596 Murrill : Polyporaceae of North America 



allied to P. Schweinitzii, but was distinguished by its saffron-colored 

 substance and strigose-squamose pileus. The two specimens col- 

 lected are still at Kew and are practically identical in form and 

 appearance with my own collections made in September. The 

 species has also been found by Commons in Delaware, Ellis in 

 New Jersey, Memminger in North Carolina and Dr. Martin in 

 Florida. European exsiccati are too numerous to mention here. 



2. Inonotus perplexus (Peck) 



Poly poms perplexus Peck, Rept. N. Y. State Mus. Nat. Hist. 49 : 



19. 1896. 



This species was described from plants collected by Peck on 

 beech trunks in Oneida County, New York. It is hairy-tomen- 

 tose to setose-hispid, resembling /. cuticularis and /. hispidus. Its 

 spores are ferruginous and broadly elliptical, being smaller than 

 those of I. hispidus. The same plant was distributed by Shear in 

 his New York Fungi, no. no, under the name of Polyporus radi- 

 atus. His specimens were found at Alcove, New York, on a dead 

 beech trunk. Plants were recently determined for me by Prof. 

 Peck, although he thinks the types were destroyed while the her- 

 barium was housed in the state capitol. 



The present species is well named P. perplexus, since it has 

 troubled more than one mycologist and collector during the last 

 quarter of a century, some calling it P. cuticularis because of its 

 hairy surface and others passing it for P. radiatus on account of 

 its general appearance and evident close relationship with that 

 species. During the past summer I had the opportunity of study- 

 ing a large number of the fresh and growing sporophores on the 

 trunk of a living sycamore maple in Bedford City, Virginia ; and 

 found the velvety, bright ferruginous surface and the sharp, sterile 

 margin very characteristic. It seems to range much farther south 

 than I. radiatus and is also more commonly collected, although 

 neither can be said to be abundant. 



Specimens are at hand from Pennsylvania, Stevenson ; Dela- 

 ware, Commons; Maine, Hodson ; Georgia, Underwood; Virginia, 

 Murrill 1005 ; Alabama, Earle ; Louisiana, Langlois ; Mississippi, 

 Tracy. The hosts given are oak, spruce (?), and maple. It oc- 

 curs on trunks and logs of either dead or decaying trees. 



