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TEXTBOOK OF BOTANY 



112. Bracket Fungi. A rather large class of basidium 

 fungi, closely related to the mushrooms, includes those that 

 produce the familiar " brackets " upon the sides of trees, 

 especially dead trees. A common member of this class is 

 Fomes applanatus (Fig. 40), whose brackets are flat, rather 

 thin, and sometimes very broad. The lower surface is white 



FIG. 41. A bracket fungus (Fomes applanatus). A, a fruiting body 

 cut so as to show the layers of which it is composed, each the growth of a 

 single year. B, a portion of the lower surface of a fruiting body enlarged, 

 showing the pores inside which spores are formed. 



when fresh, but turns brown if bruised. The tendency to 

 turn brown is sometimes made use of in sketching by means 

 of scratches upon the white surface. The brackets are the 

 fruiting bodies of the fungus. They have no:gills; but the 

 flesh of their lower surfaces is penetrated by many very fine 

 pores (Fig. 41). The inner surface of each pore is lined with 

 a layer of basidia, each of which as a rule, like the basidia 



