Page:Coloured Figures of English Fungi or Mushrooms.djvu/340

 TAB. CCXIV.

found by the Rev. Mr. Watts on the whitened fir-beams in the wall of an out-house at Ashill, Norfolk, in December 1798. Mr. D. Turner has since communicated some from Yarmouth, found in a similar situation. The substance is like the Dryrot, or Boletus lachrymans, Eng. Fung. tab. 113. It protrudes umbilically in concentric circles, emitting a snuff-coloured powder, nearly with the same regularity. The upper edges of the back, detaching themselves from the wall, and hanging over, forms the top. TAB. CCXV.

curious plant was gathered by Lady Arden, in Nook Park, near Epsom, November 29, 1798, who favoured me with specimens. It is certainly an entirely new botanical acquisition. It grows parasitically on rotting hazel sticks, springing from the under side half an inch or more under the earth among decaying foliage. The base is woolly, the stipes tomentose, and at the bottom fistulofe and cylindrical. The head dilates upwards, and in the younger plants is somewhat pointed and covered with a lightish mealy powder. In the more advanced state it becomes truncated, and covered with a browner powder, splitting longitudinally in decay. Its whole duration should seem to be about a week.