1920] 



BURT — THELEPHORACEAE OF NORTH AMERICA. XII 167 



Syll. Fung. 6: 561. 1888; Massee, Linn. Soc. Bot. Jour. 27: 

 172. 1890; Lloyd, Myc. Writ. 4. Letter 46:3. 1913. 



Plate 5, fig. 47. 



Helvella versicolor Swartz, Prodr. 149. 1788. — Thelephora 

 versicolor Swartz, Fl. Ind. Oc. 3: 1934. 1806; Fries, Syst. 

 Myc. i: 438. 1821. — Stereum radians Fries, R. Soc. Sci. Up- 

 sal. Actis III. i: 110. 1851; Sacc. Syll. Fung. 6: 573. 1888; 

 Massee, Linn. Soc. Bot. Jour. 27: 188. pl.7.f.5. 1900. 



Illustrations: Berkeley, loc. cit.; Massee, loc. cit. 



Type: authentic specimen in Herb, of Brit. Mus. according 

 to Berkeley. 



Fructification coriaceous-rigid, very thin, sometimes buff- 

 yellow, clothed with silky, villous fascicles all lying in a radiat- 

 ing direction, becoming glabrous and shining and minutely 

 radially ridged or lineate, wood-brown to cinnamon-brown, the 

 margin entire, not complicate; in structure 300-400 m thick, 

 composed of densely, longitudinally arranged hyphae 3-3| m in 

 diameter; hymenium even, glabrous, cream-color to avellaneous; 

 no colored conducting organs, gloeocystidia, nor cystidia; spores 

 hyaline, even, 4-5X2-2§ m. 



Fructifications 1-2| cm. broad, 1^-4 cm. long, often laterally 

 confluent. 



On dead wood. Florida, West Indies, Mexico, Dutch Guiana. 

 September to February. Probably common in Jamaica. 



S. versicolor is a species intermediate between S. lohatum and 

 S. rameale; its fructifications are smaller than those of S. lohatum, 

 thinner, more completely glabrous at length, with margin not 

 normally lobed, and usually retaining attachment by a narrow, 

 resupinate side of the pileus as well as by the umbo, in which 

 respect there is resemblance to the middle stage of development 

 of S.fasciatum; the radial arrangement of the hairs and villous 

 fascicles on the upper surface of the pileus is a highly distinctive 

 character, as first pointed out by Berkeley. The coloration and 

 hairy covering of fructifications of S. versicolor are somewhat 

 similar to these characters in S. rameale, but the fructifications 

 of the former are not lobed and folded together laterally and 

 crisped nor as slender as those of S. rameale, as pointed out by 

 Fries in his description of his S. radians. S. versicolor was 

 formerly confused with S. fasciatum, especially in American 



