Page:Coloured Figures of English Fungi or Mushrooms.djvu/308

 TAB. CXXXIV. Curt. F.L. 224.

Jac. 169. With. 321.

Bull. Pl 459. cd. Pl. a. b. c. has some affinity to the last, is of a fibrous texture, and sometimes sessile, but softer, and the generally richly lacquered appearance of the pileus and Item makes it conspicuous. The varnish seems a coloured gum, similar to what often issues in the autumn from the hornbeam, of a dark brown or black, resembling bitumen. I have mostly found it on the hornbeam, or Carpinus betulus Linn. It is seldom found in the soft state, when the part growing is yellow or whitish, and very tender, when it recedes from the least touch, so that grass, &c. may easily be surrounded by it, and seem to grow through it. I have found it two or three times so on Hainault Forest, Essex, &;c. Mr. Walford, oi Birdbrook, Essex, favoured me with the specimen here figured, from his plantation. TAB. CXXXV. Bull. 429. With. 3 ed. 331.

walnut, oak, and willow trees, &c. after rain, in spring, summer, and autumn. It is of quick growth, and sometimes forms an imbricated moss in a few days of three or more feet in circumference. This easily dries, when it becomes friable, and is readily reduced to a powder for tinder, for which it is occasionally used in some places upon the Continent. When fresh, it is soft and tender, and, if laid with the pileus downwards, will produce pores like the under side; those protuberances that are sheltered under the imbrications are commonly covered with pores. In very shady places it will often become ramose, and be altogether covered with pores, whence Bull. B. ramosus, pl. 418.