_Pileus_ campanulate, three-quarters of an inch high, more or less closely pressed to the stem, but always free, wrinkled, but not reticulated, under side slightly pubescent, _sporidia_ yellowish, elliptic, _stem_ three inches high, half an inch thick, equal or slightly attenuated downwards, loosely stuffed, by no means hollow, transversely squamulose.[187] Season, spring. _Peziza acetabulum_, Linn. Series _Aleuria_, Section _Helvella_, Fries. _Bot. Char._ Deeply cup-shaped, two inches broad, one and a half deep, externally floccose, light-umber, darker within, mouth puckered, tough; _stem_ half to one inch high, smooth, deeply but irregularly costato-lacunose, ribs solid “branching at the top and forming reticulations on the outside of the cup, so as to present the appearance of a cluster of pillars supporting a font or roof, with fret-work between them” (_Berkeley_). Season, spring. POLYPORUS FRONDOSUS, _Schrank_. PLATE IV. FIG. 1. There are many species of _Polyporus_ eaten on the Continent; among the more common kinds to be mentioned are _P. frondosus_ and _P. tuberaster_, Persoon, _P. corylinus_, Mauri, _P. subsquamosus_, Pers., _P. giganteus_, ibid., _P. fomentarius_, ibid., which last is the Amadou, or German tinder fungus. Two of these are local; the _P. tuberaster_, which occurs principally in the kingdom of Naples, and the _P. corylinus_ or that of the cob-nut tree, which (though it might perhaps be cultivated elsewhere) is at present restricted to Rome; both these are excellent for food. As to the _Polyporus squamosus_, which is as common in England as abroad, in substance it cannot be masticated, and its expressed juice is exceedingly disagreeable; I should not think the _P. fomentarius_, to judge from its texture, promised much better; nor _P. giganteus_, of which the flesh is sometimes so tough as to creak under the knife. The true _P. frondosus_ is probably rare in England, that which I have met with and have had cooked, without being able to say much in its favour, is the _P. intybaceus_ of Fries, which Mr. Berkeley says is distinguished from the other by having larger pores. Vittadini has not included it among the esculent funguses in his work; Persoon does not recommend it for weak stomachs on account of its toughness.[188] Paulet, indeed, is of a different opinion, telling us that in place of its being heavy for the stomach, _he_ will feel all the lighter who sups upon it. The people in the Vosges seem to have an equal affection for it with this writer, giving it the somewhat whimsical, though really most graphic _sobriquets_ of the Hen-of-the-Woods and the Breeding Hen (Mougeot). Professor Sanguinetti informs me that it sells for six or seven baiocchi in the Roman market, the finer specimens being sent as surprise presents, “per meraviglia,” from poor tenants to hard landlords.