Murrill: Polyporaceae of North America 595 



Boletus flavus Poll. FI. Ver. 3: 607. 1824. 



Polyporus hispid us Fr. Syst. Myc. I : 362. 18 21. 



Polyporus endocrocinus Berk. Lond. Jour. Bot. 6 : 320. 1847. 



Inonotus Iiispidus Karst. Medd. Soc. Faun, et Fl. Fenn. 5 : 39. 



1879. 

 Inodermus hispidus Quel. Ench. 172. 1886. 



As one would naturally suppose, such a large and attractive 

 plant as this did not long remain unnoticed by the early mycolo- 

 gists. Micheli refers to it as the " hairy and obscure agaric with 

 golden hymenium." Batarra figures it and calls it Agaricus fava- 

 ginosiis in idus. Scopoli describes it as a Boletus with reddish hispid 

 surface and white or reddish hymenium occurring on the trunks 

 and branches of trees ; and he assigns to it the specific name hir- 

 sutus. Bulliard not only described it well under his name Boletus 

 hispidus, the name by which it is best known, but he also made 

 two excellent plate figures of it showing its stages and varieties. 

 Under one name or another it has received attention from nearly 

 all writers who have treated this group. 



To the stranger in Europe there are few more attractive species 

 among the fungi. It grows in considerable abundance on the 

 sycamore, ash, oak, beech, walnut, etc., often infesting a large 

 part of the trunk and emerging in brilliantly colored sporophores 

 from wounds made in pruning or other openings into the heart- 

 wood. These sporophores sometimes measure a foot and a half 

 in diameter and are clothed above with a dense coat of long red- 

 dish hairs which become black with age. The hymenium is at 

 first white but soon becomes yellow, yielding a yellow dye when 

 treated with water. 



In Sweden, this species is rare and occurs only on ash. It is 

 also rare in the northern United States, but is somewhat more 

 common farther south ; although it is by no means so abundant 

 here as in Europe. Its principal host in America is the oak. A 

 year or two ago I collected seven large sporophores on a decayed 

 spot iii' a living oak trunk at Fort Lee, New Jersey. This was 

 in September and the fruit-bodies were already much decayed. 

 Plants collected by Lea on hickory in Ohio in the latter part of 

 August, 1844, were so advanced as to seem new to Berkeley, who 

 named them Polyporus endocroeiuus, remarking that the species was 



