19-2 



STUDIES OF AMERICAN FUNGI. 



very pretty species is the Polystictus perennis Fr. This grows on the 

 ground and has a central stem. The plant is 2-3 cm. high, and the 

 cap 1-4 cm. broad. The pileus is thin, pliant when fresh and some- 

 what brittle when dry. It is minutely velvety on the upper surface, 

 reddish brown or cinnamon in color, expanded or umbilicateto nearly 

 funnel-shaped. The surface is marked beautifully by radiations and 

 fine concentric zones. The stem is also velvety. The tubes are 

 minute, the walls thin and acute, and the mouths angular and at last 

 more or less torn. The margin of the cap is finely fimbriate, but in 

 old specimens these hairs are apt to become rubbed off. The left 

 hand plant in Fig. 187 is Poly porus perennis. 



Polystictus cinnamomeus (Jacq.) Sacc., (P. oblcctans Berk. Hook. 

 Jour. p. 51, 1845, Dec. N. A. F. No. 35: P. splciuiens Pk., 26th 

 Report N. Y. State Mus., p. 26) is a closely related species with the 



FIGURE 187. Left-hand plant Polystictus perennis ; vight-hand three 

 plants Polystictus cinnamomeus. All natural size. Copyright. 



same habit, color, and often is found growing side by side with P. 

 perennis. The margin of the cap is deeply and beautifully lacerate, 

 as shown in the three other plants in Fig. 187. Polystictus connatus 

 Schw., grows in similar situations and one sometimes finds all three 

 of these plants near each other on the ground by roadsides. P. con- 

 natus has much larger pores than either of the other two, and it is a 

 somewhat larger plant. Figure 187 is from a photograph of plants 

 collected at Blowing Rock, N. C., during September, 1899. 



Polystictus versicolor (L.) Fr., is a very common plant growing on 

 trunks and branches. It is more or less shelving, with a leaf-like 

 pileus, marked by concentric bands of different colors. P. hirsutus 

 Fr., is a somewhat thicker and more spongy plant, whitish or gray- 

 ish in color, with the upper surface tomentose with coarse hairs. P. 

 cinnabarinus (Jacq.) Fr., is shelving, spongy, pliant, rather thick, 

 cinnabar colored. It grows on dead logs and branches. It is some- 



