connected by cross partitions of less prominence. The
stratum of tubes, while soft, is very tenacious, not separating from the
flesh of the pileus.

The odor and taste of all the specimens found were pleasant. Found in
damp woods in July and August. When a sufficient number can be found
they make an excellent dish.

It is found in abundance about Chillicothe.

_Fistulina. Bull._

Fistulina means a small pipe; so called because the tubes stand close
together and separate easily one from another.

The hymenophore is fleshy and hymenium inferior. When first seen
springing from a stump or root it looks like a large strawberry. It soon
develops into the appearance of a big red tongue. When young the upper
side is quite velvety and peach-colored, later it becomes a livid red
and loses its velvety appearance. The under surface is flesh-colored and
is rough like the surface of a tongue, owing to the fact that the tubes
are free from one another. When it is moist it is very viscid, making
your hands quite blood-stained in appearance.

_Fistulina hepatica. Fr._

THE LIVER FUNGUS. EDIBLE.

[Illustration: _Photo by C. G. Lloyd._

Plate XLIII. Figure 316.--Fistulina hepatica.

Beefsteak mushroom.]

This is a beautiful plant, quite common where there are chestnut stumps
and trees. I have found it on chestnut oak, quite large specimens, too.
It is one of my favorite mushrooms; one cannot afford to pass it by. Its
beautiful color will attract attention at once, and having once eaten it
well prepared, one will never pass a chestnut stump without examining
it.

[Illustration: Figure 317.--Fistulina hepatica. One-half natural size.]

The pileus is fan-shaped or semicircular, red-juicy, flesh when cut
somewhat mottled like beet-root and giving forth a very appetizing odor;
the cap is moist and somewhat viscid, the color varying from a red
(somewhat beefy) to a reddish-brown in older plants; while the spore
surface varies from strawberry-pink through a light-and dark-tan to an
almost chestnut-brown.

In young plants the color is much richer and more vivid than in those of
greater maturity. The spore surface resembles nothing so much as a very
fine sponge, the spore-tubes being short, crowded, yet distinct.

The marked peculiarity of its mode of growth is in the attachment of the
stem; somewhat thick, fleshy, and juicy, coming from the side of the
pileus like the handle of a fan, it looks as if some one had taken hold