MICHIGAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 81 



dried unless a microscopic examination is made. Specimens, collected at 

 different times and at different stages in their growth or under different con- 

 ditions of growth, have respectively all the characters of Fomes pinicola Fr., 

 F. ungulatus Schaeff., and F. marginatus Fr. There are also intermediate 

 forms between these species. Fruiting bodies in a growing condition were 

 found in July, August and September, and again in March and April in the 

 vicinity of Ann Arbor. No specimens with spores were found, however, 

 and the writer has, as yet, found no record of when spores are produced. 



Fruiting bodies of this fungus were also occasionally found upon the hard- 

 woods. Hard Maple, Beech, Yellow and White Birch and Balsam Poplar. 

 Upon these five hosts the fruiting bodies were not unlike those upon the coni- 

 fers, except that they were somewhat smaller. Some, however, lacked en- 

 tirely the yellow and red zones upon the pileus. 



Upon Presque Isle near Marquette were found the most favorable condi- 

 tions for the growth and spread of woody fungi. This is due to several 

 causes. It has been the policy of the authorities to have few if any of the 

 dead and dying trees removed, in order that the place may be kept in as wild 

 a state as possible. In addition, however, to the trees which are normally 

 killed by shading or injured by storms, some have been cut and left lying 

 upon the ground, and a great many have been injured by visitors to the park. 

 As there are also many species of trees growing together upon the island, the 

 usual hosts and favorable conditions are furnished for many of the wood 

 destroying fungi. Among the trees the Balsam Poplar seems to have once 

 been very common there. Now, however, a great many of them are dead, and 

 an examination showed that by far the most common fungus upon these dead 

 trunks was Fomes pinicola. Some of the fruiting bodies were not unlike 

 those upon the conifers, while some of them were entirely destitute of red 

 and yellow colors upon the pileus, having a dusky black pileus with a white 

 margin. There were also intermediate forms which had a little red or yellow 

 between the white margin and the rest of the pileus. One series of specimens 

 ranging from those with decided red and yellow zones to those entirely des- 

 titute of them was found but a few inches apart upon the same dead Poplar. 

 Another series which illustrates the same thing was found upon a dead Hem- 

 lock. It is therefore evident that these are not morphologically different 

 forms. It is never-the-less remarkable that this fungus, which ordinarily 

 grows upon coniferous trees, should be epidemic here upon the Balsam Pop- 

 lars. This is especially so when we consider that other species, such as 

 Fomes igniarius Fr., F. salicinus Fr'., and Polyporus odustus Fr., which com- 

 monly attack the poplars, were found no more frequently here upon the 

 Balsam Poplar than in other places where poplars abound. At no other 

 place was Fomes pinicola found upon a poplar. 



No one seems to have recorded the occurrence of this fungus upon poplars 

 and ])ut few have recorded it for other deciduous trees. Saccardo^ says that 

 in Europe it is very common upon the pines and rarely found upon birches. 

 Peck^* found it very variable upon the trunks of conifers, and he also noted 

 a form upon the deciduous trees, less common and destitute of the red and 

 3^ellow colors found on those of conifers. Atkinson^* says: "I have not found 

 any record of Fomes pinicola on broad leaved trees. I have, however, found 

 it on three different species in the Adirondack Mountains, on beech {Fagus 



^Sccardo, Sylloge Fungorum Vol. VI, p. 167. 



2Peck, C. A., Report of State Botanist, New York State Museum Report, 1900. 

 3 Atkinson, Prof. G. F., Studies Jof Some Shade Tree and Timber Destroying Fungi, 

 Bull. 193, N. Y. Exp. Station, 1901. 



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