t the base.
Irpex--Resupinate; with gill-like teeth concrete with the pileus.
Mucronella--Plants with teeth only and no basal membrane.
Radulum--Hymenium with thick, blunt, irregular spines.
Sistotrema--Fleshy plants with caps and flattened teeth, on ground.
Phlebia--Plants spread over the host with crowded folds or wrinkles.
Grandinia--Covered with granules, more or less smooth, and excavated.
Odontium--Covered with crested granules.

_Hydnum. Linn._

Hydnum is from a Greek word meaning an eatable fungus. The genus is
characterized by awl-shaped spines which are distant at the base. These
spines are at first papilliform, then elongated and round. They form the
fruiting surface and take the place of the gills in the family
Agaricaceae and of the pores in the family of Polyporaceae. The spines are
simple or in some cases the tips are more or less branched.

This is the greatest genus in the family and it includes many important
edible species. It may be divided into two groups: one, those species
having a cap and a central or lateral stem; the other, the species
growing with or without a distinct cap, in large imbricated masses. Some
imitate coral in structure and some seem to be a mass of spines. Many of
these plants grow to be very large and massive, frequently weighing over
ten pounds.

_Hydnum repandum. Linn._

THE SPREADING HYDNUM. EDIBLE.

[Illustration: Figure 362.--Hydnum repandum. Two-thirds natural size.]

Repandum, bent backward, referring to the position of the stem and the
cap. The pileus is two to four inches broad, generally irregular, with
the stem eccentric; fleshy, brittle, convex or nearly plane, compact,
more or less repand, nearly smooth; color varying from a pale buff--the
typical hue--to a distinct brick-red; flesh creamy-white, inclining to
turn brown when bruised; taste slightly aromatic, margin often wavy.

The spines are beneath the cap, one-quarter to one-third of an inch
long, irregular, entire, pointed, rather easily detached, leaving small
cavities in the fleshy cap, soft, creamy, becoming darker in older
specimens.

The stem is short, thick, solid in young specimens, hollow in older
specimens; paler than the pileus, rather rough, often set eccentrically
into the cap; one to three inches long, sometimes thickened at the base,
sometimes at the top. The spores are globose or a broad oval, with a
small papilla at one end.

The usual color of the cap is buff, some