lustration: Figure 329.--Polyporus radicatus. One-third natural
size.]

Radicatus, from the long root the plant has. The pileus is fleshy, quite
tough, cushion-shaped, slightly depressed, pale sooty, somewhat downy.

The pores are decurrent, quite large, obtuse, equal, white.

The stem is very long, often eccentric, tapering downward, sometimes
ventricose as in Figure 329, rooting quite deep, black below.

It is found on the ground in the woods and in old clearings beside old
trees and stumps.

The blackish or brown pileus, which is more or less tomentose, with a
black stem more or less deformed, will serve to distinguish the species.
Found from September to November.

_Polyporus perplexus. Pk._

[Illustration: Figure 330.--Polyporus perplexus. Two-thirds natural
size.]

The pileus is spongy-fleshy, fibrous, sessile, commonly imbricated, and
somewhat confluent, irregular, hairy-tomentose to setose-hispid,
grayish-tawny, or ferruginous, the margin subacute, sterile, the
substance within tawny-ferruginous, somewhat zonate.

The pores are two to three lines long, unequal, angular, the
dissepiments becoming brownish-ferruginous with age or where bruised.
The spores are ferruginous, broadly elliptical, .00024 to .0003 inch
long and about .0002 broad. _Peck._

This is very abundant on beech logs, growing quite large, massive,
imbricated, and confluent, the pileoli being often two to four inches
broad. It is very closely related to P. cuticularis and P. hispidus. It
can be easily distinguished from P. cuticularis by means of its straight
margin, and from P. hispidus by its small size and smaller pores. Found
from September to November.

_Polyporus hispidus. Fr._

Pileus is very large, eight to ten inches broad and three to four inches
thick, compact, spongy, fleshy but fibrous, dimidiate, with occasionally
a very short stem; generally very hairy, but sometimes smooth; the
pileus is often marked with concentric lines which seem to indicate
arrested vegetation; brown, blackish, yellowish or reddish brown, below
pale-yellow or rich sienna-brown, margin paler.

The pores are minute, round, inclined to separate, fringed, paler. The
spores are yellowish, apiculate, 10x7u. Often found on living trees, the
plant gains entrance to the living stem through the bark, by means of a
wound made by some agency, as a bird or a boring insect; soon a mass of
mycelium is formed, and from this the fruiting body is produced.