I0 6 BASIDIOMYCETES. 



rulius and Tramctes have thirty or forty species each ; M. iremel- 

 losus is a semi-fleshy species which is common under old logs in 

 the latter part of the season ; Trametes suaveoleiis is a \vhite 

 species common on willows; T. cinnabarina is bright red, growing 

 commonly or birch and cherry, while T. pini is a brownish species 

 growing on pines and other coniferous trees. 



The genus Polyporus, in its widest sense including Poria, con- 

 tains nearly five hundred American species many of which are 

 poorly known and defined. Several attempts have been made to 

 separate the enormous genus into natural groups or genera some 

 of which are really well defined, but until a revision of the entire 

 genus can be made it is as well to allow the species to rest under 

 a single name. Many of the genera which have been proposed 

 have resulted in associating together very unlike plants.* 



A few of the fleshy species are edible. Notable among them is 

 P. sulfureus, which often grows in prodigious masses of overlap- 

 ping pilei ; it is pinkish yellow above and the pores are a bright 

 sulphur yellow beneath. Of course, it is edible only when young, 

 about the time that the pores commence to develop, since the 

 plant toughens with age. Certain species of Polyporus appear to 

 be confined to certain trees while others seem to be independent 

 of their substratum and are likely to appear on any old log. 

 Some of the fleshy or semi-fleshy species soon decay while some 

 of the stratose species live many years forming layer after layer 

 of pores. 



Family 6. Boletaceae. 



This family includes by far the greater number of perishable 

 fleshy fungi with pores, comprising those in which tlie pores quite 

 easily separate from the pileus and from each other. In one 

 genus, Strobilomyces, this is less marked, and this genus forms a 

 rather natural transition to some of the fleshy species of Polyporus. 

 On the other hand, Bolctinus, in which some of the species have 

 the pores arranged in radiating lines, forms a somewhat easy 

 transition to Pa.villus among the agarics. 



* . g. , Muc%onoporus, which has been proposed to include those species 

 in which spines (cystidia) are scattered among the basidia lining the pores. 

 Myriadoporus is probably founded on a deformed species of Polyporus 

 adustus. 



