is very diversified. In Boletus 

 we have a symmetrical, very fleshy cap, supported on a stout 



