1922] Essig: Morphology of Schizophyllum convmune Fries 453 



brought into a more advantageous position for spore discharge. On 

 an upper surface the stipe is attached to the pileus at the very edge 

 (fig. 3, pi. 52). The lower edge of the young trumpet-shaped sporo- 

 phore never develops. The gill plates radiate outward from a place 

 near the attachment of the stipe. 



The sporophores are borne singly or in groups. The groups may 

 contain from a few to several scores of specimens attached to each 

 other at the base of the stipe. Sometimes more than one sporophore 

 grows upon a single stipe, but such an occurrence is rare. Only cer- 

 tain members of a group reach maturity, a large percentage never 

 developing beyond a very early stage. 



2. DESCRIPTION OF THE MATURE SPOROPHORE 



The shape of the individual sporophore varies from broadly bell- 

 shaped with a centrally attached stipe to ear- or racket-shaped with 

 the stipe attached to the edge of the pileus. The edge of the pileus 

 may be entire or more or less deeply lobed. If the lobes are large and 

 deep, they may have secondary lobing. The size of the mature sporo- 

 phores ranges from 2 mm. to 5 cm. in length and from 3 mm. to 6 cm. 

 in width. 



The color of the pileus may be silvery or velvety white, gray, or 

 cream colored. The sterile surfaces of the hymenial plates are a dark 

 gray with often a purplish tint. The hymenium is a shiny brownish- 

 gray. There is a considerable variation in the color of all parts of 

 the fruit bodies, depending upon the age and whether they are w^et 

 or dry. 



A stipe is usually, but not always, present. Its presence and length 

 depend upon the amount of moisture in the substratum and atmo- 

 sphere at the early stages of growth, a maximum amount of moisture 

 inducing a greater growth in length. The length varies from 1 mm. 

 to 2 or 3 cm. The form is cylindrical. The stipe rarely attains a 

 width of more than half a centimeter. 



The pileus is covered with a dense mass of thick-walled hyphae. 

 If these hyphae are vertical and remain free from each other, the 

 surface appears velvety. If they are agglutinated into groups at the 

 upper ends, the surface is rough and scurfy. If the upper ends form 

 a horizontal layer, the surface has a silvery sheen. The depth of the 

 hyphal covering varies from 1.5 to 2.5 mm. The pileus is made up 

 of thick-walled, septate hyphae. These are closely packed together, 



