[Illustration: Figure 349.--Fomes igniarius.]
This is rather a common species in our state; black or brownish-black in color, somewhat triangular in shape, and frequently hoof-shaped. The zones indicating the yearly growth are plainly marked, and the tubes are quite long and of a dark brown color. Their growth is rather slow, and it requires years to produce some of the moderate sized specimens. Prof. Atkinson of Cornell University found a specimen which he believed to be over 80 years old.
This is called by many authors Polyporus igniarius (L.), Fr. Murrill calls it Pyropolyporus igniarius. This plant is widely distributed over the United States, and is met frequently in every wood in Ohio.
[Illustration: Figure 350.--Fomes fraxinophilus.]
Fraxinophilus means ash-loving; rather common in this country, but does not grow in Europe.
The pileus is between corky and woody, smooth, somewhat flattened, at first zoneless; white when young, then reddish-brown, white around the margin; at first even, then concentrically sulcate, pale within.
The tubes are short, pores minute, rusty-red but covered from the first with a white pubescence and continuous with the margin; the spores nearly round, 6-7µ.
The specimens in Figure 350 were found in Haynes' Hollow on a living ash, growing at intervals of five or six feet, one above another, to a height of thirty feet.
In case of the genus Trametes the hymenophorum descends into the trama of the pores without any change, and is permanently concrete with the pileus. The pores are entire. There are, however, a few of the Polypori which are quite thin that have the trama of the same structure with the hymenophorum. These have been separated by Fries and have been called _Polystictus_. They are distinguished by the fact that the pores develop from the center out and are perpendicular to the fibrillose stratum above the hymenophorum while in the genus _Trametes_ the hymenophorum is not distant from the rest of the pileus.
[Illustration: Figure 351.--Trametes rubescens.]
[Illustration: Figure 352.--Trametes rubescens.]
This is one of the neatest plants of this structure in our woods. It grows on the small branches and many times covers them quite well. It is resupinate, the cap being beautifully zoned as you see in Figure 351. Frequently they grow from the side of a small tree that has fallen to the ground and in this case they are shelving.