[ 229 1 
XIIL —O» two new Species of Lentinus, one of them growing on a large Sclerotium. By 
GEORGE Murky, F.LS., Assistant, British Museum (Natural History), and Lecturer 
on Botany, St. George's Hospital Medical School. 
(Plate ХХХТІ.) 
Read March 4th, 1886. 
THERE is a description accompanied by an illustration in Rumphius’s ‘ Herbarium 
Amboinense’ (sixth part, lib. xi. eap. хуй. p. 120, tab. 57) of a large sclerotioid body 
which he terms Tuber regium: “pluvia calida et sole splendente vel tonitruoso colo ex 
ipso Boletus excrescit aliquando simplex, aliquando duplex, aliquando plures simul, 
quorum tamen semper unus maximus est." "The figure and description given by Rum- 
phius of the so-called ** Boletus” enabled Fries to determine it (Syst. Mycol. vol. i, 
p. 174) as Agaricus Tuber-regium, and subsequently to place it in his genus Lentinus in 
the ‘ Epicrisis ’ (p. 392). Тһе Tuber regium itself Fries took to be a Pachyma, which he 
terms Pachyma Tuber-regium (Syst. Mycol. vol. ii. p. 243). Rumphius gives an 
interesting account of the appearance of both fungi and of their reputed properties. 
Speaking of the pileus he says that when young it is “coctioni aptus." At another 
place he goes further than this somewhat cautious phrase, and states that besides being 
fit for cooking it is possible to eat it, “sed cibus hic durus est.” The * radix,” 
however, was good as a remedy for diarrhoea, fevers, and “ dolentes fauces," Өсе. Fries 
tells us he had not seen specimens, and indeed no mycologist appears to have done so 
from the time of Rumphius till now. Considerable interest therefore is attached to a 
specimen of a Lentinus growing on what appeared to be a Pachyma collected by the 
Rev. Mr. Whitmee in Samoa, and presented by him to the Department of Botany, 
British Museum. It was not only possibly the long-lost Lentinus Tuber-regium, but 
appearances suggested the origin of the Lentinus from the sclerotium, and hence ап | 
explanation of the obscure nature of Pachyma. Both of these seductive suggestions, 
however, were broken down by investigation. First of all, though strongly resembling 
L. Tuber-regium, Fr., Mr. Whitmee’s specimen differs. from it in the pileus and stalk 
being densely covered with fine short hairs instead of being glabrous, in the colour, &c. ; 
and since it does not agree with the description of any other species of Lentinus known 
to me, I propose to describe it as follows :— 
LENTINUS SCLEROTICOLA, n. sp.; pileo profunde infundibuliformi, coriaceo, cervino, 
scabriusculo ; stipite ochraceo, scabriusculo, solido, longo, versus basin attenuato ; 
lamellis decurrentibus cervino-brunneis. 
Rumphius describes the pileus as becoming laciniated with age; and though Mr. 
Whitmee’s specimen is cracked, &c., at the edge of the pileus, the fractures are mani- 
festly the result of injury during transport, and not due to any process of development, 
SECOND SERIES.—BOTANY, VOL. II. 2N 
