Fruit-body: variable in size, resupinate, composed of one type of hypha only and with a sterile whitish cream or yellow margin. Spore-bearing tissue: an irregularly wrinkled or humpy, yellowish surface which then becomes olive-green or bronze-colour. Spore-print: olivaceous brown. Spores: olive-brown under the microscope, smooth, ellipsoid, thick-walled and 12-14 × 8-9 µm in size. Cystidia: absent. _Habitat_ & _Distribution_: This fungus causes wet-rot in houses, but may also be found on stumps and fallen trunks in woodland. _General Information_: The fungus causes a discolouration of worked timber and induces longitudinal cracking with only a few lateral hair-like cracks unlike timber attacked by the dry-rot fungus (see p. 154). _Illustrations_: WD 103⁵. ~Fibuloporia vaillantii~ (Fries) Bondarsev & Singer _Description_: Fruit-body: a resupinate layer of pores with cream-coloured or white sterile radiating margin. Spore-bearing tissue: distributed within a series of small often shallow, white or ivory tubes. Spore-print: white. Spores: smooth, hyaline under the microscope, oblong 5-7 × 3-4 µm. Cystidia: absent. _Habitat_ & _Distribution_: The dry-rot of houses, particularly in roof-systems. _General Information_: _Fibuloporia vaillantii_ is recognised by the white, resupinate pore-surface and fairly tough nature due to the presence of strengthening hyphae. Just as the genus _Polyporus_ was found to be composed of several quite different elements (see pp. 140-44) and has since been split up into a number of different genera, the genus _Poria_ has also been fragmented; one of the constituent genera is _Fibuloporia_. _Amyloporia xantha_ (Fries) Bondarsev & Singer differs in having amyloid tissue and cystidia encrusted with crystals. The flesh contains both simple hyphae and thickened structural hyphae. It is yet another member of the large old unwieldy genus _Poria_ and causes decay of worked wood, particularly the timbers of benching and staging in greenhouses. _A. xantha_ has a sulphur-yellow pore-surface and is rather cheesy when handled. [Illustration: Plate 51. Wet and Dry-rot fungi--leathery and tough and spores borne within shallow pores or on an uneven surface] (c) Colonisers of cones ~Auriscalpium vulgare~ S. F. Gray Ear-pick fungus _Cap_: 8-12 mm. _Stem_: width 4-6 mm; length 40-75 mm. _Description_: Cap: kidney-shaped or semicircular, thin, date- or umber-brown, hairy, but paler towards the margin. Stem: erect, slender, hairy, particularly at the base, and attached at the side of the cap (excentric). Gills: replaced by flesh-coloured, then greyish brown spines. Flesh: brown. Spore-print: white. Spores: small, hyaline, minutely spiny, spherical, 4-5 µm in diameter, and becoming blue-grey in solutions containing iodine. Cystidia: flask-shaped with oily contents.