The plant, when young and growing, is quite soft and tender, though it is quite firm. It never becomes very hard, as many of the other species of this family. When mature, insects begin to attack it, and not being tough it soon succumbs to the ravages of insects and decay, as do a number of the softer species of the _Polyporaceæ_. The caps are very irregular in shape, curved, repand, radiately furrowed, sometimes zoned; gray, or hair-brown in color, with a perceptibly hairy surface, the hairs running in lines on the surface. Sometimes they are quite broad and not so numerous as in Plate 67, and in other plants they are narrow and more numerous, as in Plate 68. The tubes are more or less irregular, whitish, with a yellowish tinge when old. From the under side of the cap they extend down on the stem. When the spores are mature they are sometimes so numerous that they cover the lower caps and the grass for quite a distance around as if with a white powder. This species is edible, and because of the large size which it often attains, the few plants which are usually found make up in quantity what they lack in numbers. Since the plant is quite firm it will keep several days after being picked, in a cool place, and will serve for several meals. A specimen which I gathered was divided between two families, and was served at several meals on successive days. When stewed the plant has for me a rather objectionable taste, but the stewing makes the substance more tender, and when this is followed by broiling or frying the objectionable taste is removed and it is quite palatable. The plants represented in Plates 67 and 68 were collected at Ithaca. [Illustration: PLATE 67, FIGURE 181.--Polyporus frondosus. Caps hair-brown or grayish, tubes white (1/3 natural size, masses often 20--40 cm. in breadth). The caps in this specimen are quite broad, often they are narrower as in Fig. 182. Copyright.] [Illustration: PLATE 68, FIGURE 182.--Polyporus frondosus. Side and under view of a larger cluster (1/3 natural size). Copyright.] There are several species which are related to the frondose polyporus which occur in this country as well as in Europe. =Polyporus intybaceus= Fr., is of about the same size, and the branching, and form of the caps is much the same, but it is of a yellowish brown or reddish brown color. It grows on logs, stumps, etc., and is probably edible. It is not so common at Ithaca as the frondose polyporus. [Illustration: FIGURE 183.--Polyporus umbellatus. Caps hair-brown (natural size, often much larger). Copyright.] =Polyporus umbellatus= Fr.--This species is also related to the frondose polyporus, but is very distinct. It is more erect, the branching more open, and the caps at the ends of the branches are more or less circular and umbilicate. The branches are long, cylindrical and united near the base. The spreading habit of the branching, or the form of the caps, suggests an umbel or umbrella, and hence the specific name _umbellatus_.