' REPORT OF THE STATE BOTANIST I917 III 



Poria subacida (Peck) Sacc. 



Plate 19; plate 20; plate 21 ; figure 6 



Syll. Fung, 6: 325. 1888 

 Polyporus (Physisporus) subacid us Peck, 38th Rep't N. Y. 

 State Mus, p. 92-93. 1885 



Original description. Effused, separable from the matrix, tena- 

 cious, flexible, uneven, determinate, the margin downy, narrow, 

 pure white; pores small, subrotund, i to 3 lines long, often oblique, 

 whitish inclining to dingy-yellowish, pale tan color or dull cream 

 color, the dissepiments thin, more or less dentate; odor strong, 

 subacid. 



Prostrate trunks and decaying wood of various trees, hemlock, 

 spruce, birch etc. Osceola. July. 



This species is not rare, but it has probably been confused with 

 its allies. It forms extensive patches, sometimes several feet in 

 length. It adheres somewhat closely to the matrix, but its texture 

 is so tough that it is generally easy to strip it from its supporting 

 substance. It is apparently closely related to P. medulla- 

 p a n i s , but the description of that species gives the pores as 

 medium size and entire, and makes no mention of any odor, in 

 consequence of which we have thought our plant distinct. It is 

 however, extremely variable. 



Var. tenuis is very thin, scarcely a line thick, with short pores and 

 surface nearly even. It occurs on the smooth decorticated trunks 

 of hemlock. 



Var. tuherculosns has the surface more or less roughened by 

 unequal prominent tubercules, which are either scattered or clus- 

 tered. They appear to be a monstrous development of the m3'celium 

 on the surface of the pores. 



Var. stalactitictis incrusts mosses and therefore has the surface 

 very uneven with numerous and unequal porus protuberances. It 

 most often occurs on prostrate mossy trunks of birches. 



Var. vesiciilosus (P. vesiculosus B. & C.) has shallow 

 scattered pores as if formed from ruptured vescicles. 



Specimens of this Polyporus, unless dried under pressure, shrink 

 and roll up in unmanageable shapes. They often contain consider- 

 able moisture when collected, and if put in press in this condition 

 they are liable to become brown or blackish in drying. Specimens 

 collected in a dry time or in dry s^tuations retain their characters 

 best. The thinnev forms, if partly dried before they are put in 

 press, sometimes retain their color and characters well. When grow- 



