FUNGI 



17 



of Southern Europe and Siberia, the product being collected from 

 larch trees, and deprived of the firm outer rind. 



Description. In light spongy, irregular pieces; 8 to 14 cm. in 

 diameter; externally yellowish-white to yellowish-brown and showing 

 at places the characteristic porous surface so common in the genus; 

 easily cut, having a corky texture; internally whitish or light brown 

 with yellowish striations and sometimes a smooth shiny surface, 

 occasionally with pieces of larch wood imbedded; odor aromatic; 

 taste slightly aromatic, acrid and intensely bitter. 



Inner Structure. Consisting mostly of numerous ramifying 

 thin-walled hyphse, containing occasionally one or more peculiarly 



FIG. 6. Sublimate crystals obtained upon heating small quantities of powdered 

 Polyporus officinalis. The crystals resemble those of Agaricinic acid. 

 The sublimate consists first of slightly colored globules, in which on drying 

 there separates needles or needle aggregates and in some cases large plates, 

 which are strongly polarizing and show extinction parallel with the long 

 axis. After Tunmann in Apoth. Zeit., 1914, p. 120. 



shaped structures resembling branching bast fibers which grow out 

 from the mycelium and numerous resinous masses in the knotted 

 hyphae in which the activity of the drug resides. Upon heating a 

 small quantity of drug or powder under conditions so as to catch the 

 sublimate upon a slide it will be found that characteristic crystals of 

 agaricinic acid have been deposited. (Fig. 6.) 



