Iconography of the Mushrooms of Paulet

The white rooter. — Agaricus radicosus. Paulet.
This figure, of which Paulet gives no explanation, also represents a mycelium, but in a more advanced state, since mushrooms are born from it: their shape is so poorly characterized that it seems impossible to us to say to which species they might belong.

White tinder. — Pyrenium giganteum. Paulet.
Membranous mycelium, more or less thick, sometimes cylindrical, molding itself exactly to the surfaces on which it develops, even filling the cavities made in the trunks by insects. It is white, composed of very fine filaments, anastomosed and so well felted together that they form a membrane which resembles tawed skin.

Habitat. This production is frequently found in the cavities of old trunks.
Properties. Formerly, it was used, like amadou tinder fungus, to stop blood from wounds and to obtain fire. The Xylostroma giganteum sometimes gives off an odor while burning that recalls that of incense.
Obs. — The Polyporus Vaillantii, Fr. (corallo-fungus, omentiferma. Vaill. Bot. Par. Botanicon Parisiense p. 41, tab. VIII, fig. 1) also initially resembles a membrane, but it is dotted with branched veins that sometimes remain sterile.

Fire-colored tinder Agaric. — Pyrenium igniarium. Paulet.
Cap sessile, dimidiate, large, flattened, corky, marked with irregular concentric furrows, velvety, and of a reddish color. In very advanced age, the down disappears and the mushroom takes on a darker color. Margin entire or lobed, wavy, obtuse, and tubercular, most usually paler or yellowish when the mushroom is in a state of vegetation. Underside a little concave; tubes short; pores very small, angular; the partitions that form them are obtuse, of the same color as the cap, whose substance is tawny and without apparent interior zones.

Habitat. Very frequent on old oaks. It vegetates in winter and in the spring.
Boletus torulosus. Pers. Myc. europ. Mycologia Europaea 2, p. 79.
Boletus igniarius. Bull. Hist. Champ. History of Mushrooms tab. 454, fig. c.
Polyporus igniarius. Fr. Var. c. El. fung. Elenchus Fungorum 1, p. 109. — Polyporus fuliginosus. Epic. Syst. myc. Epicrisis Systematis Mycologici p. 451.
Properties. One can extract amadou from it, but of poor quality.

The ordinary flat tinder Agaric. — Pyrenium fomentarium. Paulet.
See pl. VIII, fig. 4, 2. 3-5

Fig. 1. The wooden clog. — Pyrenium ungulatum. Paulet.
Fig. 2-4. The wooden Boletus. — Pyrenium lignosum. Paulet.