118 SOUTH NIGERIAN PLANTS 
is Rumphius’ Tuber-regium, and also that it is the one described 
by Hennings. There are, however, one or two facts which may 
be added to Hennings’ description. The squamules which are 
present in such quantity on the young pileus do not later 
disappear. Owing to the expansion of the pileus they become 
widely dispersed and smaller, but in the largest specimen in the 
collection with a pileus 24 cm. across the squamules can still be 
clearly seen. The gills bifurcate at the base and undergo further 
divisions and anastomoses, but the exact procedure has not been 
made out. The greatest length of stipe is 13 cm., the greatest 
width 2:5 em., and the greatest height of a fungus, excluding 
the sclerotium, 28 cm. The felt of the stipes (which has quite 
disappeared from the oldest specimens) is usually a dirty fawn 
colour. Hennings describes it as “ weiss." In a spirit specimen, 
the colour is in places much darker, the upper parts of the stipes 
having dark squamule-like patches while the bases are almost 
black. The stipe is usually equal but sometimes attenuate 
upwards. 
In the case of the complete sclerotium, the surface is very 
uneven ; on the projecting areas the colour is usually dark brown 
or black ; where hollows oecur the surface is clothed with a felt 
which is similar in appearance to that on the stipe. On the 
upper surface of the sclerotium there are some adhering wood 
fibres which may be of significance with regard to the habitat. 
In section the sclerotium has a white chalky appearance. 
In 1891 Cohn and Schroeter (in Abhandl. Naturw. Verein 
Hamburg xi. 4) described a new species of Lentinus, L. Woer- 
manni, which they had succeeded in growing from a sclerotium 
also obtained from the Cameroons. Their figures of the fungus 
resemble greatly the stage of L. Tuber-regium shown in fig. 2. 
The only point of distinction is the colour of the stipe which is 
almost black, but, as stated above, one of the specimens of the 
present collection, preserved in spirit, bears three fruiting bodies 
with very dark stipes. The resemblance between the two fungi 
extends to the microscopie structure. In neither case have 
spores attached to the basidia been demonstrated. The hyphae 
of the trama in L. Woermanni were about “2 mm." [2 p] broad 
and thick-walled. In the specimens of L. Tuber-regium examined 
they are 2-3 u wide; the club-shaped basidia are a little longer 
and measure 3-4 u across. The cystidia, as in L. Woermanni, 
are usually merely a little longer and wider than the basidia, but 
at times they project rather more above the hymenium; the 
_ greatest width measured was 7 u. The shape of the cystidia is 
however quite characteristic and agrees exactly with Schroeter's 
description, “am Scheitel kegelförmig zugespitzte Cystiden, an 
deren Scheitel sich kleine, etwa 2 mm. [2 u] breite kugelfórmige 
farblose Zellen bildeten, die sich schliesslich abgliederten." 
