_Habitat_ & _Distribution_: This fungus is always found on fallen pine-cones and occurs from early summer to autumn. _General Information_: The ear-pick fungus is easily recognised by the slender, elegant habit, excentrically placed cap, substrate preference and dark colours. It cannot be confused with any other fungus. Recently it has been shown that the ‘agaric’ _Lentinellus cochleatus_ (Fries) Karsten (p. 76) is more closely related to _Auriscalpium_ than this fungus is to other spine-bearing forms and _Lentinellus_ is to the other agarics. Both fungi possess thick-walled cells in the flesh and oil-containing hyphae; they are placed in the family _Auriscalpiaceae_. Another laterally stemmed Hedgehog fungus differs in possessing distinctly gelatinised teeth and preference for conifer wood and not cones. Examination of the basidia of this fungus shows that it is more closely related to the jelly-fungi, _Exidia_ and _Tremella_ (p. 184) than to Hedgehog fungi such as _Auriscalpium_ or _Hyndum repandum_ Fries (p. 160). This false nature is reflected in the name of the genus to which it belongs, _Pseudohydnum_, and the very gelatinous texture in the specific name ‘_gelatinosum_’: the fungus is _Pseudohydnum gelatinosum_, or as it used to be called _Tremellodon gelatinosum_. _Illustrations_: Auriscalpium vulgare--WD 103⁶. Pseudohydnum gelatinosum--WD 105⁹. [Illustration: Plate 52. Tough or leathery fungi: Spores white and borne on spines--Ear pick fungus] (d) Terrestrial forms ~Hydnum repandum~ Fries Wood-hedgehog _Cap_: 50-75 mm width. _Stem_: width 10-17 mm; length 45-65 mm. _Description_: Cap: rather thick, fleshy, pinkish buff or tan, paler at its incurved and often lobed margin. Stem: short, stout and powdered with white roughenings and often attached to the cap to one side of the centre. Gills: replaced by awl-shaped, pinkish buff spines which are unequal in length and run down the top of the stem. Flesh: white, firm and with a pleasant smell. Spore-print: whitish. Spores: medium sized, hyaline under the microscope, smooth, broadly ellipsoid, 7 × 6-7 µm, and not becoming bluish grey in solutions containing iodine. Cystidia: absent. _Habitat_ & _Distribution_: The ‘wood-hedgehog’ grows on the ground in mixed woods and is easily recognised by its colour and fleshy texture. _General Information_: The closely related, smaller, red-brown species _H. rufescens_ Persoon grows with conifers. _Hydnum_ was formerly a genus which contained several entities, now not considered closely related. Thus the following genera have been delimited in addition to those related to _Hydnum repandum_ and _H. rufescens_, and _Auriscalpium_ described on p. 158. _Sarcodon_: Fruit-body fleshy: spores brown and ornamented with irregular bumps, e.g. _S. imbricatum_ (Fries) Karsten.