220 



EDIBLE MUSHROOMS 



beneath, as shown in the accompanying figure, or 

 completely covering a space of several square feet. 



There lies before me even as I write a fragment 

 of a single cluster which I plucked yesterday from the 

 trunk of an apparently healthy red -oak near my stu- 

 dio, the remainder of the clump having been enjoyed 

 as a special course in my dinner of last evening. In 

 Plate 26 I present a portrait of this specimen, the 

 well-named Sulphur Polyporus — Polyporus sulpJiu- 

 reus. It may be found frequently from July till 

 frost upon its favorite habitat of old trunk, stump, log 



water-trough, or fence- 

 post, usually upon wood 

 in the early stages of 

 decay. A single clus- 

 ter will often measure a 

 foot in diameter through 

 its very solid mass of 

 thickened pulpy branch- 

 es, its early and escu- 

 lent stage being thus 

 compact with the sub- 

 divisions ascendins 

 from their common 

 thick stem, the mass somewhat suggesting a cauli- 

 flower in shape, as shown in the illustration above. 



The general color at this tender stagie is pure sul- 

 phur-yellow, this being the ultimate lower or spore 

 surface now exposed by its upright position. The 

 true upper surface or cap of the later eccentrically 

 branched fungus is of a bright orange -salmon color, 

 and is mostly concealed by the crowded growth. 



A YOUNG SPECIMEN 



