Figure [186] represents well this species, three plants being grouped rather closely on the same stick; two show the under surface and one gives a side view. The upper portion of the plate represents two of the plants enlarged, the three lower ones being natural size. The plant is very common and widely distributed over the world. Those illustrated in the plate were collected at Ithaca. This species is too tough for food.
Many of the thin and pliant species of Polyporus are separated by some into the genus Polystictus. The species are very numerous, as well as some of the individuals of certain species. They grow on wood or on the ground, some have a central stem, and others are shelving, while some are spread out on the surface of the wood. One very pretty species is the Polystictus perennis Fr. This grows on the ground and has a central stem. The plant is 2–3 cm. high, and the cap 1–4 cm. broad. The pileus is thin, pliant when fresh and somewhat brittle when dry. It is minutely velvety on the upper surface, reddish brown or cinnamon in color, expanded or umbilicate to nearly funnel-shaped. The surface is marked beautifully by radiations and fine concentric zones. The stem is also velvety. The tubes are minute, the walls thin and acute, and the mouths angular and at last more or less torn. The margin of the cap is finely fimbriate, but in old specimens these hairs are apt to become rubbed off. The left hand plant in Fig. [187] is Polyporus perennis.
Polystictus cinnamomeus (Jacq.) Sacc., (P. oblectans Berk. Hook. Jour. p. 51, 1845, Dec. N. A. F. No. 35: P. splendens Pk., 26th Report N. Y. State Mus., p. 26) is a closely related species with the same habit, color, and often is found growing side by side with P. perennis. The margin of the cap is deeply and beautifully lacerate, as shown in the three other plants in Fig. [187]. Polystictus connatus Schw., grows in similar situations and one sometimes finds all three of these plants near each other on the ground by roadsides. P. connatus has much larger pores than either of the other two, and it is a somewhat larger plant. Figure [187] is from a photograph of plants collected at Blowing Rock, N. C., during September, 1899.
Figure 187.—Left-hand plant Polystictus perennis; right-hand three plants Polystictus cinnamomeus. All natural size. Copyright.
Polystictus versicolor (L.) Fr., is a very common plant growing on trunks and branches. It is more or less shelving, with a leaf-like pileus, marked by concentric bands of different colors. P. hirsutus Fr., is a somewhat thicker and more spongy plant, whitish or grayish in color, with the upper surface tomentose with coarse hairs. P. cinnabarinus (Jacq.) Fr., is shelving, spongy, pliant, rather thick, cinnabar colored. It grows on dead logs and branches. It is sometimes placed in the genus Trametes under the same specific name. Polystictus pergamenus Fr., is another common one growing on wood of various trees. It is thin and very pliant when fresh, somewhat tomentose above when young, with faint bands, and the tubes are often violet or purple color, and they soon become deeply torn and lacerate so that they resemble the teeth of certain of the hedgehog fungi.
Plate 72, Figure 188.—Polyporus lucidus. Caps bright red or chestnut color, with a hard shiny crust (1/6 natural size). Copyright.