Fistvu- * Genus XVI. Fisrunima. Cap with 
FUNGL 
Famiry Ill. Fungi having the ile surface fur- 
Booey Tip angie Re. ties. 
tubes 
underneath, containing the seeds. The plants now in- 
cluded in pence ee ale Fo ranked with the Bo- 
leti, from which they seem sufficiently distinct. 
Fistulina hepatica, Sower, tab. 58, This plant is 
very plentiful in autumn among oak trees, growing on 
their trunks or ys dpa Its vegetation is most 
rapid in wet weather. m very young, it resembles 
a eecyetd svand, advancing in growth, it becomes 
hispid, with tubular protuberances, shaped like florets. 
By degrees it’ ires a distinct underside of a pale 
yellow, with similar protuberances, and as. these be- 
come more distinct, the upper ones lose their form. 
At length the under surface becomes covered with dis- 
tinct and separate tubes, entire at their orifice, turning 
brown, and emitting seedsat their edges, which often 
hang in festoons, or little cobwebs formed by spiders. 
‘The fui afterwards either rots, or turns black in 
decay. It varies in shape and size, but commonly re- 
sembles liver, being saturated with a blood-coloured 
fluid, which adds to the resemblance. Its taste is like 
that of the common mushroom, and some persons reck- 
on it nearly as poe ; 
* Genus XVII. Boterus. In this genus the cap has 
tubes underneath, which are united, and contain the 
seeds. It is indispensably necessary, in so extensive a 
us as this, to subdivide the species into sections. 
Linneus was acquainted with but few species of Bole- 
tus, and was satisfied with distributing them into two 
sections, the first containing such as are parasitical and 
destitute of a stem, and such as are furnished with a 
stem. In the Flore Francaise, they are divided into 
four sections ; the first comprehending the Fistuline ; 
the second such as have an imperfect cap, with the 
tubes scattered over different parts of the plant ; the 
third, with the tubes united together, and ble 
from the flesh of the pileus, is subdivided into those 
without stems, those with lateral stems, and those with 
central stems ; and the fourth having the tubes united, 
but easily separated from the flesh, The arrangem 
. 
ent 
of Withering, however, appears both the most obvious 
and the most natural, It is founded on the condition 
of the stalk; the plants being either without a stem, 
having a central stem, or a lateral one... The subdivi- 
~ sions of his sections, founded on. the colour of the tubes, 
is more artificial and inadmissible, as it is a character in 
the Boleti which is liable to many changes. 
~ Secr. 1. Stemless. Boletus ungulatus. Bol. igniari« 
us of Sower. tab. 132. This plant is coriaceous, attach< 
ed by the side, and shaped like a horse’s hoof. The cap 
is hard, rubbing to a polish, marked with concentric 
bands or ridges, each broad ridge indicating the growth 
of the year, and three or four ‘small ones that of. the 
different seasons of the year, The tubes are very slen- 
der, equal, the colour of tanned leather, in old plants 
stratified, a fresh layer being added every year. «It 
grows on various kinds of trees, and subsists for several 
years. It is the Agaricus Chirurgorum of Pharmaco- 
| ‘Sect. 2. Stem central. Boletus piperatus. Sower. 
tab. 34. The stem is cylindrical, greenish yellow, and 
nearly two inches high. The cap is yellow, flat, smooth, 
thin, at the edge, and about three inches over. » Flesh 
thick, tinged with yellow. ‘Tubes decurrent, short, 
owe orange, or earthy red rs pores a and irregular. 
i$ species: grows upon the ground, and has a pungent 
effect upon the throat like that of a capsicum, i 
45 
Sect, 3, Stem lateral. Boletus betulinus. Sower. 
tab. 212. This stem is nearly two inches in length, 
and half an inch in diameter, of a black colour. The 
cap is pink, brown, oblong, convex, curled at the edge, 
thin and flexible, and often diyided into tongue-shaped 
lobes. ‘The flesh is white ; the tubes white and short ; 
the pores very minute. It grows upon the trunks of 
old trees. 
Famity IV, Fungi, having the fertile surface furnished 
with gills or prominent ridges, 
.Genus XVIII. Merutrus. The plants of this genus 
are fleshy or membranaceous ; the cap is furnished with 
gills or veins underneath, of the same substance with 
the plant. 
Seer. 1. With a stem and gills underneath. Meruli- 
us umbelliferus. Bull. tab. 519, fig. 1. A. The stem 
is: whitish, smooth and hollow, not thicker than a 
horse hair inthe smaller plants.. The cap is white, 
thin, convex, a little bossed with the sides, and plaited. 
The gills are white, fixed mostly in pairs in the small, 
and in fours in the larger plants, the long ones being 
about 18 in number. The delicate structure of this 
plant causes it to tremble when held in the hand. The 
cap is so delicately transparent, that the edges of the 
gills appear plainly on the upper side, and have caused 
it to be described as striated. It is common in the au< 
tumn months at hedge bottoms, and amongst moss, ad« 
hering to dead leaves and half rotten sticks, 
- Szcr.2. With a stem and-veins underneath. Me- 
rulius infundibuliformis. Bull. tab. 465, fig. 2. , The 
stem: in this plant is fluted, hollow, running insensibly 
into the pileus, which is also hollow. The gills are 
silvery grey, and branched like nerves. The whole 
plant is tough, elastic, and of a greyish mouse colour. 
Sect. 3. Stemless.. Merulius membranaceus. Sower. 
tab. 348. The whole plant is somewhat like wet parch~ 
ment, lobed and waved irregularly. It grows in a yer- 
tical direction, the one side containing fibrils by which 
it adheres to other bodies, and the other side is furnish« 
ed with fine branched anastomosing veins. It grows 
on moss in damp places, and_on thatched houses. 
Genus XIX. Agaricus. The ics are flesh 
Fungi. 
18. Meav- 
LIvs, 
19. AGARt- 
and membranaceous ; the cap.is furnished with gills cus. 
underneath, of a different substance from the rest of 
Seapets and composed of two. plates containing the 
seeds. 
~ When Linnzus published his Systema Nature, he was 
acquainted with only 27 species of agarics, which he 
subdivided inte two sections, Stipitati, pileo orbiculato, 
and Parasitici, acaules demidiati. . Since the days of the 
illustrious Swede, the number of species has increased 
prodigiously ; so that in Britain:alone, nearly 300 are 
known as native plants... Various attempts have accord 
ingly been made to introduce accurate divisions into so 
extensive a genus. » But difficulties nearly insurmount- 
able have hitherto rendered such efforts abortive. All 
that the generality of naturalists observe, is the last 
state of the existence of the. plant ; impregnation. has 
probably taken place before it rises above the surface of 
the ground, so that nature exhibits to us the ripening 
and dispersion of the seeds only, and the final dissolu- 
tion of the individual. Since. we are not perinitted to 
inspect those organs which, among the phenogamous 
plants, serve so admirably for their artificial, we had 
almost said for their natural division, all that remains 
for usis, to examine with care those characters which 
are least liable to change, even although these should 
be but remotely connected with any of the primany 
