MURRILL : POLYPORACEAE OF NORTH AMERICA 645 



ate, 2-3 millimeters long. Smell acid ; plant somewhat juicy and 

 moist when fresh." 



Specimens are at hand from South Carolina, Ravenel ; Georgia, 

 Ravenel ; Florida, Ran, Martin, Calkins; Louisiana, Langlois. 



5. Coriolus pubescens (Schum.) 



Boletus pnbescens Schum. Enum. PI. Saell. 2: 384. 1803. 

 Poly por ns pnbcsccns Fr. Obs. Myc. I : 126. 18 15. 

 Leptoporus pubescens Pat. Tax. Hymen. 84. 1900. 



Originally described, from plants collected on white birch in 

 Sweden in midsummer, as follows : 



" Cespitosus, imbricatus, pileo carnoso-suberoso, pulvinato, pubescenti, sericeo, 

 albo, undulato-tuberculoso, margineque acuto luteo subferrugineo subzonato ; subtus 

 planus albido-pallescens : poris minutis marginem versus evanescentibus : tubulis 

 brevibus. Caro alba. Pileus 1^-2^ poll, latus, 2-3 lin. crassus." 



The margin of the American plant is usually more abrupt 

 than that of the European, but the two agree too closely to allow 

 of specific separation. Our plant has been distributed as a variety 

 by Ellis, who at first gave the name of the collector to plants 

 brought from Michigan in 1881 by J. B. Gray, thinking he had a 

 new species. Upon the advice of Cooke, however, the name 

 was reduced to varietal rank before distribution. So far as I 

 know, no description has been published by Ellis either of the 

 species or the variety. 



This same plant was collected in Ohio and determined by 

 Morgan as P. molliusculus Berk. The Berlin "type " of P. mol- 

 liusculus is from Morgan. Kellerman, following Morgan, has 

 recently distributed the present species under the name of Poly- 

 stictns molliusculus Berk., with a printed description evidently not 

 in accord with the specimens. 



This species is very common in the northern United States and 

 Canada on decaying wood of birch, beech, alder, willow, poplar, 

 etc. Dearness found it abundant on rotten beech trunks at Lon- 

 don, Canada, but the sporophores were mostly eaten to the bark 

 by squirrels. Material is at hand from the following American 

 localities : 



Canada, Maconn, Dearness ; Maine, Richer, MurrUl ; Vermont, 

 Burt; Massachusetts, Blake; New York, Shear, Peck, Under- 



