THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 
Voi,. X. 
JOLIET, ILL., FEBRUARY, 1906. 
No. 
THE CORAL MUSHROOM AND ITS ALLIES. 
'T'HE forms that are comprised in the great group of the 
Fungi are so numerous as to species and so varied as 
to form that none but the scientist dares to set the bounds of 
the mushroom family. Popularly, of course, there is but one 
mushroom — the mushroom — and all the rest are toadstools; 
but the scientist would not agree with this definition. He 
claims that there are more than a thousand species of mush- 
rooms m America, alone, and several times as many more in 
the rest of the world. We commonly think of the mush- 
rooms and toadstools as little umbrella-shaped growths of 
various colors, but here again the scientist disagrees with 
us and claims many apparently incongruous forms as rela- 
tives of the family. 
We may, perhaps, gain a better perspective of some of 
the closely related families of the higher fungi if we reflect 
that what may be called the true mushrooms — the Agar- 
icaceae — ^bear their spores on the surface of thin plates that 
hang downward from the umbrella-like top of the fruiting 
portion. In the Boletaceae these plates are replaced by a 
cushion-like growth, made up of numerous small tubes,onthe 
inner surface of which the spores are borne. The members 
of the Polyporaceae have a similar cushion of spore-bearing 
tubes, but are distinguished from the Boletaceae by being 
usually hard and woody, and by the tube-bearing portion not 
readily separating from the cap that bears it. In the Qa- 
variaceae the spore-bearing layer is confined to the upper 
parts of erect branching masses, like the sntlers of miniature 
deer. The Hydnaceae, to which the subject of our sketch be- 
longs, se«ns at first glance to partake of the characters of all 
